A Voice from the Silent Majority

Has anybody watched Spellbinders – The Land of The Dragon Lord? There in that series I can remember the existence of an oracle which governed the way of life of those people. It was the oracle that chose what crops to be farmed, the places to live in and most importantly the professions that each person should pursue. That way every person was guaranteed a job and there was no unemployment, people may not have been happy for what was chosen for them but however they had some job. I think we Sri Lankans also need an oracle, coz time and again we have proven that we are unable to make decisions about our lives.

Today I saw a news story of some unfortunate people. A temporary shelter housing unemployed graduates, in Aesthetic studies who were protesting for teaching positions was removed from in front of the Fort Railway station in compliance to a court order. Those poor souls portrayed a sorry sight. Some females had attended that protest with their small kids (Although I'm no child psychologist I don't think that this is a place where a child should be brought to.) These days such protests by unemployed graduates have become a common site, and most people don't give a shit to such protests as well. These guys are not the first set of protestors and most certainly won't be the last as well. These things get shown on several channels, and the convener (කැඳවුම්කරු) gets to address the public (probably the highest point in his entire life) and everybody just forgets about it. These are the best minds in the country who have got through the local A/Ls, the universities and now should be working on the development of the country.

But how did these people get there in the first place, do we ever worry about that? When it comes to choosing a profession or a career path there are two basic things to consider (in my opinion). Firstly whether you like doing it and secondly (sometimes most importantly) whether there are employment opportunities in that field of study (for example I highly doubt whether anybody would be able to earn a decent living these days if they majored in Pali considering the fact that Pali is a dead language). This certainly is not child's play you need to find out how current professionals in that field are doing, new developments in that field, and the overall direction of that field (With the boom in communication technology, World Wide Web, if you can't find that information then it's a shame). This is a decision you have to make for yourself. Ultimately it's you who have to find employment.

But being Sri Lankans we assume that we can study anything we want since it's the government duty to find us employment. I mean come on, the government does more than enough for us, we get free education from the primary until passing out as a graduate, clothing materials, free textbooks, free health care, so what more can we ask for? ( I personally think Sri Lankans are living example of the Pepsi slogan "Ask For More" coz that seems to be the only thing we are capable of doing).

However it must be also said that no professional guidance has been received by the students on this matter. Unfortunately most kids have never even heard of Career Guidance (this in no wonder when some schools don't even have teachers of regular subject, therefore those kids getting results to even enter universities should be really praised)

The government's responsibility lies here. Currently all students who wish to apply for local university courses must obtain a handbook/manual (or whatever you may prefer to call it) from the University Grants Commission. This book contains information about various courses. However no details of current employment statistics, improvements in the field are mentioned. I guess including that information in that manual would be beneficial (this book is not given away free so it won't hurt to add some extra details in to it, especially if it helps students.). Also addition of some knowledge about the future of areas of study in to the school curriculum would also help a lot.

To most children obtaining entrance to university is something that they have worked for in their entire life. They assume everything is going to be just fine after that. Therefore it's really sorry to see some graduates losing their way after reaching that dream.