Race for Government Jobs

Ziauddin Choudhury

In the most recent public service examination for government jobs held by the Public Service
Commission (PSC) a record number of candidates totaling about 322,000 took the exam hoping to land
one of a paltry opening numbering less than two thousand. It is like buying a lottery ticket the odds
being one out of one hundred eighty. Needless to say, the sheer amount of amount of preparation both
on the part of candidates and PSC is overwhelming both in scope and logistics. Of the candidates who
took the preliminary exam only about 5% qualified, demonstrating either dismal nature of the level of
education of the candidates or highly strict examination standards. And what were the jobs these
candidates were vying for? Not high skilled technical or scientific jobs, but mostly of generalist nature
that require a minimum college degree in any subject. Yet, an analysis of the degrees that the
candidates would reveal that many had degrees in science, engineering, even medicine. Why there is a
mad rush for these jobs in the general cadre of government service where the pay probably is one third
that of a good private sector job in Banking, Finance, or Corporate offices? Does the answer lie in the
age-old lure of government jobs that hangs over our youths from the days of their grandparents, or in
simple inability of the private sector in the country to provide employment to the freshly out graduates
of the country?

In any event this rush for government jobs, mostly in the humdrum civil services, year after year point to
the dire strait of the college graduates that are turned out by more than a hundred and fifty universities,
and nearly 1700 colleges in the country. Nearly 1.4 million qualified in HSC exams this year with a record
95% success rate, all of whom will probably seek higher education in one of these universities or
colleges, not all with success. The majority who may get enrolled into these institutions of higher
learning will muddle through for next two to four years (depending on the type of institution they
enroll), for a degree and then join the queue of jobless youth roaming the streets of Dhaka and other
towns. This is not an encouraging sight for a country that is aspiring to join the club of middle-income
countries of the world.

Absent in this vision of a middle-income country is the future of our youth and a pragmatic plan to make
them job worthy with education which is employable both domestically and internationally. Our
graduation to a middle-income status sometime in the near future is predicated largely on a linear
growth of our export earnings from readymade garments, and foreign remittances of mainly unskilled
labor from the Middle East. Not on growth of skilled manpower, growth of high-tech industries, or
financial sector. We cannot use the latter in our projections because this growth depends on the spread
and quality of higher education that is more devoted to training our youth in science, engineering, and
technology than on turning out graduates in liberal arts, and ironically, business administration which is
more education in becoming bank tellers than running a business. (There is perhaps no private
university or college in Bangladesh that does not offer a degree in Business Administration which offers
the lure of ready employment on graduation and receiving a hefty amount in tuition.)

When students who do get admitted into one of the universities/colleges, all they aspire is to land a job
that would fulfil their dream as well as of their parents. They are lucky if they get admitted into an
engineering/technical or medical college, as products of these institutions are considered more
employable. But ninety percent of other students are not that lucky or meritorious. They fill the rolls of
students in more mundane non-technical courses including the ubiquitous “business administration”
offered by public and private educational institutions. Obviously, the job market is not ready for either
this sheer number of graduates because what they offer as skill is no skill at all or the public sector
cannot employ so many people at a time. The only way open for these unemployed graduates is to fall
upon the government as the employer of last resort or find desperate ways to flee the country. So, they
take the civil service exam and hope to land in one of those unreachable jobs.

How can one turn the tide and make expectations of our youth more manageable? It is reasonable for
every youth with a college education to get employed and compensated for the hard work and
resources that they have spent on their education. But it is also reasonable to make the youth realistic
about their expectations. In a job market that is fast changing with demands for skills that produce
goods and services suited for the world market today, a youth is ill equipped with a degree in liberal arts
or non-technical areas.

In most developed and developing countries they train their youth in a vast array of jobs starting from
construction, automotives, trade and industrial education, to information technology (hardware and
software), and health sciences. These jobs do not require a university degree or a college diploma. The
education provides them with a skill that is readily employable. High school graduates in majority of
industrial countries do not have to enroll in universities or colleges for a higher education to get
employed. They can enroll in any of the state run or private technical institutions and get their job
certification within a year or two to enter the job market. They neither have to join a queue for the
jobless or wait for an illusive civil service job.

I know it is easier said than done to make a leap from this state of job scarcity to job affluence for our
youth without substantial changes in our approach to higher education, massive introduction of
technical education, and guiding the country through time appropriate reforms in our education system.
But in a country where we are witnessing bulging, and eye-popping expenditures on bridges, urban
transportation, and power projects, we have scarce expenditure for human resource development by
creating and developing institutions that train our youth in employment. Should we not divert some of
our investments in training our youth by building technical and vocational institutions making them
free? Should we not emphasize in our policies that it is manpower skilled in employable competencies
that we need to move to next level of national income status?

There are ways to develop our country economically and socially. Raising our exports and generating
income from abroad have led to our current state of economic development. But sustaining it and
making it to the desired middle-income status in the world will require massive efforts to develop our
human resources with right education, skill, and training. This skill is not required to fill long lines of
government job seekers. The skills and training are required to meet the challenges of job market that is
currently out of reach of our so-called college educated youth. These are required to take the country
ahead. Growing competition among inept graduates for limited government jobs will not lead us to our
desired place in the world.