The must-have degree
I recently came across an article titled ‘Higher Education in Egypt’ written in the the Daily News Egypt identifying the cultural problem of the must-have degree that has been predominant in Egypt for a fair few years now. The article raises some genuine concerns, I however, disagree with their rationale.
Firstly, I believe the root to this problem is not the initiative of ‘free education for all’, its in the mismanagement and poor delivery of this free educational system! I feel there are a few factors, if appropriately addressed can achieve a significant and noticeable improvement. I disagree with the notion that people all feel the necessity to have degrees stems from the fact there is free education available. I believe that this occurs due to the frowned upon notion of the blue-collar job, a direct by-product of the government mismanagement. Had the minimum wage law come in years earlier and had been developed appropriately to the societal needs, there would have been far more interest in taking up such jobs. It is near impossible to have a dignified, comfortable life-style in Egypt if you are a builder, a cleaner, a low-ranked officer, a security guard and so on. This coupled with the lack of variety available for apprenticeships, polytechnics, colleges and diplomas results in this hopeful desperation to have a degree.
Another major point to observe is the evident lack of communication and cooperation amongst ministries. For example, the ministry of education accepts 100,000 engineering students a year (not a factual figure, just an example). The ministry of labour, should know that the engineering sector is saturated at the moment and hence do not need many engineers in this particular period. If this is communicated to the ministry of education, then they should not accept that many students for engineering. The relationship between the employment market and the new undergraduate intake should be proportional. Appropriate forecasting and studying of the employment market is a duty every ministry should be aspiring to and communicating this information to appropriate ministries.