Despite the difficult economic times, the state continues to invest heavily in education. Huge amounts are being allocated for new schools and colleges, improving the curriculum, introducing modern teaching techniques and taking steps to modernize the entire system.
Yet, many continue to view education as a bridge leading them to their final destination which is a comfortable highly-paid job. Obtaining knowledge through formal education in the eyes of many students and their families is not the highest value and so does not require sacrifice.
Education is no more than a means to a desirable end. It is no exaggeration to say that many students and their parents chew their nails to the quick worrying about — and regretting — the long time supposedly wasted on education if, in the end, their children failed to find a suitable job.
Many comments by students themselves who have been unable to get a place at university suggest they wished they had set out on a different path, instead of spending so many years in school. It is alarming to find that the acquisition of knowledge and information has no value in the eyes of much of the population. I thus find puzzling a statement by the minister of higher education that his ministry plans to find places in colleges and universities for every student who finishes secondary school, regardless of their academic record. Some will praise such a statement but we must admit the problem of widespread unemployment among secondary school graduates — and university ones as well — requires farsightedness and a different approach. The solution does not lie in extending college education to include all students. If we adopt such an approach, where will we be ten or twenty years from now with these armies of university graduates seeking jobs?
Leaving aside such obvious answers that education in future should be streamlined to match market needs, the disturbing reality remains that the government sector has become too saturated to accommodate more new graduates.
Also, the private sector prefers not to hire Saudis, instead preferring foreigners for various reasons. This sector can produce a thousand justifications and resort to endless tricks to absolve itself of any responsibility for bearing its share in employing Saudis.
I have no magic solution to the problem of unemployment among our young people, but I think we could at least seek to benefit from the experience of Saudi Aramco in this regard.
Over the past two decades the company has been organizing two-year training courses for university students in the Eastern Province.
By the time these students have finished college, they find jobs waiting for them.
Why not use some of the money earmarked for opening new universities to set up joint projects by the state and the private sector to train and then employ these young people?
— Arab News Local Press 25 September 2003
