Developed countries are keen to tie academic specializations to the demands of the labor market. Specialized institutions direct students according to these needs in order to keep pace with contemporary developments and provide the country with the required academic qualifications.
This ensures more opportunities for the youth and minimize naturally has adverse effects on the national economy.
Regrettably, we do not follow this educational pattern in our country. On the contrary, we give our students the freedom to choose the specialization they prefer.
By so doing, we will have a surplus of graduates in some specializations and a shortage of qualified personnel in others.
We are committing a bigger mistake by allowing our young women to study law though they are prevented from practicing it. Hundreds of young Saudi women have graduated with university degrees in law but the Ministry of Justice has for four years declined to grant them licenses. These young women have spent years studying but have been denied the right to benefit from their university degrees.
These women law graduates have been going to the Ministry of Justice but they have received only empty promises. The ministry refuses to give any logical reason for this state of affairs.
If there are problems beyond the ability of the ministry to solve, why don’t we refer the matter to the leadership? I have no doubt the leadership would not ignore it and would find a successful solution because it would never agree to see the energies of the youths, who are the lifeline of development, dissipated so frustratingly.
If women are not allowed to practice law, why do we allow them to study law in the first place?
Was it not right for the universities and the ministry to coordinate in order not to transform the certificates into papers that have no use beyond hanging on walls?