Zawaya

Student chances between university curricula and employer requirements

By: Elycheikh Ahmed Telba

The balance between universities in the Arab world with their outdated and obsolete curricula on the one hand, and the ambitions of ruthless businessmen who only care about profit even at the expense of social and moral systems on the other hand, is very difficult.

Students complain about being lost in the vast distance between the two; a distance that stands as an insurmountable barrier preventing them from entering the labor market that falls under the control of rules not taught in universities.

School and university curricula in particular do not seek to bridge this huge chasm, nor do they aim to alleviate the blatant contradiction that leads to the production and reproduction of unemployment and even to its consumption as a needed commodity in daily life. Universities in Arab countries in general, and in most Arab Maghreb countries, are like nurseries that produce flowers, many of which fade before spreading their beautiful fragrance. Therefore, university students get depressed after graduation when they realize that they have wasted effort, money, and time on the acquisition of knowledge that is unrelated to the requirements of businessmen, the masters of the labor market, and the owners of capital. This loss destroys and decreases the chances of students, who represent the essence of the cultural and human capital, and also reduces and limits the commercial capital due to the lack of manpower.

Our universities focus on quantity rather than quality, what matters to them is increasing the number of graduates, unemployed, protesters in front of parliaments, wanderers on the thresholds of offices and administrations, and those who beg illiterate businessmen to get jobs that will provide them with a living, and perhaps preserve the dignity that university degrees could not preserve.

As for businessmen, or the so-called pun of the private sector as opposed to the public or governmental sector, they have become much more specific, as they rarely bring up plans of action, or establish projects to contribute to the training or integration of university graduates in an attempt to benefit from their potential and self-maturity. Businessmen want a human capital that is ready for exploitation, and seek increasing profit even if that leads to the destruction of individuals.

Therefore, students are in most cases victims of unemployment, which is an inevitable consequence of the contradiction between the curricula and the requirements of the labor market. To overcome this contradiction and bridge this huge chasm, we should, first and foremost, study and coordinate a policy that makes universities and businessmen cooperate for the employment of the real capital, for the sake of the advancement and development of peoples that are represented by tomorrow’s generations and today’s men.