An unwanted glut.

BACK in 2017, the then head of Higher Education Commission (HEC) had told pubic with a heavy heart that the country was facing a shortage of 36,000 PhDs in various subjects, and, as such, had asked the government to increase budget for higher education to meet such critical challenges in the sector. Around a year later, a large number of PhDs protested on the streets of Islamabad, asking the government to provide them employment! Can you beat that?

PhDs, as we know, are groomed to become senior academics, but Khyber Pakhutunkhwa (KP) education minister's revelation turned out to be somewhat shocking when recently he disclosed that his department had received more than 700,000 applications for 17,000 vacant teaching posts in primary and secondary schools and, unfortunately, some of them were PhDs.

It is clear that the HEC bosses have absolutely no clue about managing the PhD programme. This is enough to prove that for our leaders, education has never even been a priority which is one big factor hindering our growth as a nation. If we look at the state of education in Pakistan, it becomes absolutely clear why we are lagging behind other nations and why so many of our people are deeply frustrated and alienated.

Quite contrary to the HEC report about the shortage of PhDs, the opportunities for PhDs are so limited that they are compelled to compete with simple graduates for jobs in schools and other organisations. A report reveals that 1,000 PhDs are still on the waiting list for HEC has not been able to provide jobs in universities. A jobless PhD during the protest said, 'This shows a complete failure of the government's policy. This is also because incompetent people are on key posts in HEC. Frankly speaking, the government has not been able to use PhD doctors. On the other hand, most jobs are only advertised for graduates, postgraduates and MPhil degree holders, and there are no jobs for fresh PhD holders. Most apply for jobs they are overqualified for.'

The protestors, therefore, demanded that they be given permanent jobs in the departments they were initially posted in on one-year contracts. Besides, they demanded the establishment of a task force for accommodating PhD holders even in non-teaching institutions and for the task force to make recommendations on an urgent basis.

Though the HEC had started a good programme to produce PhD scholars in order to put on track the education sector in the country; it lacks proper planning and...