HRM and Educational Planning

(THIS BLOG IS WRITTEN AFTER A DISCUSSION SESSION WITH DR. ATHAR OSAMA IN PhD EPM WORKSHOP)

The Human Resource Management has been there since people started working for others and "others" started planning and managing work for the slaves, servants, employees etc. Personnel Management developed more in industrial era, where workforce was dealt more like machines, the world wars brought more into it in the form of "choosing right man for the right job"; while the "HRM" in its current form is an outcome of Humanistic school of thought from late nineteenth century onward. Frmers and Labor unions gave voice to the working hands. We now consider employers and employees at negotiation front. ILO has played a vital role. Today we are living in an era of globalization, digitization and technological advancement. Now the skills and qualities needed for future are different from previous centuries.

HRD and HRM are not only planned at organizational and institutional level, rather these are planned at National and Sectoral level as well. At national level we look at it in connection with our educational planning. Until the age of SSC a child knows nothing about how to become economically active. The out of school children have better chances to become skillful than the ones in schools. The schools prepare them only "learning" theoretical knowledge at very lower level of cognition. Practical skills are no where. At HSC level we fix them into the boxes of Arts and Sciences then within those we fix them in a combination of subjects that are predetermined e.g. a biology student cannot learn math. Some of the students go towards TEVT institutions and learn some practical skills there, yet that is a very small ratio.  Then only a small population goes into undergraduate programs BA, BSc or BS. In the two years program there again is only knowledge base being expanded, while in some specific programs some practical component is added. In the model of BS 4 years an effort has been made to include more practice oriented components but the teachers/ faculty is not executing the way it was planned. Same is the case with most of the Masters programs. At the end of 14-16 years of education most of the students only "know" the theories and do not even learn to question or critique them. Even after 16 years of education we still cannot claim about their level of learning beyond "knowledge" Some of them move to professional colleges after 12 years schooling and prepare for a specific profession. After achieving a professional degree they look for jobs.

The employability of the graduates is reported very low. The reason mainly is lack of practical skills needed by the market and industry. Then for whom are we preparing our "graduate"??? The employers do not find competent candidates and at the end compromise on quality; graduates do not find jobs and either stay unemployed for long or compromise on low salary jobs; yet they do not find themselves ready for creating a job or starting a work on their own. This is and should be a matter of concern for all of us. One government gives monetary support, one gives small business loans and another plans to create jobs for "employable"

Another step towards human resource development is to offer scholarships to the capable students. Amazingly here again there is no planning on the basis of need analysis. The scholarships are more donor driven than need based. Need is not defined with clarity. We yet do not have a regional data base of local occupations, professions, crafts and skills. The foreign scholarships are being wasted because majority of our 14-16 years graduate are unable to pass or attain the required GRE and GAT scores. Some of the local initiatives like PIF reports that their initial tests and exams were found hard to pass by the graduates of prestigious universities. CSS is another example where the pass ratio is decreasing and Government is compromising on the quality of CSP officers induction. We need graduates for 21st century while we are stuck with the old models of teaching and learning. The scenario is changing rapidly and we need to re-think the structure of long duration programs in the presence of MOOCs etc

Doctorate and post doctorate studies are not "for all" but the people applying for these programs usually cannot answer a simple question of "why they want to go for PhD and post doc" They take it as a further level of education to apply for a better job or to get promotion/increment. PhD and Post Doctoral studies should only be taken up by the candidates who are aware of the fact that it is the level of "knowledge creation". It cannot and should not be merely another degree to learn more theories and collect factual knowledge. 

Schooling, further education, technical, vocational and professional education as well as higher education policies, vision documents and plans should be read and reviewed carefully to make it realistic and need based. Only research and grounded work can help the policy makers.