Unemployment as defined by ILO (international labor organization) occurs when people are without job and they have actively sought work within past four weeks. Unemployment is a worldwide curse. It is not only prevalent in underdeveloped countries but also in developing and developed countries.

Afghanistan system.

The problem of unemployment has long existed in Afghanistan. Today, it is one of the main problem of Afghan youth. Youth unemployment is giving rise to many social devastations. Social crimes are increasing rapidly due to unemployment. Youth are bound to do any kind of work to earn money including criminal activities such as robbery, illegal drug trade, terrorism etc. We can say that unemployment in youth is also responsible for increasing rate of terrorism in country which is the main problem of Afghanistan nowadays.

So what are the reasons behind that increasing rate of educated unemployment among youth of Afghanistan?

Educated unemployment is a type of unemployment in which educated people are unable to find job, they have a degree but that degree does not get them a job. It has ample social, behavioural and psychological impacts. Educated unemployment is due to insufficient job vacancies, deficient economic plans, favouritism and imperfect education system.

Education system of Afghanistan has many faults and it does not match international standards. There is no uniform system of education in Afghanistan. It is divided into Pashto which are generally in English language. Pashto/Dari medium graduates are not fluent in English which is nowadays considered an important requirement to seek a job. Similarly our educational institutions are divided into two sectors, private and government sectors. Government institutions are often accessible but they have poor facilities and low quality of education due to which the graduates of them are not able to secure a job which needs proper skills. Private sectors institutions are though well-equipped but they are expensive and majority of students cannot afford them. This uneven system of education is responsible for unemployment in Afghanistan at some level.

In Afghanistan, there is no concept of counselling service for students so many students opt wrong subjects which does not ensure better career opportunities. Some students are forced by parents or societies norms to study subjects in which they have no interest. So their lack of interest causes failure and even if they succeed in securing degree by cramming they do not do well in their jobs due to lack of interest, their performance drops and eventually they lose job. This is due to defective education system in Afghanistan in which students are not given career advice during their student life.

In Afghanistan education system is not that efficient to prepare the youth for marked demands. Education is theoretical not practical type. Students are not prepared according to the challenges of new era. They are not taught about new technologies and their applications, the knowledge of which is necessary to seek a job.

Lack of technical education is another reason of unemployment in Afghanistan. Technical and vocational institutes are less in number and are not promoted. So students are not trained practically which leads to their unemployment.

Teachers are not trained properly. Mostly they come to institution, deliver their prepared lecture without clarifying the concepts and then how students get the lesson is none of their business. They do not take interest in student’s matters or their personalities. They do not discuss career aspects of their subjects. Teachers promotes cramming rather than encouraging new ideas, they promote those who get good marks in exam by cramming. So those students who get degree by mere cramming of course fail in practical field. Faulty habit of cramming and the iniquitous thing like favouritism is appreciated greatly by our educational system which is the major reason behind disqualification of youth for many jobs.  Afghanistan devotes only 1.5 to 2.0 GDP on education. It is the reason behind lack of facilities in educational institution so students are not trained properly and are not able to get proper job.

There is hardly any provision of technical or vocational education in Afghanistan. This drawback makes the students dislike the manual work. Therefore, majority rushes to the cities and increases unemployment. Afghanistan is an agricultural country and majority of its population lives in villages. But when a villager goes to city for education and gets a university degree instead of revolutionizing its family profession, he strives to get a job in city increasing population of city leading to unemployment.

Students lack certain skills for jobs such as communication skills, analytical skills, knowledge in their respective domains because our education system does not teach these skills. In our institutions teachers teach what they want, not according to requirement of industries.

It can be concluded from above mentioned facts that education is not responsible for unemployment. It is the education system and ways in which education is provided which are responsible for unemployment in Afghanistan. The education system of Afghanistan is not up to date and needs modifications including uniform education system throughout the country, revision of syllabus, student counselling facilities, setup of new vocational and technical institutions and training workshops for teachers. These modification certainly can reduce the rate of unemployment in Afghanistan.

View expressed in this article are of the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Pajhwok’s editorial policy.

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