Our Education Structure

On a fine morning in one of those days our Govt. as per the Minimum Wage Act 1948, fixed and enforced the minimum wages to Rs. 100.00 a day. This was in Nov. 2009. Is this another way of saying that unemployment is mandatory for anyone who is otherwise willing to work for less? Does this mean that you have no freedom to negotiate or lower the price of your service? You are valued at this rate or you are out of the labour market. I am not referring to the fact that Rs. 100.00 is an abysmal amount to even mention, leave alone the fact what can actually be bought by that paltry sum.


Let us say that I have never been a good cook. So if I were to work in a restaurant, where the cook is supposed to churn out the best grub, the cost to the management would be more to hire me at a rate which would definitely be high, since I would not be able to bring them the revenue. Consequently I would be a sure money loser for the restaurant. So now, the Govt. has in effect made it illegal for me to attempt this kind of world. They say it was done to help me.


Teenagers who may be looking for work cannot find employment at the existing rate. This is the time that teenagers learn valuable skills and work ethic that they carry with them throughout their life. They meet a variety of people and learn to cooperate with different temperament and personalities whilst at work. They learn how to do things that they do not want to do and discover how work and reward are related. They gain experience and learn to use money independently. They learn how to acquire and how to spend.
College students are short of work experience so they don't have a pragmatic understanding of what the real work world requires of them. They acquire degrees in "management" and visualize that, with this marvelous degree - they will have the right to earn big bucks by bossing people around. A degree in "communications" will get them on BBC World News. An engineering degree will provide the opportunity and the right build cities, bridges and highway systems.


Then one day, they graduate and reality dawns on them real hard. They find out that there is no one out there who wants them for what then know. They begin to understand that they know very little that makes them useful. Their CVs are sterile lacking even a single professional reference. All they really know is how to loiter around in the college campus and mingle with peers on nights and weekends.


One would be shocked to learn that the average college guy does not have the basic software skills. In today’s world a basic software skill is a must in any professional position. Today this skill is termed as common knowledge. But the college guy graduates with skills that do not even need to manage a FB page!

I also have my doubts that these grads, somewhere down the line do not have any concept of basic work ethics and the ability to add value to an organization.

But come to think to it – Is it their fault?


Human character is the most significant thing. But our education structure cages the students and imprisons them in garbage boxes. After graduation, they are dumped outside to a world which is cold and cruel, a condition for which they are not prepared.

The consequences are in front of us.