In a recent workshop, I heard several instructors urging young people to consider some hard facts regarding their career and educational choices. “Degree is not destiny” and “your certificate is not your ceiling” were often-repeated exhortations in the conference hall. What happens when degrees fail to fetch jobs or meaningful work? Academic Krishna Kumar argues that the driving force behind the urge to obtain more and more degrees lies within our education system and economic structures. It also can be located in collective psychology, and mental attitudes. The need to delink degrees from jobs was recognised in the 1980s, but little progress was made for several reasons. As far as the NEP 2020 is concerned, one can only say that there is a lot of noise on the stairs, but no one is in the room.

Contrary to efforts aimed at delinking degrees from employment, I see a growing clamour for foreign degrees even after obtaining one locally. Pertinently, under the new policy, young people are allowed to pursue dual degrees. Part of the blame for this hangover lies with the erstwhile colonial state, which, for its own purposes, introduced a system of education that was not in sync with the needs and educational traditions of the subcontinent. The British needed babus to run the administration, and after 1947, the change was merely from white sahibs to brown sahibs.Eminent British sociologist Ronald Dore, in his celebrated book The Diploma Disease, explains the craze for more degrees, certificates, and diplomas. Instead of looking into behavioural psychology for answers, he links the phenomenon to the devaluation of qualifications. The problem of joblessness further fuels the urge to acquire new credentials. Prof. Krishna Kumar argues that the volatility of the job market creates anxiety among young people, compelling them to become eligible for as many jobs as possible. This, in turn, opens the path for acquiring multiple degrees in the vast education bazaar. This mad race for certificates wastes and exhausts the energy of young people, most of whom depend on parental finance and advice. Unfortunately, the obsession with accumulating degrees has given birth to what experts call the “time-pass generation” — youth who merely count days and nights while waiting for a job and experiencing restless boredom. The colonial framework of education also made us hesitant to work........

© Greater Kashmir