Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi

 

We had a workshop in Prince Sultan College, Alfaisal University, last week. A colleague spoke of how to raise our college education standards to match that of top world universities and to coordinate our schooling products to job market needs.



He contends that we need the cooperation of two institutions: Higher Education and Labor ministries.



I argue that we actually need the commitment and coordination of five institutions: Society, Education Ministry and businesses, in addition to said ministries.



Society, family, neighborhood, media, mosque and the general environment, are responsible for the making of our children's mind. The values of independent and critical thinking are planted very early.



Pre-schooling and later upbringing are as important as any formal education is. Then comes early schooling, from kindergarten to high school.



Colleges cannot change a mindset built on the principles of memorizing and dependency, grades and certificates.



To try at this late stage to instill the skills and values of open-mindedness, scientific inquiry, argumentation, debate, etc, is an uphill battle.



The private sector should be consulted on what professions are needed. The job marketplace is a changing environment. What is needed today may not be required in a few years, when the new patch of graduates make their entry.



The Labor Ministry must be on board, too. It has the data and strategy. They should tell us what we need to focus on and when. Our strategies should be aligned with theirs.



The Ministry of Planning knows most about our development plans and national strategies. They should provide us with a comprehensive, extensive, detailed national road map.



With good students, and a clarity of vision and mission, we, in higher education institutions, would be better equipped to serve the nation and its development plans with the right products —graduates who are well prepared, conditioned and oriented.



The discussion in our workshop, then, moved to the issue of students and parents’ choice of study fields.



The question was, "should we leave it to them to choose, or point them to the right direction?" Are we to accept any number of students in any particular department, or limit their choices according to job market needs?



My stand was that we cannot know for sure what is needed without good access to information. In the USA, an undergraduate college student can easily decide whether studying accounting would be a good choice.



That is because he could easily access public databases and check what are the prospects of such field in his town or district, as well as in other states and cities, at expected graduation time.



 Armed with such rich and accurate data, he could make an intelligent decision about his choice of study and training.



Here, we don’t enjoy such privilege. Information are treated by some ministries and corporations as state secrets. And even among government departments, sharing is limited.



Some officials have the wrong attitude that whatever data they collected should be used exclusively for their own projects and plans.



So without reliable, free and open access to national wealth of information about strategies, plans, stats, analysis, etc, parents and students, universities and colleges can only play the guessing game.



We may know what the market is about today, and make an educated guess about the situation in two or three years. But how could we know what it is going to look like on graduation date, four or five years from now?

 

Thanks dear readers for sharing your wishes and hopes for the new Hijra Year. May Allah, make it happier and brighter than our recent years. We definitely need a break!



Peace



“Islam is the religion of peace. Our behavior should be so good that everyone gets attracted and tries to understand our religion.



The wrong impression created by a few bad Muslims will disappear by the good acts of billions of Muslims worldwide.



We should all increase our religious and scientific knowledge. 'Iqraa' (read) is a command by our Lord. We must visit libraries regularly and get our children to love reading.” Irfan Ahmed ( King AbdulAziz University )



Islamic New Year



“Dear Irfan, I know Islam is the Religion of Peace but most of the time we are fighting among ourselves. The problem is we have submitted and become Muslims, but many are not true believers (Mu’meens) and strayed far away from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Until we return to the true path we will be no better at the end of this year.” Ayman



Singapore



Singapore is the vision and example sat by one man, Lee Kwan Yu.  He united his multi-religious and ethnic people, speaking one language—English.



He did not cling on to power or benefited his family. Lots to learn from Singapore.” Ismaeel. Marikar



Soul searching



“Muslims of the World should celebrate the advent of the New Hijra Year. They should do soul searching and make pledge to do better things this year for the benefit of mankind. Unless they do that, this year will also pass like any other year without change” Faiz Al-Najdi





Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at kbatarfi@gmail.com. Follow him at Twitter:@kbatarfi