What is education from a personal opinion!

"What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

  "A doctor, am engineer, whatever brings more money!"

- يللي ما معو ماسترز ما الو شغل

- احمول حالك و سافر ل برّا، هون ما الك شغل

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The above three are just a few of the many phrases we hear when we speak of education and job opportunities. Lebanon has faced its reality: our nature lacks profitable resources such as fuel, and is weak in the industrial sector. So adolescents and young adults of Lebanon have no hope in having a decent life unless they focus on their strengths: education. 

Yes, as Lebanese we grow up having the mentality that only our education - "الشهادة يللي ب ايدك" - is the key to our future. We are forced to tolerate the back pain due to heavy books, the lengthy nights of studying and memorizing, and the long vacation full of endless assignments. All this for what? 

We pass school and apply to a number of respectable universities to continue our lengthy journey of education after 15 years in unified costumes. If we were lucky enough and have collected some good grades in school, then the university will accept some of us, and others are unfortunately rejected. We register courses, meet new people, finish the requirements and get that certificate we have been dreaming of since we were children running in the playground under the sun. 

Now, the graduates think that as soon as they graduate, a job is going to be waiting for them, and here is where the disappointment presents itself. Not all graduates get hired easily and yes, "الشركات بيستمنّو عليك" is one of the lies frequently told. This is directly related to the current economic situation of Lebanon where than are more people who are unemployed than the employed ones. 

As a result, those fresh graduates have to choose: either to apply for graduate studies, i.e. more paying money, or traveling abroad which is not the same as before. Yes, applying for Masters has its benefits, but "شو حتقضّي حياتك درس؟". Traveling abroad means losing the young generation and its dispersion everywhere around the world: great loss of true resources for Lebanon.

I have a solution: there should be a national plan to create job opportunities for the fresh graduates. This can be applied when peace is brought to Lebanon where as a result investors feel safe in growing projects here and not suffer from losses due to instability and insecurity. Another way is that graduates are advised in a way to specialize in different disciplines and not all cluster in engineering or business or medicine. The young should be encouraged to discover new disciplines and introduce them to their society and home country. 

Maybe education is not a weakness: it is our strength, but we should cleverly use it.

By Omar Fleifel (our twitter loyal follower)