All Praises be to Allah
Almighty
Brain Drain
The students of Pakistan are known for their extra ordinary achievements in the
field of academics. Doctors, engineers and IT professionals of exceptional
quality have been produced in Pakistan. The students perform very well in their
practical lives. But the question is why we don’t see them working in our
hospitals, industries and business organizations? Where do these extra ordinary
brains vanish?
The answer is that our country is suffering from the phenomena of brain drain.
This is because our best student lot is captured by the western countries like
UK and USA. The need of the hour is that we should try to stop this costly brain
drain or at least take measures to minimize the loss.
But before we come up with some suggestions to stop this brain drain, we need to
look at some of the reasons behind this phenomenon.
Firstly, the level of higher education in our country is not up to the
international standards. Therefore, students go abroad for higher studies and
eventually end up being absorbed into the lucrative foreign market.
Secondly, students who do come back and want to work do not get the kind of
remuneration which they think can be easily earned abroad. This discourages them
and they leave their country.
Thirdly, there is lack of motivation among the students to work in their
homeland on lesser salaries. The reason is the lack of patriotic feelings and
tilt towards material gains.
Fourthly, the qualification which the students earn from abroad have little
application in their home country as they are designed to fulfill the
requirements of the country from where they have studied.
Lastly, the higher living standards and freeway living style attracts the
students as they want to enjoy their life to the fullest.
Now let us look at some facts and figures in support of this phenomenon of brain
drain being suffered by our nation.
According to a report in the The Observer, London,
“Pakistan is facing a massive brain drain as record numbers of people desperate
to leave their politically unstable, economically chaotic country swamp foreign
embassies with visa applications-The biggest numbers of applications for British
visas are from Pakistan. Doctors, lawyers and IT professional and leading the
exodus, but laborers and farmhands are joining the queues of malnourished people
who gather daily outside the US embassy in Islamabad”.
Zaffar Abbas from Islamabad writes that “Gallup-Pakistan says the survey
indicates that many Pakistanis are gradually losing faith in the country's
economic future”.
“The latest survey has strengthened the widely-held view that there has been a
continuous brain drain from the country in the past decade”.
“The poll indicates that not only qualified professionals and university
graduates, but even semi-skilled or unskilled workers want to leave Pakistan in
search of better prospects”.
“About 62% of the adults interviewed for the survey said they would like to work
abroad. And as many as 38% said they would prefer to permanently settle outside
the country”.
“The report says that a similar survey carried out by the same organization in
1984 had showed only 17% in favour of settling
outside the country”.
“Analyzing the survey statistics, Gallup-Pakistan says the marked change is
mainly the result of local economic conditions”.
YesPakistan.com Staff Writer writes that “according to official estimates of
Pakistan's Overseas Employment Corporation, close to 36,000 professionals,
including doctors, engineers and teachers, have migrated to other countries in
the last 30 years.
Interestingly, this number is indicative of only a small proportion of actual
migration, since the majority of emigrants do not register”.
“Once migrants reach here, they tend to do much better on average financially
than even locals. For example, the median income in the late 1970s of Pakistanis
was $20,000, which is well above the US national average of $17,000”.
After considering these reasons and facts and figures, we can think of some
suggestions in order to mend this great loss.
Firstly, we as a nation need to inculcate patriotic feelings in our new
generation to an extent that they should love their homeland more than the
attractive life of any developed country.
Secondly, the standard of education should be improved with intent to promote
research. The courses and the syllabi should be according to the local and
national requirements of the country. External degree programmes of foreign
universities can be introduced to give foreign qualification.
Thirdly, the number of quality degree awarding institutions should be increased
in a way that each year a few new universities are established to give greater
opportunities for studying.
Fourthly, the students with a caliber to become a national asset should be
retained in their homeland even at a higher cost. The government should not lose
them to foreign lands.
Lastly, the societal attitude needs to change regarding the way it looks and
gets impressed from the material gains of western countries. The society needs
to understand and communicate that there are a lot more important things in life
than just the material comforts.
Hence it can be concluded that we need to build our nation by building a strong
national character. We can grow and progress when our people start pooling the
best of their energies in developing their own homeland. The problem of brain
drain can be tackled by giving recognition to our bright students and having
love for one’s homeland.