Is it a Corrupted Education System or Lack of Jobs in the Market?

By Amina Faki

I always love keeping friends who are older than I; Tony is a very close friend of mine. He’s in his late20’s and five years older than I. Last week we happened to be talking about issues affecting youths countrywide, but one popped up and has been constantly on my mind.

Every time I think about it, I picture Tony’s situation over the years. He graduated in 2012 back when I was a freshman in college, and as you perfectly know, every graduate has got high hopes of finding a job immediately after they graduate from their respective courses. But for Tony, it has been years of struggle trying to find a suitable job that he specifically trained for four years in College to no avail.

Why are so many graduates unemployed? This question originally appeared on a Quora; an alarming question that has been on the minds of many for years.

This is evidenced by the rising number of graduates roaming the streets in the hope of finding something that could just keep them busy.

So many people complain about the rising number of idling youths, as does every generation. They are branded a millennial of lazy and entitled people whose folks worked harder.

But is it really fair bombarding youths with these kinds of harsh remarks? Their folks weren’t in hundreds of thousands of student debts, unemployment wasn’t rampant then.

Fresh graduates have done nothing wrong, and are certainly not lazy. They are simply given one path and one option in life; go to school, get a degree, and then you can get a job. They spend their entire time, effort and money working towards this goal.

The society gives them one choice, and has not entirely defined and exhausted the possibility of the “promise” of being successful in this path.

The education system on the other side also encourages youths to do so and their parents likely follow along. We are cycled through this education system with much fewer options.

Most companies are working on maximizing profit is the incentive, these are the same companies that want to maximize on efficiency and won’t even have second thoughts about laying off employees, who to hire and who not to.

Tony got tired of hitting the road day in day out in search of a job, he eventually ventured into entrepreneurship and he’s doing pretty well. He got rid of the notion that people are born to work for someone else to make a living.

But the question still remains could it be that the Kenyan education system is corrupted, are there minimal jobs in the market or that most employers associate graduates with higher pay hence denying them opportunities for the unskilled?

I don’t know about you but I strongly believe just like Tony, if millions of youths are properly funded to venture into entrepreneurship, then youths won’t be seen as a millennial of lazy people and the problem leading to the high levels of graduate unemployment.