University is not the only option, look to craftsmanship Wednesday, 26 January 2011 02:40

hy don’t Qatari citizens engage in professional craftsmanship businesses? A vast multitude of craftsmen represent a large market in the country by providing highly demanded services such as home renovations and maintenance like interior/exterior painting, interlock groundwork, ceramics, doors, bathroom renovations, etc. The work is endless and operations are ongoing, repeated in each home every now and again.

There are different forms of expatriate labour in the country. Some own, operate, and determine the prices of services in the market. Even though customers can negotiate the prices, the fact is that the sellers are earning a margin of almost equal value to the service provided and are therefore able to control the market. Meanwhile, Qataris are either just partners by name, recorded as the owners or guarantors, and collect a certain salary.

There are young citizens who were not absorbed by the universities, have not completed their formal education, or simply disdain administrative work and are overwhelmed by their discouragement and frustration from unemployment. They should be the ones with the priority to be taken on craftsmanship as Qataris are in a position to manage and adjust smoldering market prices. 

Everyone always thinks of university as the only option. If someone’s son or daughter isn’t accepted into university, it is perceived as a big catastrophe. People are often heard complaining, “what do I do with my son who wasn’t accepted to a university as he barely managed to graduate from high school?” Little do the parents know that their insistence on their children to attend universities will not necessarily make their children value academia or do well in the university system. Success in academia depends on self-determination, effort, and an affirmation by the student that the education is worth pursuing. Nagging parents won’t change the attitude of a student who thinks that university is merely a pit stop for entertainment and socializing. Do parents think that with their persistence upon their children gaining acceptance to universities will alter their potential performance in school, when they weren’t successful in high school?

In many cases, the son or daughter do not have an interest in pursuing education beyond high school, which they hardly passed, but one or both parents put so much pressure on them to do so resulting in psychological stress for both parent and child.

Parents simply think that their dear son or daughter do not know what is in their interest, and are therefore responsible for determining, enforcing, and protecting them. Does it always work out that way? Unfortunately not.

Such treatment places a buffer between the children and their studies. It is like a protective blanker, which insulates children from their academic failures while their parents feel its sting. While parents worry and stress over their children’s schooling, the children have found a space that they are comfortable with, as someone else worries, arranges, organizes, and plans on their behalf.

What happens is that children abandon their responsibility for securing their future and taking charge of their failures and successes because they have been guaranteed with someone who makes those things their first priority; the parents. The parents worry and are irritatingly persistent and the best form of punishment from the children and their parents is to fail because they know that takes a toll on their parents’ hearts. It is to such a degree that education and academia are distanced from being a part of children’s futures and livelihoods. Because of that, they will suffer lifelong consequences, as their parents transferred to them this sense that education is the parents’ goal and dream rather than being that of the children for their own future.

How can a student be serious if they only studied under pressure and prosecution of their parents? No, just because a student graduates secondary school with an acceptable grade that does not mean that they are eligible for university studies and responsibilities.

Which of you wants the services of a doctor, engineer, nurse, lawyer, financial analyst or any other professional who graduated from university through being pressured without any drive. There is a difference between those who study under their parents’ plans, as if his father is a doctor or an engineer and wants to finish his career, or under their own determination. If parents push their children to specific fields of study where they foresee a future, and their children complement that with persistence and diligence, then they will be successful. There is nothing wrong with being supportive of your children’s struggles and not letting them battle alone. The key here is for children to find their own passion and drive, not just succumb to their family’s pressure and reminders to write this paper or study for that exam. How else will they open books in university on their own, worry about their papers, and seek consideration and seeks to compensate for missing lectures?

  Students like that repeat year after year regardless of how much their families’ spend on them.

Education is a treasure, not a luxury - a personal ambition and not just for the sake of a framed certificate, stamped by the seal of the State, to open the door for a particular job as in the past. Today, job screenings include interviews, examinations, assessments of certificates, and other forms of scrutiny that candidates must pass before being hired. If they are inefficient and unprepared to work, they will be delayed for years. If they are appointed, they will face competition unless they defend their positions through hard work, sincerity, dedication, and precision.

Here is an idea: what if parents abandoned their severe fear and direct their energy to motivate their children to be interested in studying? How about incentivizing children by having them understand that their success in secondary school will affect their personal lives, and that if they earn high grades those will qualify them to enter a university but if not, then they must think of other avenues for their futures.

Society needs all types of work. People should not forget that different people have different capacities. You can tell from an early age if one of your children will be hard-working, organized, and independently perform certain duties, while another needs constant following-up, and if left alone would never set foot in a school for the rest of his/her life.

Without pressure, parents can monitor their children quietly and give them time to think seriously about their future on their own. As young adults, they should have the responsibility to decide for themselves what makes them content. Do they see themselves in university? If so, then their secondary school grades must be at an acceptable level to enter a respected university. If not, then what will be their fate? Maybe their aspirations can be satisfied somewhere outside of university.

An ordinary student who dreams of a university education keeps their eyes on specific universities and corresponds with them him/herself before graduating from high school in order to know their terms and conditions of objectives. That way, he/she defines his/her objectives in line with those universities acceptance. They also know what they aim to do with their future upon entering a specific university and graduating with a particular degree.

Not all students are prepared to enter university. This is a fact of nature so parents should not panic or consider that they have failed. Jobs for non-university graduates are also important and those employed in those positions are also prominent in their jobs to the extent that they feel fulfilled. Those who are successful craftsmen are honored with their work as much as university graduates are with theirs, especially when they are creative and faithful to the integrity of their work.

Sometimes high school and university graduates are equal in terms of their performance due to each individual’s dedication and determination, not just the amount of degrees they have obtained. It is easy for university graduates to open businesses, hire managers, and employ craftsman to work in such a business. However, it is not as easy for someone who was unsuccessful in university education and is being chased and pressured by his parents. Why shouldn’t such a person make this occupation his life, or at least be a guarantor for the business at the very least?

Why doesn’t our society believe that entrepreneurship gives people meaning, a value for their existence, and an honest living? It even rescues people from feelings of humiliation or inferiority in our community.

As an entrepreneur, a person can personally supervise their employees’ work with a plan and a vision. He can buy the necessary materials and make sure that they are delivered, as well as negotiate prices with customers. As a responsible owner, he will need to manage the business on the ground. Rather than working by telephone or within an office, he would work at in the middle of shipments of bricks, and loads of sand governed by market prices and reliable service.

There is no shame in honest work. Manual labor and craftsmanship is not inferior to intellectual or scholarly work. In fact, it will emancipate our youth from the shackles of dependency and powerlessness, and diversify the economy with Qatari entrepreneurs rather than depending almost entirely on expatriate labor.

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