Who gets the good jobs?

ISLAMABAD: How can Pakistanis have confidence in a brighter future if government schools don’t create the space for economic and social mobility for their students? This was the question under discussion on Thursdayat the launch of a new report, “Who Gets the Good Jobs?”, by Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE) and Alif Ailaan.

The study reports on the results of a survey conducted to explore the links between the types of school attended and job prospects. The starting salaries of 828 employees in mid and senior management level jobs from 103 private and public sector organisations in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore were compared with the kinds of schools these employees attended.

The results confirm conventional thinking: the type of the school attended significantly impacts starting salaries of employees. The study examines the five main types of formal schools operating in Pakistan, namely: government low tier, government top tier, private low tier, private mid tier and private top tier, a statement released by the not-for-profit organizations said.

• Those that attended top tier schools are at a huge economic advantage compared to those that attended low tier government and/or low tier private schools.
• The average starting salary of employees who attended private top tier (or elite) schools is more than double that of employees who attended government low tier schools. This disparity in starting salary has increased from the 2000s to the 2010s.
• Another factor that affects the starting salary is whether the employee appeared in O/A levels or Matric/Intermediate examinations. Starting salaries of those that completed O and A levels was found to be more than twice as much as that of those that took the Matric and/or Intermediate exams.
• Likewise, exposure to the English language is linked to higher paying jobs. Private top tier schools ensure higher exposure to English language for their students. This leads to better job placement and higher starting salaries.
• Not surprisingly, students enrolled to private top tier schools enjoy better support at home. This also translates into better jobs and starting salaries once these individuals enter the job market. The survey confirms the importance of both the home and the school effects on economic mobility

Speakers at the launch agreed that the state must determine benchmarks of quality and enforce them uniformly, irrespective of the kind of school a child attends. Quality needs to be based on minimum standards and the first priority of government resources should be the existing government low tier schools. There is an urgent need for reform of assessment systems to ensure improvement in the quality of teaching and learning in our mainstream schools in both the government as well as the private sector.