Manpower Production Essential For Development
I read the letter of Dr. Regmi published in The Rising Nepal on 19 September
on the need for the development of manpower. While it cannot be denied that the
development of human resources is the key to the development of any country, the contents
of the letter, to my humble opinion, lack depth. Is it because of the editing of the
letter? I am sure Dr. Regmi must have intended to say a lot. Now talking about the actual
manpower development one has to think whether there are quality educational institutions
in the country. Do we have them? The other question that needs to be asked is what kind of
manpower are we really talking about? Engineers? Doctors? Computer Scientists? Economists?
Political Scientists? Sociologists? Do we really need more of them than those available at
present in the market? Actually, Nepal is among those few underdeveloped countries, which
has many more such manpower than actually required, I think. Let us look around how many
Engineers and Doctors are unemployed? I will not even mention those who have studied
humanities subject. The conclusion that I tend to draw looking at the state of things in
our country is that we of course need highly skilled manpower those who are willing to go
to any part of the country to serve. In Nepal we are in general very lucky that the
parents need not be convinced to invest on the education of their children; they do so
willingly in terms of millions of dollars every year. But these millions are not being
spent in Nepal but outside, which sadly has given rise to a new ‘culture’
whereby the success of a family is equated to how many children are studying in the USA or
in Australia or in the Philippines or in some other country. My appeal therefore is to
have a much wider dialogue within the country on manpower development but making sure that
we focus on the manpower who are trained in the country and who will serve the country at
least for a good part of their lives before seeking so-called ‘greener pastures’
abroad.
Adarsha Tuladhar
East Timor |
