Anyone you ask will tell you that the youth of this nation has a lot of talent. These diamonds in the rough just need a little care and attention to help make them shine. The most recent such diamond to emerge is young Prakash Kumar. The son of a day labourer, this youngster from the coastal district of Badin managed to secure the top position in Sindh in the recently conducted electronic exams for admissions to medical colleges in the country and finished as fourth overall in the country.
Local educational activists say that Kumar not only managed to beat out competition from students from better educational backgrounds, but did so without having access to the top schools, teachers, and better equipment in terms of laboratories. This, they point out, speaks volumes about how a strong will, determination and willingness to learn and apply such knowledge can mean. While Kumar completed his education thus far in government-funded educational institutions where educational costs are at a minimum, it is a very different proposition at the graduation level, especially for professional degrees. Even in the public sector, such education is costly for someone like Kumar.
While the government routinely provides cash grants to students who top board exams, it must also set up an educational fund that can allow students like Kumar or others from impoverished backgrounds or areas which covers not only the cost of their tuition but also accommodation and other aspects. In the private sector, this has been ensured by coopting philanthropy not just at the corporate level but also individual level and through endowments. Perhaps the government can also look into similar mechanisms.
Students like Kumar show us that more than just a single curriculum, our students require the right kind of nurturing and support, from their family, society and especially from educational institutions to succeed in life. With a youth bulge, this is extremely important lest we want to deal with a youth bomb.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2021.
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