here is one country in the world where all graduates who pass out from state universities demand public sector employment. It is Sri Lanka. No other country in this whole world has this mindset. It is all right if they come across vacancies in the public sector, apply for them, get selected due to their qualifications and experiences and are recruited. But the problem is demanding such jobs as a community (graduates) and creating such jobs for them by the Governments. Sri Lanka will never be able to walk forward if this negative mindset and trend exists and it is nurtured by rulers just like they did in the past several decades.
According to the prominent Economist who was attached to the Management Faculty of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura Prof. Janaka Kumarasinghe and several other prominent and popular economists and scholars attached to local and foreign universities, Sri Lankan workforce in the private sector improves and push upwards the Sri Lankan economy while the Sri Lankan state sector pull it downward and weaken it as much as possible. This is NOT a belief and it is proved with all relevant statistics in the past several decades. This is the bitter truth that is not accepted by trade unions in the state sector.
The story of Sri Lankan graduates who passed out from state universities during the past several decades is extremely pathetic because they did not fit the job market and were employed as public servants in the state sector. Becoming a public servant was their only option when considering their knowledge and inexperience. Almost all graduates passed out from state universities in Sri Lanka except MBBS Doctors and Engineers know nothing about what they learned during three or four years and they DO NOT have any practical knowledge. At least they do not want to serve the people. They just want a thundering salary. But fortunately the Government has introduced new subjects and new streams for Sri Lankan students by now. But they still demand state sector jobs.
This issue of unemployed graduates only exists here in Sri Lanka because they demand state sector jobs and they hate private sector employment. All arts graduates who passed out from Sri Lankan state universities so far did not fit the employment available in the country and therefore they were absorbed into the state sector as public servants. This is how the public sector in Sri Lanka exceeded 1.5 million employees while the actual requirement is only 700,000. Over 100,000 of them do not have a specific duty. Some have small unimportant duties. At a time there are over ten or fifteen public servants to do one task but the problem is none of them are available when people come to obtain their services or they somehow refrain from serving people. They treat people like enemies or garbage.
It is very interesting why unemployed graduates only demand state sector employment all the time. The very first reason is the monthly pension. They want a pension once they retire. Then comes the job security. The other reasons are the 42 days of leave per year, Agrahara Medical Insurance, free three sets of Railway Warrants, enjoying Saturday and Sunday including all the other public holidays, less work, not being accountable for their duties, a large number of various types of allowances, getting paid for signing in and out and NOT for completing a work load, etc. Some of them are doing two or three other jobs because they do not need to be at the office and they have nothing to do at all at the office.
Those unemployed graduates do not like to work in the private sector because talent and capability matters more than anything else. They do not have those. They only have the degree certificate. Private sector workers get paid for the workload they complete and NOT for signing in and out. No pension available. No proper medical insurance and all medical insurance schemes cover only a small part of the full hospital bill.
They have to pay the rest of the bill from their monthly salary. They only enjoy 21 or 28 days of leave for a year and only get Mercantile Holidays. No holidays granted for them for other public holidays. The other major issue is they can lose their employment at any time due to any reason. The only positive thing they see in private sector employment is high salaries (when compared with some state sector employment).
After comparing the two jobs, the graduates always demand state sector employment. So far various Governments which rules the country during the past 75 years created various state sector employments for them and named those employments in various names such as `Janasavi appointments’, `Samurdhi Officers’, Development Officers’, etc and did not changed the education system in order to fit to the job market.
It is very easy to accuse the past Governments without proposing a practical solution. It is what some minor political parties with a small representation around three percent did during the past 75 years. They did it because they used unemployment graduates for their election propaganda campaigns. The issue was a blessing for them.
It is high time for the Government, especially the Public Administration Ministry to make changes to the state sector changing the existing privileges to match with the private sector and at the same time making drastic changes to the private sector making it more ‘employee friendly’ than now and match with the state sector. The Government can very easily make all required changes to the state sector and strikes that will be launched by public servants against such a move should be controlled using any tactic. Required changes should be made on behalf of the future generation without giving into various evil selfish forces such as trade unionists.
The number of leave per year (42), the number of public holidays, Agrahara Medical Insurance Scheme, three free sets of Railway Warrants per year, etc should NOT be changed. All the other various allowances paid to the state sector employees need to be abolished. They should be paid for workload and not for their attendance. A proper practical system should be established to receive feedback from the public for each and every public servant and this feedback should be the number one factor to consider when granting annual increments. There is NO issue about the existing salaries.
It is possible to bring in new rules and regulations, especially new Acts and amendments to the existing Acts and Ordinances that govern the private sector. The requirement is to make the privileges and disadvantages of both state and private sectors similar as much as possible and iron out almost all possible differences. The Government should not give into the pressures put on by business tycoons. The private sector employees should be granted 42 days of leave per year, Agrahara Medical Insurance Scheme and all public holidays enjoyed by the state (public) sector. Now the private sector enjoys ONLY the Mercantile Holidays. There should be one type of public holidays and all those holidays should be Bank, Mercantile and Public Holidays. Only specific religious holidays should be granted to the employees in the specific religions and NOT for all employees.
If there is no major difference between the state (public) sector and the private sector, all graduates will seek employment in both sectors without sticking into the public sector. It is because they have to work in both sectors in order to get their monthly salary and enjoy all the other perks in the same manner. What is happening now is that while private sector employees work hard and earn their monthly salaries, the public sector employees do nothing and get their salaries at the end of every month. In another way private sector employees are being treated like slaves and public sector employees are being treated like kings and queens.
If the Government and the Public Administration Ministry make this drastic change, the country will see an extremely positive drastic change within a very short time. It looks extremely difficult and maybe a little bit funny but it is a major part of the solution because making changes in the education sector alone will NOT solve the issue of unemployment graduates in Sri Lanka. Anyway Sri Lanka cannot walk forward in the same old path any longer, especially after the gravest ever financial crisis in the history that hit the country.
