Make technical education compulsory

STUDENT lists for those continuing their education journey will soon be out.
Most progressing from grades 10 and 8 respectively already know what 2022 holds for them.
One thing for sure, the number of yearly school dropouts and their place and use in society is a ticking time bomb.
This is something the State, through its relevant agencies, should address.
Leaving school is a time of great change for all children, and although this is exciting, it can feel like a daunting prospect for the school leavers as they contemplate their future and the path that they are going to take.
Although they will no doubt be glad that they are finally graduating from secondary school and moving into the adult world, they may also feel anxious about the upheaval.
The increasing number of school drop outs (we assume at all levels of education, but in particular, from primary to secondary level) is a major concern.
If left unchecked, the large numbers of unemployed youths turned away by the system would become a developmental obstacle for the country in the short term as well as extending well into the future.
We do not know where the statistics from after the academic year in 2021 stand at yet, but there were some figures from 2016 that of the 22,000 students that come out of high schools each year some 17,000, or 77 per cent, are not employable.
Now, imagine the statistics four years later.
The problem is clear, but the solutions are not so easy to come by.
So, the obvious question is, what is the Government doing about it? What is their strategy and overall plan to deal with the problem?
This issue should be addressed sooner rather than later.
With a build up of the masses in this demographic, there are bound to be issues that society will face.
The Education Department says approximately 50,000 students come out of grade 10 annually and half of that figure out of grade 12. Out of grade 12 students, only a quarter (6,250 students) are absorbed into the various State institutions around Papua New Guinea.
The rest of the school leavers are left to fend for themselves either in the job market or in private education institutions – if they can afford it, which is very unfair.
In many, if not most families, there is a high value attached to education.
It is seen as the ticket to a better life and something that can enable not only the recipient of the education, but their families and tribes.
The effect is multiplied and magnified over the community.
This has been a problem for a long time – it just was not felt as sharply in the community as it is now and has the potential to do.
The solution, or one of them, was giving these students a chance to find employment and become, in a way, self-reliant and able to function in the modern economy.
At present, technical and vocational educational education is the low hanging fruit that many disregard on their way to higher honours, but quite simply, this is the only fruit worth getting for the majority.
The challenge the State has is obviously job creation and giving young men and women in this country the means to earn a living.
The Government, through the Education Department, should make technical education compulsory in all secondary schools.
It should not just be a complementary or supplementary part of the education system or be an elective, but a core range of subjects.