I have the highest education and lowest salary as compared to my cousins, why?
Back in the times when you did engineering and returned to your village, you were greeted with Dhol-Tashe. It was a celebration in family with a feast for whole village. And let’s check the value of education on this day. I did engineering, took my transcripts from Madurai Kamraj University, flown to Finland and did MBA, came back and accumulated other various certifications. I have achieved the highest education qualification that a person can achieve. I work in a big MNC as a project manager but my cousin who lives in village has more money than me. Surprising, right? This is not mine, but a story of millions of highly educated professionals who have the highest qualification but lowest salary.
Despite having so much of educational achievement, why it is that the less educated cousins and friends earn more? This is a serious problem, so let’s analyse why the value of education is degrading so much. The first reason we can account for is demand and supply. This is a universal rule. When there is more supply than demand, the value obviously decreases. With the number of graduates coming out of universities per year, it is impossible to hire even a percent of them. So with the amount of workforce available, the average salary decreases. Last time I went to university to get transcript from Madurai Kamraj University, there were hundreds other looking for the same. Everybody want to go abroad for a better opportunity.
Secondly the quality of education. As per recent India Skill report, less than half (46.2%) of graduates are employable in India in 2022. Imagine what happens with rest 53.7%. They will either prepare for government exams, keep searching other small jobs, start their own business or try to fly abroad. And don’t know how much time is lost in all these processes. Therefore the less educated who had started their business instead of going college are already a step ahead. I remember Pradeep, a student whom I met while applying for transcript from Madurai Kamraj University. He was proud, ‘I am going Canada and investing my parent’s money on my education and my cousin has invested nearly same amount of money on farming machineries. He should have also read like me’. I met him recently and asked how he is doing and what about his cousin? It was really shocking to know the farmer cousin had built fortune with his tractor and Pradeep is busy paying his EMIs. The reason being, he got sales profile in his starting jobs which didn’t match with his ego, he tried many job switches to find a suitable career as data analyst and had to settle for less salary because of increased competition.
These are just some of the reasons why the value of education is falling – large number of colleges, millions of graduates per year, poor quality of education, less opportunities and great competition. The highest qualification and minimum wage should come as no surprise these days. That’s why we advise students to focus on the quality of education, look for the best colleges, get the most advanced industry based practical knowledge, be it from India or abroad. And leave the hassle of getting documents and transcripts from Madurai Kamraj University to Worldwide Transcripts. Don’t just get educated, get qualified.
