A lot is being discussed about the 4th industrial revolution in the knowledge-based economies, and the accompanying innovations it is bringing in the fields such as material sciences, regenerative medicines, and genomics. It is being exhorted that we also need to move to a knowledge economy and for that to happen we need to invest in higher education. Accordingly, the setting up of new institutes of higher learning are being advocated and supported with the assumption that it would lead to knowledge generation and thus increase in exports. Instances of South Korea and Singapore are quoted, which invested in education in the 60s and 70s. It’s claimed that due to investment in higher education, their exports grew many folds.

Thus, a very linear, simplistic relationship is assumed in the aforementioned argument that investment in higher education leads to knowledge economy, innovation, and thus growth of exports. However, one has to analyse the relationship between knowledge, innovation, and higher education in knowledge-based economies before drawing any conclusions. Everything which already exists is either data or information, and when something new through research is generated, it is called knowledge; and upon the base of this knowledge when some new technology is devised, it is generally called innovation in a knowledge-based economy. To generate knowledge and innovation, developed economies have centuries-old educational and research institutions, which have their specialised areas of research, and the best minds pool their efforts for new break-throughs in their respective areas of research and expertise. These educational and research institutes are helped by a general educational system that promotes analytical and critical thinking, not rot learning.

On the contrary, we do not possess or even know how to operate a state of art technologies available, if any, with us. Our famous export-oriented industries include low value-added textiles, sports goods, surgical instruments sectors which employ low-grade technology and low-skilled workforce and are struggling with productivity and quality issues. Even these industries are struggling to be a part of industrial clusters being set up along the CPEC route by the Chinese entrepreneurs. Similarly, our auto-industry is also struggling with quality and productivity issues, which are hampering it to be even competitive at the sub-continent level. Also, our national large scale manufacturing units such as Pakistan Steel Mills, Heavy Mechanical Complex, and Heavy Electrical Complex are struggling and are employing antiquated technologies. Thus, the aforementioned industrial sectors are not even comfortable with the antiquated technologies they have been employing for decades; and have failed to invest in upgrading their technological capabilities, and to improve the skills of their workforce.

To identify, acquire, and assimilate new technologies we require a workforce equipped with the necessary basic skills. However, our existing technical and vocational training institutes are churning out a workforce with a minimum of industrial skills. Also, the graduates coming out of existing institutions of higher education lack the requisite analytical skills to give solutions to the problems facing our industrial sector. Further, our general education system does not promote independent thinking, which then hampers the development of students’ thinking abilities as they move up the educational years.

Thus, instead of establishing new universities and research centres, emphasis should be made on improving the capability of existing institutions in carrying out research aligned with our industrial sector needs, while industrial sectors may be persuaded to invest in new technologies which would create a need for a workforce with better skills and capabilities. Further, each institution may be tasked with developing particular areas of expertise to help our industrial sector with their existing problems and to help them improve their capability to acquire new technologies for better value-added products which would help to boost our exports.

Mehr Ispahani
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Peshawar.