People need the right environment in order to thrive

Emmy’s entry caught my attention because she talked about something I’ve faced myself – a lack of teachers combined with too many pupils in a class. It usually results in the following: Those who understand and are eager to learn do so, while those who have no intention to learn either sit quietly throughout the term or become obstacles to the teacher. Generally, these types of pupils just aim at getting a “satisfactory” mark. As one of my teachers used to say, it’s a mark that shows nothing – neither your skills in a particular sphere, nor your interests. But still, it’s over the level needed to pass an exam, so you are considered an educated person! There’s a danger when students graduate with most marks just at the satisfactory level. They are de jure qualified enough to work in the area they studied. But, de facto, they are almost incompetent. In reality, they seldom pursue a career in what they studied.
I remember talking to one of my teenage pupils who was surprised to find out that I was going to get a second college degree. He brought up an acquaintance who had two degrees but was working as a shop assistant. Cases like that are exceptions. But there is a real issue concerning the value of education and what it’s good for. I’d like to go into more detail on that.

There are university departments that impart the skills demanded in modern society – the IT sphere is a typical example. But the question of migration, which I touched on in my last entry, comes up here. High salaries are easier to get when working on big projects in big companies – in big cities, so many talented people leave their native cities as bigger places have many more opportunities.

There are also departments that offer majors that are well-known in Europe or America but still underestimated in my country. Medicine is one example. A good specialist in our region earns about $550 a month, but the skills they possess deserve more. That explains why some people I know who were offered a 2-3-year-contract abroad eventually agreed to do it. Many professionals have to find a part-time job to be a proper breadwinner.

There are professions that are vital for a country’s sustainable development but that seem to have been made into a fetish. For example, when I finished school, pursuing a major in economics or law was quite popular because it brought a person closer to finding a well-paid job. However, when I look around now, I have to wonder: Where are all of these qualified lawyers and economists? Have they all become shop assistants?

What I’m driving at is that human nature is a complicated system. Being “successful” is not equal to “having a lot of money.” The right preconditions also often need to be in place for success, like being in an environment that’s friendly and promotes happiness. A friendly atmosphere in schools involves building a community where discrimination against developing certain skills will not be tolerated.

Mobile phones - literacy not required...

The recent history of education in Iraq is full of ups and downs, and illiteracy, especially for women, remains a problem.

I’d like to imagine seeing life and the world like through the eyes of an uneducated person. But I think this is much harder than imagining it through a genius’ eyes. I know so many uneducated people – the only thing they can read and understand is the clock. I wonder how they can use mobile phones…? They can use their contacts to dial, and they seem to know who is calling them! Maybe after lots of mistakes, they just figure out how to use their phones. In fact, it could even be a kind of adventure for them!
Maybe when you get tired of what you’re doing or when your tendency to think too much makes you unhappy, you wish you were one of the uneducated people – that you knew nothing. I think sometimes you’re luckier to have less knowledge. I would say, “Less knowledge means more comfort.” That is why I think that the less educated do enjoy life much more than those with an academic background.

On average, the most uneducated people are among the seniors, especially among older women. Men always had a better and more comfortable life in the Middle East because of their unlimited freedoms. In my third entry, I talked about education for girls starting with the very young and showed connections between our system and problems within our society.

Some have to take out a loan to cover monthly expenses - even for basics

At the moment, we have obvious educational gaps among young people. Many of them have not been to school for various reasons. Many had to work for their families from an early age, and some of the families did not enroll their kids in school because they did not think that the school would teach their children what they needed to learn. Or they thought that the government wouldn’t be able to give them a job in the future anyway.

Another issue is that many in the young generation leave school and start doing another job because they can’t earn enough money monthly even if they were to get a job after graduating. An obvious example is that new teachers earn about $500 a month, but if you work as a freelance worker, you would earn$25 per day, totaling $750 per month. Many people think that they are right to quit school because the salary system for government jobs is not fair. Your salary does not depend on how many hours of work you do per week, but, rather, depends on what role you have or where you work. There are fears of getting old and realizing that you have spent your whole life on a governmental assignment, but you’re still dreaming of life’s basic necessaries like having a car, a normal house and enough money to get by. Some have to take out loans just for living expenses, so it’s clear that saving money doesn’t even come into question.

This traffic sign has a message: It's women who look after kids

María commented on my blog from May 14, saying she was surprised about what I had written about the situation of women in the German job market. Actually, when I learned about those numbers the first time, I was surprised, too − particularly because I personally have never felt discriminated against due to my gender. My parents, for instance, have treated my brother and me equally. Gender differences are only apparent during family parties: Most of the work is done by women, and men, particularly those over thirty, become a rare species in the kitchen. But I don’t care too much about that. After all, you won’t see me helping during construction work − then again, you won’t see my brother either.

María is right about the fact that German law offers a lot of parental leave options for parents. And there are also more and more fathers who make use of them. A mother or father who takes parental leave has the right to come back to his or her job up to three years after the birth of his or her child. Parents can also split up this time. Many also use another option: They work part-time.

But there is a difference between the theoretical options and practical consequences people face. Some job positions are just too demanding to be filled by a person working part time. Moreover, people taking parental leave for several years have difficulty keeping track of changes in their companies and their industries more generally.

On the other hand, there are cultural difficulties. Women are often afraid of being regarded as bad mothers who don’t love their families enough if they decide to work full-time. Fathers sometimes have to cope with prejudices going in the opposite direction: They are not regarded as “manly” enough if they use parental leave options. Some people see them as fulfilling the traditional female job of staying at home and caring for children – thus neglecting their masculine duty to earn money.

"Men are not regarded as 'manly' enough if they use parental leave options."

Sometimes differences in wages make it hard to justify why a man should stay at home. Besides the fact that men often work in sectors that pay better, in Germany, men still earn eight percent more than equally-qualified women doing the same job. Looking at the general gender pay gap in Germany, women are even worse off: They earn 23 percent less than men − but still they can feel lucky compared to Argentineans. María wrote of a gender pay gap of up to 35 percent in her home country.

When thinking about this in Germany, it’s interesting to compare the situation under communism in former East Germany (GDR) with the western part of Germany. In East Germany, it was common that women worked full-time. East Germany had an expansive child care system that allowed women to work. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the western educational system was introduced in the former GDR, too. Cultural attitudes, however, don’t seem to have changed as quickly. And today, there are still more women working in the East than in the West.

In my opinion, stereotypes related to the labor market should be eliminated

One of my friends has recently been offered a position as a professor in a foreign university. While discussing the offer with him, I thought about our job market and would like to share some ideas about it.

I’ll start with the step just after graduating from university. There are people who work in spheres that have nothing to do with their university degree, and that is mostly due to low wages in the professional spheres they would occupy. Teaching is a common example – only a few students with a diploma go in for teaching at state schools. Most prefer to find some other job even if their skills won’t be required there at all or to work in a university. However, the number of private language schools is increasing, and local authorities are considering possible grant programs, so the situation is slightly better than a decade ago.

But it still seems slightly irrational: why spend 4-5 years in a university and then do something totally different than what you studied? Such behavior can surely be found in other countries, but in Russia, its scale is a serious problem. Unfortunately, the problem is also underestimated.

Our society views a man without a job as a loser, and surely it’s difficult to build any future while facing unemployment. The promising thing is, though, that the market is developing and there are opportunities that were totally unknown a decade ago. Freelancing is one example, and this sphere is controlled rather feebly by labor legislation. Our parents’ generation finds it difficult to understand this way of working – as a result, many freelance workers are treated as if they do not have a regular job and are losers. In my opinion, that is a dangerous stereotype, and it should be eliminated.

Another stereotype involves salary. It’s been thought that a man ought to earn more than a woman since many think that all the latter has to do is look after children. Well, nowadays the job market is more flexible and absorbing Western trends. However, it does not always mean that you can earn as much as you want. The increased flexibility allows you (or even encourages you) to earn more because the inflation rate is rising more quickly than salaries are, so you have to find some part-time job. As a result, there are cases where a woman earns more than her husband.

I think families themselves should decide who the breadwinner is. The key thing for me is that the one who earns less shouldn’t be dependent on his or her partner’s salary.