A singular lack of ability

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Why are we not really able to get things done? Why do we struggle so hard to find competent individuals in so many spheres and why has our work ethic slipped to so frightening a level with a further decline taking place from one decade to the next.

It is of course hard, very hard, to quantify aspects of life that are not possible to calculate as figures or place on a graph measuring the change or examining the shape of the curve that emerges. But from both anecdotal evidence, some of it written out as memoirs or histories, and from reports such as those put out by the Federal Public Services Commission, we can say with a degree of authority that standards have slipped markedly.

We do not always realise how much this affects us. But it does have a direct bearing on the lives we lead and their quality. Almost each of us have struggled at one time or the other to employ a plumber, an electrician, a car mechanic or other tradesman to complete some piece of mundane but essential work.

Perhaps a fortunate few have succeeded immediately; it would be hugely unfair to say that competence simply does not exist at all. But it is also true that many of us have struggled.

The question of basic honesty also comes up again and again, with much time and energy lost on determining if spare parts or other items purchased are genuine or the labour put in is of the required standard. It would be in many ways extremely interesting to design a device which could measure the angst caused by all this.

But the problem extends far beyond what we perceive as the lower-end jobs in society. Many have struggled just as hard to locate competent doctors. Even harder is the task of finding ethical practitioners. This is just as true in other fields, whether it involves teaching, engineering, business, law or the other areas of work that are seen as standing at the top of the pyramid of success.

The question that arises is: why has this happened? Why have we seen so sharp a slide in standards and in integrity? The same factors which have an impact on other professions almost inevitably effect governance as well with politicians, bureaucrats and the administrators working under them suffering from a similar inability to get things done.

Of course, a lack of willingness is possibly part of the problem. But there is the fact also that many professionals are simply not capable of performing the tasks they have been trained for years and for which large amounts of money have in some cases been paid out to institutions providing education in specific fields.

Documents put out by bodies which measure success or performance in general in public-sector exams note that more and more candidates lack even the most basic learning in their chosen areas of skill and find it difficult to put down their thoughts in virtually any language.

English, still the language of officialdom in our country, has slipped to new depths. This would perhaps have been less of a problem if it had been replaced by another language, but we seem to be equally incompetent in all of them. The evidence of this is sometimes quite visible in our newspapers. Neither Urdu nor English is correct and the level of professionalism involved in producing these publications seems to decline steadily.

The real issue is why this has happened. It is easy to blame the slump on an educational system which has essentially failed. The higher quality government schools which once produced men of the standard of Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam simply no longer exist. But the problem goes beyond this. Even the prestigious private-school sector in many cases seems unable to produce integrity or competence.

We need an anthropological study into the nature of society and the factors which shape it to properly understand why this is the case. The work people in the country were able to perform a few generations ago now seems to be done in a more shoddy fashion and with less professionalism. The evidence is with us everywhere: in crumbling roads, in buildings which topple unexpectedly just a few years after they were built, and in the falling standards of so much else that we produce.

Centres of excellence exist. It would be foolish to deny this is the case. Their presence in fact proves that when we really endeavour to do so, we can reach the targets we set ourselves and rise to far higher levels than is the norm.

Pakistanis who have succeeded overseas also prove this and of course our students have shown just how capable they are over many decades of enrolment in top institutions overseas.

This, however, is simply not enough. These persons are a tiny minority. Amongst them, many choose to make lives abroad in any case. Some are forced out simply because they are unable to function in an essentially corrupt environment where they are expected to show the same lack of interest and honesty that is rampant all around them.

It has become imperative that we find a way of changing this reality. From time to time, individuals have attempted this, but generally speaking individual effort is not enough. It is perhaps also true that incompetence is best tolerated within official structures and as a result excellence has moved almost entirely into the private sector where it can benefit a relatively smaller number of people.

As has been discussed many times before, we do need a revamp of the education system. But it is much more than this that needs to be altered. Qualities such as ethical work practices do not essentially arise from education alone. They arise from the culture that exists all around and from what it rewards and what it punishes.

This is perhaps the primary factor determining how things work in our country and in others which face similar dilemmas. In such circumstances, bringing about change is not easy. A system that is essentially flawed will find it particularly hard to cure itself. But at some level, we do need to think about the problem in its entirety.

If we are not able to produce competence, we will simply fail in more and more sectors of life. Bringing in individuals from outside is also only a limited solution. We have seen this happen in many private institutions.

A resurrection of the system is badly needed. Creating ethic or integrity is not an easy matter. The same applies to creating competence or simply an ability to perform a task at acceptable levels. This ability seems to be disappearing with frightening speed from many areas in our lives. The matter should not be ignored any longer. Perhaps small efforts can begin to create an environment in which values we have long abandoned can be brought back.

Of course, this has happened in some places. It happens more easily when workers at all levels are respected and involved in decision making. But we need to find a plan that expands it quickly before the malaise we face entraps more and more of us and holds back a country that possesses talent but apparently less and less energy.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com