Type of schools attended significantly impacts starting salaries of employees

Islamabad

The type of the school attended and exposure to the English language significantly impacts starting salaries of employees.

The facts were determined in a study titled ‘Who Gets the Good Jobs?’ launched by Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE) and Alif Ailaan.

The interesting study reports on the results of a survey conducted to explore the links between the types of school attended and job prospects. The starting salaries of 828 employees in mid and senior management level jobs from 103 private and public sector organisations in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore were compared with the kinds of schools these employees attended.

Findings of the study suggest that the education system in Pakistan is reproducing existing patterns of distribution of wealth and well-being. “If you do not have the privileges needed to enjoy good economic opportunities, the education system does nothing to help change that for the next generation,” says the study.

It says that in Pakistan, access to quality education is based on ability to pay for it. “The rich have ready access to schools that consistently produce people with higher salaries in mid and senior level jobs in the formal market. Lower-middle income and poorer households have access only to an education that produces people with lower salaries. The probability of success for children from poorer backgrounds is engineered to be lower,” claims the research.

The launching event left everyone with a question to ponder that “How can Pakistanis have confidence in a brighter future if government schools don’t create the space for economic and social mobility for their students?”

The study examines the five main types of formal schools operating in Pakistan, including government low tier, government top tier, private low tier, private mid tier and private top tier.

It shows that those that attended top tier schools are at a huge economic advantage compared to those that attended low tier government and/or low tier private schools. Whereas, the average starting salary of employees who attended private top tier (or elite) schools is more than double that of employees who attended government low tier schools. This disparity in starting salary has increased from the 2000s to the 2010s.

Another factor that affects the starting salary is whether the employee appeared in O/A levels or Matric/Intermediate examinations. Starting salaries of those that completed O and A levels was found to be more than twice as much as that of those that took the Matric and/or Intermediate exams.

Likewise, exposure to the English language is linked to higher paying jobs. Private top tier schools ensure higher exposure to English language for their students. This leads to better job placement and higher starting salaries. Not surprisingly, students enrolled to private top tier schools enjoy better support at home. This also translates into better jobs and starting salaries once these individuals enter the job market. The survey confirms the importance of both the home and the school effects on economic mobility.

Speakers at the launch agreed that the state must determine benchmarks of quality and enforce them uniformly, irrespective of the kind of school a child attends. Quality needs to be based on minimum standards and the first priority of government resources should be the existing government low tier schools. They also highlighted an urgent need for reform of assessment systems to ensure improvement in the quality of teaching and learning in our mainstream schools in both the government as well as the private sector.