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Why You Should Not Study Abroad?
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Every year, we have more than 120,000 of our young ones going abroad for their further studies. Our parents spend a record US$ 1 billion annually to send their kids to foreign schools! And on top of that, we have hundreds of colleges with funny foreign names like Liverpool with the similar LFC logo and many more offering foreign college degrees!
Do we really need to send our kids abroad for undergraduate studies? I don't think so. In my opinion, it is better to finish your Bachelor's here and even a Master's and then apply for a Master's degree overseas. You will have more opportunities to receive grants, scholarships or even paid teaching jobs while you pursue your Master's degree.
According to my sources, most of the students who go to Japan and Australia and the UK seem to enroll in private schools. In Japan, it is mostly language classes and getting a part-time job to cover your living expenses and hopefully some savings in the future to pay back the parents' 10+ lakhs loan for the Japan Study Trip! Only a few will go on to attend Japanese universities, while most are focused on getting their working permit instead.
For Australia, it costs our parents more than Rs 20 lakhs+ to send their kids there in hopes that they will one day get a PR and then make some money as well. The UK has toughened its student rules and I think you are not allowed to take a dependent with you nowadays. Earlier, back in the days, if you somehow managed to enroll in a school here and there for a decade, then you could get their PR thing as well!
The US is a whole different ball game. It is difficult, not impossible but a long, long process to get a green card if you go as a student. It will take decades and some luck as well to finish your school, get that working visa and then hopefully a green card in five to six years after that if you are lucky and then you can sing the US National Anthem in another five. But it is not an easy process.
We are sending our hard-earned money to foreign schools in hopes of our kids getting a better future there someday. 80% of our students want to settle down there. A few will come back, and join politics or open a business, but it seems that once you are gone and if you do get your papers someday, then the chances of coming back drop down to less than 5%. Well, they do come back once in a while to attend Paasney and Bartabanda and weddings but it's more like a vacation trip for those with the papers!
Let's do some math. In the past decade, we have spent US$ 10 billion dollars paying for our kids' college education abroad. If we had invested that money in our kids' business ventures, they would have either become Karodpatis by now or they would have learned more from their business failures.
Well, not all of us can be entrepreneurs, but I think what our kids need are not foreign degrees but real skills. Most of our kids who complete their degrees abroad are not working in their respective fields. Some own gas stations. Some own restaurants or work there. It is more like finding a way to get there and then years of struggle and finally, once you get your papers, you now have the opportunity to make ten times more than you would have if you were back in Nepal working for Bhatbhateni or Prabhu Bank!
Our Balen government should first ban all colleges selling foreign degrees in Nepal. We should also not allow No Objection Certificate (NOC) for private schools in Japan, Australia and the UK. These are like three-room schools in some malls, and many have Nepail owners. The degree doesn't count much and sometimes it is all fake.
Every year, 500,000 young 15 to 16-year-old sit for the SEE exams. Half of them fail and in a few years, they will seek employment opportunities in the Gulf region. Out of the 250,000 SEE graduates each year, only half of them will finish their 10+2. The ones who finish will then want to go abroad for further studies but it has become more of a get there, get a job, pay the loans, get the paper someday and then work for the rest of your life so you can send some money to your loved ones, buy a house, start a family there or here... it is like you gotta escape from this land because the Rs 15,000 per month job will not help you to save a paisa!
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