Adil Rahim
There are thousands of bright students burning the midnight oil in Peshawar and in all over KP to prepare for MDCAT every year. Coaching centres are full, parents are saving on their savings and only one dream remains: MBBS seat.
Competition is fierce. Only a fraction make it when there are restricted public sector positions, high-priced private sector alternatives. Those who don’t tend to repeat the process for years, those who do go down a long, costly trail of five years of study, house-job, and specialization. And here is the part that we don’t speak about enough. But, even if all those hurdles are overcome, there is one more hurdle that awaits: employment.
Pakistan’s hospitals are full to capacity. There are hardly any government jobs and private clinics are finding it difficult to manage expenses and many young doctors wait or go abroad for jobs. This pressure will continue to rise over the next decade or so. Increased number of students and stagnant number of hospitals and increased expenditure on healthcare will lead to underemployment and wait for a good job for many MBBS graduates. But medicines is not a bad profession. It will never go out of style. We are, however, responsible for our pupils being candid about the way forward. The world of work is changing – and it’s changing rapidly. Not every new career in Pakistan and around the world is based in hospitals! They are using laptops. The doors of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and IT are opening for MBBS students which it can’t open now. By age 28, you’re not in your 40s yet, but a 2 to 4 year degree or even some certified skills in coding, data analysis or AI can get you a job by age 22. Developers, AI specialists, and Data analysts are being recruited by freelance platforms, remote jobs, and Pakistani tech companies every month. This is evidenced in the IT parks of Peshawar and the tech hubs of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
No one test is so competitive that you have to wait for it to be finished to take a start. Consistency, skills and a portfolio.
Pakistan made more than $3 billion from exporting IT last year. That number continues to rise. The income of a data scientist or AI engineer in KPK is in dollars.
That’s not to say that all students should drop out of med school. If you’re passionate about healing, then do so with your eyes open. If you are making the decision to join MBBS because “it’s respectable” or “it’s the only option,” then stop.
It’s important for the new cohort of students in KPK to take a moment to reflect on this point: you have 6 months to study Python, data analytics, or AI tools while studying. Visit the BS in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science and Cybersecurity in the province at GIKI, UET and other universities. Consider Scholarships and Bootcamps. The time return is much quicker. Parents also must change the discussion. You should not associate respect with one degree. It should be linked to stability, self-respect and contribution. The white coat will never be out of style. However, in 2030, it could not be guaranteed that all the most safe graduates from KPK will be doctors. Many will be the ones who will be trained to train the algorithms, analyse the data, build the software, which hospitals will use.
Let’s steer our students away from areas where jobs are diminishing and toward areas where jobs are growing. Getting through one test might not be the key to the future of KPK’s youth, but learning to perform the skills that the next economy requires.
