PANAJI
In ominous signs, some quarters among the job market's decision making sections are said to be skeptical of the skill sets of graduates who passed out in the pandemic impacted academic year 2020-21 and they are even being out rightly excluded from the eligibility pool for entry-level jobs.
One such job advertisement (facsimile) calling graduates for walk-in interviews isued on behalf of top private lender HDFC Bank (not in Goa) boldly said: "2021 pass out candidates are not eligible".
Officials of the Bank in Goa declined to come on record over the issue but one executive told The Goan there is no formal instruction to the effect that 2021 graduates be excluded.
In a pandemic-hit scenario where unemployment is rising and companies have frozen recruitment barring a few rare exceptions, the new graduates could face an extremely adverse job market. Research worldwide is indicating that just 18% of the graduates are landing jobs in the current year as against the average 60% in previous years.
The 2020-21 academic year has been extraordinarily impacted, with physical activity halted across campuses and academic work confined to the digital mode. Curriculums in many cases have been truncated, and crucial examinations cancelled with authorities opting for alternative assessment methods as the virus played havoc with public health.
It's not just the job market that is wary of the compatibility of these fresh graduates or students who climbed a year on the academic ladder in 2020-21. The teaching community and educationists too are worried that these students may be inadequately sound to take on the challenge of the new year.
Former Goa Board chairman, Pandurang Nadkarni, sympathises with such students and advises teachers to concentrate on core contents and concepts essential for higher learning in the "first couple of weeks".
I appeal to the teachers wherever these students have taken admissions that they should concentrate initially for about two weeks only on the essential core contents and concepts essential for Higher learning which they have learnt in std Xth or XIIth as the case may be as there is possibility that students might not be with strong foundation as there were no regular classes," Dr Nadkarni said in a social media post.
He also cautioned parents and relatives to be extra careful as some of these students might have gone through "psycho-emotional problems" since they could not attend regular classes and interact with classmates, friends and even relatives.
