A STORY OF MY CHANGING CAREER.

5 Reasons for My Pursuing Master’s in Educational Policies

Diversifying my professional life.

There is always a moment in life when we must take a sudden decision and be optimistic about it. Deciding on a career is one of these critical situations.

My name is Zafar Siddiqui, and I am studying at the University of London’s Bachelor of Laws. After my law degree, I will pursue education policy and leadership, giving five reasons for that decision.

I have encountered many people who have shown signs of cluelessness about why I made such a decision in my life.

It is very unusual for a law student to choose educational policies and leadership after graduating from a law school. We expect the student to go to either corporate companies or litigation afterward, but not something strange as I have done.

I should mention that I have gone through almost all the below-mentioned problems in life, which I am keen to solve for the better future of my nation. I don’t want others to suffer the way my peers and I have been through.

Thus, my ultimate plan is to address such ongoing issues in my society at a policy-making level. The legal study is connected to policy-making, yet both are different.

By studying law, I’ve learned the parliamentary process of lawmaking and its implementation. Policy-making is essentially the implementation of the laws that executives come up with, which we rarely find in Pakistan, especially.

Though, as promised, below are the five justifications for making such a bizarre career decision after completing my law studies.

1. My Unfortunate Background Killed My Inner Self

I belong to a lower-middle-class family (the class that suffers the most in our society). For most of my childhood, I have been mentally and physically compared with other children and been mocked at why I am so much weaker both ways. Some used to make fun of my physical appearance, and others would laugh at my low IQ.

I developed an inferiority complex and social anxiety problems because of the aforementioned reasons, leading me to freak out in a group of at least three people.

As I grew up, I looked around my society and realized that this was not happening to me, but to the vast majority of other children. Perhaps because of the lack of quality education and awareness among the public on how many destructive effects this can bring in the future.

Our growing obsession with the English language is another reason for developing the inferiority complex in many youngsters. We consider those successful who have a strong command in every aspect of the English language, speaking especially.

2. Mistreatment Of Minority Groups In My Country

Not only this, but you might also witness the rising prejudicial treatment of minority communities in my country, Pakistan, which has led me to make such an odd career choice. And I belong to one, which is brutally treated in many regions of Pakistan.

When I was young, my family and I lived in a slum area of Karachi (also known as the City of Lights), where a mostly illiterate neighborhood surrounded us.

However, our neighbors were amicable and kind towards us; a point in our life came when the next door targeted our faith. Hence, we had to migrate to a better area.

Our neighbors started targeting our faith because they were getting brainwashed by their political leaders and the so-called religious clerics around us. They claimed to be preaching Islam but not really following it themselves.

Phew! Those days were horrifying for us as we never knew when we would get attacked.

The minority groups in my country have faced high level discrimination for decades, which seemed very unjustifiable to me. And now, I aim to address this issue in my country.

The jealousy for the minority groups or the personal interest of hate-favoring leaders has led to severe discrimination against the minority community. The religious restriction and hatred for the minority groups do not allow the minority to practice its faith openly.

If they do it openly, they are sentenced to many sanctions and thrown behind bars for more extended periods. The punishment is not limited to imprisonment only, but some are sentenced to death also, which is disappointing for everyone.

Forced conversion reports have been persistent for decades in rural areas of Pakistan.

These are somewhat unspoken realities that I want to address in the future and fix this issue so that such severely treated communities can serve the country without the fear of being called anti-state.

I have mentioned “somewhat unspoken realities” above because only the general public raises concerns against these realities. Still, the officials don’t take any reasonable action to cure the defect.

Laws are very rigid in Pakistan; we should never hold back because of our pessimistic fears and thoughts. Who else will take a stand if we don’t?

3. Outdated Courses And No Conscience Education In Schools

As I already mentioned, the deficiency of skill gaining ability persists only because of the non-availability of quality and conscious education.

The curriculum of most schools is outdated, like, for example, the Computer course of the ninth standard still contains information on floppy disk and old generation computers.

And there is no information on advanced technology released years ago, like tablets and software- one of the leading causes of my country being far behind the others.

I have also seen many youngsters who cannot process critical thinking because the current education system has not trained them to gain the essential skills, such as communication, leadership, and analysis.

4. The High Trend of Bullying and Harassment in Pakistan

The other problem is that there is an absence of moral and ethical attitudes towards the other members of the society that are vital for living a standard life, which includes, but is not limited to, bullying and harassment.

I mean the basic understanding of right and wrong; for instance, body shaming or mocking is like bullying, which is not cool. Still, our people consider it to be cool.

For me, it was the constant mental torture that shattered my confidence in various forms. Like, my school teachers had been scolding my peers and me for not achieving good grades, which had lowered our self esteems.

As a result, competing with others gives me the ultimate apprehension of being judged, affecting our emotional well-being and social and academic functioning.

People don’t realize that such a norm is terrible for those being targeted, which further develops anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts in others.

They don’t even imagine how they are playing with the emotions and thoughts of others by mocking or shaming them, sometimes because of the lack of awareness. And other times, some people are always searching for opportunities to belittle others to let them down, which is because of the innate grudge.

If you’re obese, skinny, or mentally weak, you’re not safe from the toxicity of our people, not even from your school staff.

Even our parents, schoolteachers, and peers pressurize us to obtain good grades by always passing demeaning remarks on achieving bad grades in school.

I don’t blame our parents and teachers, but what I blame is that the institutions do not conduct awareness and training programs for our parents and teachers.

5. Lack of Proper Career Counseling

Yes, this is true that most Pakistani youth cannot access a guide on a perfect career path, even in renowned educational institutions in Pakistan.

And this, of course, sounds strange that even many reputable institutes have failed to provide their students with proper career counseling. The issue has also led many youngsters into severe depression and frustration as they cannot find a suitable job.

The lads are making very blind shots in every discipline. They can neither understand their strengths and weaknesses nor have clear objectives of what they want to be and what they could be.

Many peers follow the paths of their parents without even having any interest in that path, because of family pressure or because of no other choice available, which is also the reason for many destructive personalities and futures.

Therefore, the institutions need to deal with this harsh reality by providing quality counseling services to their students and offering parenting workshops.

I have inserted the parenting workshops because sometimes the parents pressure their children to follow a particular career path, regardless of whether or not their children are comfortable with that field and whether their future would be bright or dark.

Now to conclude my inspirations for choosing Educational Policies and Leadership as a career after legal studies, I should recall all the factors here as well, so you don’t need to go back to reread those, which are:

1. My Unfortunate Background Killed My Inner Self 2. Mistreatment Of Minority Groups In My Country 3. Outdated Courses And No Conscience Education In Schools. 4. The High Trend of Bullying and Harassment in Pakistan. 5. Lack of Proper Career Counseling.

That’s it! Now, it’s your turn to look for some aspirations before heading for a career choice and write that down to influence others, like me.

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