Soon after refusing to recognise the degrees of Sikkim Manipal University graduates, the Royal Civil Service Commission has dropped another damper.

This time, it is on the 399 graduates of Bhutanese and Himalayan Studies from the College of Language and Cultural Studies. The commission maintains that these graduates are not eligible for postgraduate diploma in education (PGDE) in History.

However, it offers graduates who are interested in teaching History, other courses such as Guidance and Counseling and Public Administration.

The commission has stated its reasons and appears firm on it. While it may have set the bar high for graduates, it needs to expound its reasons further. The college has sought answers on whether the commission is questioning the quality of the course or the quality of the aspects of history that is taught as part of the course.

Whatever aspect of the course the commission may be questioning, it must also explain why and how this issue persisted when the commission was already aware about it after the first batch of BHS graduates graduated. The Royal University of Bhutan and the college must also be able to answer why they were unable to address this issue when it was first raised.

The lack of communication or miscommunications if any between the agencies over this has misled students to pursue a course that appears to offer them little choice. Without assessing their competence to teach the subject, it would be wrong to base their eligibility to perform, on their History marks. The commission needs to be more progressive in the way it assesses a programme’s value to a course that graduates aspire to enroll in.

All graduates, who get through the civil service examinations, deserve a chance to choose their course of study. It is a shame when courses designed at home for its children are considered ineffective for employment. It is a pity that we are wasting talent and resources for want of progressive assessment tools.

At a time when our high unemployment rate remains arrested, the employment agencies, be it the civil service or the corporate and private sector must not deprive any graduate of a chance to try. The commission cannot take consolation on the perception that the civil service remains the most sought after sector for employment. Nor can the commission and the corporate sector take solace in the fact that we have thousands of graduates vying for jobs job in the civil service.

It is time that all agencies work together to ensure that our graduates get a chance to try for employment in every sector they aspire to. The civil service must keep pace with change, the courses our children are studying and the mode of education because the society has changed.

Teaching History has been problematised enough. It is time we come together for a solution.