Headed for the drain?

Of late, one comes across many a happy face heading abroad for studies. The wife’s got the scholarship, and the husband is joining her in a month’s time. Or the husband’s got it, and the whole family is accompanying him to Sydney.

And so goes the story.

Scores of young Bhutanese men and women are headed abroad. And many frankly say it’s their lifetime opportunity to make some decent money, besides studies. While many will come back home after their scholarships end, there are others who say they will not be back anytime soon.

There is a growing restive crop of young talented Bhutanese who want to do better in life, and for them the country doesn’t offer much. Bhutan is developing and offers limited career opportunities. There is no dynamism in the system. A civil servant can expect to be holed up in the same dungeon-like cubicle for a decade even when he comes back after higher studies. His old foxy boss bullies him for his new knowledge. He becomes a victim of systemic redundancy.

On the other hand, the red tape and the open culture of cronyism often kill all decent dreams of rising through the ranks.  Often, people with wrong qualifications are handpicked for top jobs. Often, vacancies are tailored for someone predetermined for the post.

Until not long ago, our bureaucrats proudly said no Bhutanese would stay abroad after their studies. This was the correct thing to do in the past because you went abroad as a bonded civil servant. Today, thousands of scholarships are available online, and hundreds of Bhutanese are winning them every year. This is precisely the group that says it will not be back home anytime soon. Reasons are all too obvious.

We are staring at a terminal brain drain in the offing. Should talented people choose to leave the country for better career choices abroad, we will be left with a significant vacuum given our small pool of qualified human resource. This is why we need to invest in retaining the brains. If not, we might one day become a wasteland of mediocrity.