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Last Tuesday, our President, in his State of Union address recalled a time when there were numerous jobs available and university degrees were not mandatory. He went on to day that today the situation is different and the rules have changed.

Thanks to technological advancement, today we are highly productive. However, jobs have become scarce and tougher to obtain. From a student’s perspective, our President’s plans towards generating more jobs can be more concrete though there is no doubt things are moving in the right direction.

Students who are about to enter the job market feel that including concrete details and placing concrete goals is the only way to reduce inequality. In his address, Obama said that community as well as family plays a major role in the academic success of students. He said that every student succeeding academically must be given social awards. He then linked this concept to the higher education reform Race to the Top program.

Race to the Top program as we know stands criticized for keeping away funds from school that under perform. Our President should give concrete details on the essential difference between this program and the previous No Child Left Behind program.

Students around the nation were encouraged by our President take up the mantle of furthering education for the coming generations by taking up teacher’s role. He said that like in South Korea, teachers must be considered to be ‘nation builders’. He also said that with this view of teachers in mind, we must strive to achieve 100,000 math and science teachers. Here again, there was no concrete proposal on how this would be achieved.

He also urged the Congress to make permanent the tuition tax credit that is now at $10,000 for four years. This is a good move as taxpayer subsidies go right to the students rather than going to the banks. Any effort that is geared towards reducing higher education related financial burdens on students is indeed well appreciated.

Our President once again reiterated the importance of focusing on community colleges. He stressed their importance in providing quality vocational education. He also urged people of any age to go back to school and study through continuing education.

There is no denying that community colleges indeed are important part of our higher education system. However, there was no clear plan laid out on how he plans on increasing number of community colleges in our country. He also did not address the concerning issue of underfunding faced by most of our community colleges.

In our country today, there is increasing and expanding gap between those who have and those who do not in terms of both local and national universities. It is imperative to devise plans that will offer our students the opportunity to grow with their natural talents and contribute significantly towards the well being of our societies.

Our President’s speech provided a tentative education reform framework for the year 2011. Though his direction and ideologies are impressive, there is clearly a lack of concrete details in these policies.