BENGALURU: Every year the SSLC and PUC results are out, students and their parents experience a steady rise in their adrenaline levels. They are tensed about the future and are at the crossroads.
Having worked as a teacher for four decades, I have observed the panic on the faces of my friends and colleagues, whose children are on this threshold. As parents, it is essential to ponder over the situation with a clear perspective. Lest we make the mistake of putting our children in the wrong train to lead their lives.
They would then end up with an engineering degree like the character Farhan Qureshi (played by Madhavan) in the Hindi film 3 Idiots, where the character was really an excellent wildlife photographer. We have this bandwagon effect and that actually kills many careers.
There are many roads one can take for a career. Engineering, medicine and management cannot be the only destinations for everyone. I know a brilliant chemical engineer who is now an accomplished economist working with me. We must realise that the best careers can be made in many areas like economics, public administration, commerce, applied arts, architecture and skill-based vocational courses.
There is a dearth of people power in the market and there is a heavy glut in the usual choices of engineering, medical or management. We have recently started MSc in economics programme at PES University which is in great demand. Such courses give greater scope to develop.
The question my friends and colleagues ask is how do we understand the choice of the course for our child? This question requires active participation of the child. Parents must look into the likings and inclinations of the child before pushing him or her into a wrong bandwagon.
In the coming years we are likely to face a crunch in the number of technicians (who understand machines), administrators and social scientists who can understand the issues confronting the society. There are career guidance experts who interact with students and guide them, but we must also interact with these experts with an open agenda and not answer the questions from a pre-decided perspective.
There are many attractive opportunities in social sciences, humanities and skill-based courses. We are not standing in front of a dark alley but we have many choices ahead of us. And this is also true for those who do not make it through the examinations.
R S Deshpande
Director, Centre for Development Studies, PES University