Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Rush for 'Professional Courses' at all cost!?!

Akila Writes:

It so happens that at this point of time i have 5 youngsters in the immediate family circle who have completed their plus 2 this year. Let me start with good things first. My niece no.1, is a parent's dream of a child - Attitude-wise and performance-wise. Her parents were cool and confident that they wouldn't have to go rushing after management quotas. They were right, she's scored 97% and can get through comfortably.
The second of my nieces is a severly traumatised girl, because of a very unreasonable parent who made life living hell for everyone in the family. None of us even consider her a normal child, but she's gotten through with 87% which is amazing, given her circumstances. I am yet to know what will happen to her and can only keep my fingers crossed that she isn't forced willy nilly into something that someone with no knowledge of today's world forces on her.

the third girl is a doctor's daughter whose parents were on the wall about management seats, but i don't know what happened now, cos they're hotfooting it to negotiate for a medical seat which has been pulled down from 25 lakhs to 20 lakhs now.
the fourth is a nephew who after 14 years of lack lustre living suddenly became conscientious about his life . before writing his exams he gave his parents to understand that he is the latest wonder in nature, but after his exams he said maybe they had better book a seat in the management quota. Having talked nanotechnology non stop, he insisted on bio-techonology from a particular institute and got his parents to spend 9 lakhs on a seat which they believed was money worth investing until his results came today and he's just scraped through in all the major subjects. He has not even done biology in his 11th and 12th.
The last is a nephew whose parents paid 3 lakhs for a EEE seat in a college far far away from home, because the ones closer home insisted on 80% of marks and said they would refund the donation otherwise, even though they demanded much less than what his parents ended up paying.
What prompted me to record all this is this:
The unquestioning readiness with which the parents of the non-performing kids sprang into action and started working out a solution for their seats. What makes the Indian parent think that he must dump all his life's savings on someone who doesn't deserve it in anyway? Is there no right and wrong about it?
What makes the kid accept a largesse like this as his birthright? Is this how he is conditioned to think that he will and must always receive a free lunch?
I dont' even want to talk about the inequality of those whose parents cannot afford such expensive gifts of life? But what kind of a society are we if we always give money the power to overcome incompetence?

(I am posting this for Akila who has sent me this write-up, hopefully, she will start her own posts soon)

1 comment:

Ram said...

Hi Ram,

This is regarding the article below.Lets get one thing clear, marks are
certainly not the basis to judge a students capability(in the current system
of examination).there is no guarantee that a good mark gathering student, is
a good worker.(I don't use the word Student, cause a student at the end of
his life should be able to work well in the industry or profession that he
picks up)

A doctor besides being good at academics should be able to communicate well,
connect with his patients and above all be ethical.So is true for other
professions as well.

Lets come to the second issues, child wasting parents money.I would
pin-point it to lack of career counselling by parents and School
administration.How do you help a child of 17-18 choose his career path , not
being affected by the status symbols that we all tend to attach certain
professions.And when a student sees his friends pick a certain path, he too
will tend to think about it.(Peer pressure plays an important role specially
for this age group).

Third we all need to look beyond engineering, medicine, B.Sc into different
professions , each of whose importance cannot be diluted , in spite of the
fact that they are not popular.

I would suggest students to go through Employment News and Opportunities(The
Hindu/Times of India) for a couple of months , to understand the need and
existence of varied professions.

In the long run, how far you can go is determined by how quickly you adapt
to the ever changing world.
And finally Bio-technology does not require one to know biology when gaining
admission, the Institute teaches biology during the under graduation course.

Sonal