The recently announced SSLC results in Kerala were a great leap forward for many. More than 90 percent of the students for the exams came out successfully for the first time in the history of Kerala. Having witnessed the increasing priority given to education by Keralites I was not amazed.
Making every child into a professional has become an obsession with parents. This obsession has pushed education to the No. 1 item in our list of priorities for the majority. Unfortunately in this undesirable melee the social aspects of education, along with individual children’s excellence in nonengineering/medical subjects are neglected and ignored. If we allow things to continue in the same direction, a sociological disaster could become a future certainty.
Academically brilliant children are herded toward professional colleges of engineering and medicine. Often the others are reaching for courses in pure sciences, teaching, applied arts, media studies etc. Recently, I happened to visit a few higher secondary schools in Kerala to interact with students and teachers as part of a study conducted by a corporate management of schools. I found the children from arts and commerce groups suffering from a kind of inferiority complex in comparison with their counterparts from science groups.
Most of them looked pathetic when I asked why they had selected arts or commerce. Only an insignificant few dared to declare that they were there by choice. The rest replied with gloom that their poor scores in science and mathematics made them ineligible for science studies hence their reluctant entry into arts or commerce. I tried my best to stoke their self-esteem and make them aware of their potential and its prospects but without much success.
If we allow this scenario to continue, soon our teachers will be exclusively from academically weaker sections of our student community. Brilliant minds who could have made great teachers could be passing their days as lukewarm doctors or engineers. Academically poor teaching can never produce talented students. Mediocrity will rule our educational institutions. Stagnation could multiply like cancer throughout our academic world causing an inevitable rot from the roots. There could be an eventual shortage of teachers, scientists, artists, boosting their remunerations according to demand and supply logic. Parents need to consider this aspect too.
Engineers and doctors alone cannot make a healthy society. Along with them a healthy society requires economists, sociologists, teachers, management experts, creative writers, musicians, media professionals, physicists, artists, theologians, religious leaders, political leaders etc. Unless we distribute our brilliance equally among various faculties to generate these talented individuals, our progress as a balanced society will be in severe trouble.
The solution is to encourage and allow the younger generation to choose the course of their education according to their talents and tastes. In order to facilitate this healthy order, we, the parents or society in general, must learn to accept the brilliance of an engineer or doctor or economist or teacher or a writer with equal respect and gratitude.
Government and industry should act in a responsible manner to provide competent remuneration to nonengineering professions in order to attract the brilliant. Academic freedom for budding talents is mandatory for the integrated growth and development in any society.
