The Falling Standards of our Education System - Part 3 - The Sudden Rush for Arts & Science

There was a time, in the 1990s when people were proud to say that they are engineers; admissions in any engineering college was prided as an achievement and Civil and Mechanical engineering were the most sought after course. And now, there is nothing proud in being an engineer - almost every street seems to have more than 15 to 20 engineers - and some people are too shy to tell the name of the engineering colleges they've got into and Civil or Mechanical are the least preferred courses.

Smart people have realised that the significant advantage of doing B.E has been effectively nullified by the fact that IT companies are recruiting students of Arts & Science as well, in the recent days. Moreover, it costs less and is also not as complicated as B.E to study (true, some pure science courses are a headache, but I am speaking in a general sense).

It is an established fact that the number of applications for these streams have increased manifold in the last few years [1]. B.Com remains the most sought after course. While a certain section of people do B.Com for the sake of having a degree behind their name, many others pursue it with another career in mind - such as those who want to crack IAS or IPS or CAT, etc.

While the fact that there is a change in mindset of people that engineering is not the only UG course to study, the sad news is that Arts and Science courses are not pursued for their intended purpose. Students doing pure science courses in their UG very rarely end up doing research and only a small fraction of those pursuing B.Com seem to study M.Com.

What can be done?

•  Students must be encouraged to pursue their dreams; parents must let them to! That is the biggest problem in our society: People are not clear of what they want to do and even among those who are clear of what they want to do, are not presented with an opportunity to do so.
  
• Between the time of 12th and joining a college, students must be allowed to consider an educational expert or a career counselor or at least someone with an open mind, like the principals of their respective schools to help counsel students to determine what course would be ideal for the students.
  
• The University of Madras recently announced a four year UG honours course scheme, which also has generated a considerable interest in students. Such innovations are long due in the field of Arts & Science.

 One can only hope that with the suggestions mentioned above and with the right emphasis from the media, teachers and parents, Arts  & Science courses could get their due respect in the near future.

Reference:

[1]. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article2021872.ece