Recently, many of my students contacted me for advice on which option to choose in 11th standard. All confused minds!! They all knew one thing for sure that they want to do engineering and only Computer Science stream. Thanks to the IT sector booming in India, it has heightened the expectations of the youngsters to that level, that they do not see any other field except computers, IT. These are the buzz words. Thus, they all have to concentrate on PCM!! (Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry)
With IT companies giving such attractive remunerations, who would not think of it as the first option, or may I say, the only option!! The common notion being, spend 4 years in an engineering college and lo! land up in an IT job and then life is set. The best thing is the youngsters are absolutely clear of this path. I guess our awareness level was less compared to today's school girls and boys.
I wonder how much of this will hold true after 5 years? Is the scene going to remain the same? IT sector has definitely opened up lots of opportunities for today's youth and has given the confidence to the youngsters that they can procure job acquiring certain skills. The rest they manage once they enter the jobs. But will the vacancies be as many as it is today?
Back to the confusion of the students. In order to give complete concentration to PCM, should they opt for engineering drawing, physical education, economics, computer science? Surprisingly, the top of the order is won by physical education followed by engineering drawing and then computer science!! The explanation of the order being pretty obvious.
Most of the students have enrolled in FIITJEE or Brilliants for preparation for IIT. With pressure of clearing CBSE boards after two years and to be the top ranker in the engineering entrance tests, can you blame them?
What should be the best advice to my students and all such students of today? Are there any other avenues besides IT? Can they look beyond computer science engineering? What are the various allied courses for which they can explore?
In my opinion There is no solution. The market driven force has attracted every body's attention and even the common man (Even when illiterate) knows money is required for living and the philosophy will not help. He wants every individual to be an engineer or a graduate to land in a good job. Who cares if society dies.-pollution, shortage of water, shortage of research personnel, shortage of Good teachers,bad way of driving, driving on pavement,no place for pedestrians.
ReplyDeleteThe confusion at 10 th standard is obvious as it is a turning point .
I remember a story.
Sita asked Rama that in his kingdom everybody must be happy and hence all the things are to be supplied from the treasury. After all, the feminine logic persisted and the joru ka gulam had to concede . Several years over ,there was a leakage in the palace. Sita ordered that it should be repaired urgently.
Alas whole state was in search of a mason and could not find one because every body had become lazy.
And Sita was convinced that College for masons must be started and all masons will be paid 100% mre than the best CEO of IT sector if they get a dgree in that specalisation.
Then there were 100 private colleges and there was a demand for the seats paying donation.
The parents took loan to pay for the programme, but alas there were no faculty and infrastructure and ther was only computers and no sand , cement, etc.
Do you like this fool's foolish story.
Now how advice people.
With best wishes for the future effort.
Thandaveswara
For the students based in India, there are various options other than IT, which students can take up. For instance study in genetic research and microbiology. Another sector set to boom would be the drug-manufacturing and its marketing.
ReplyDeleteIn non-technology areas, one should look seriously for higher studies in Economics, (esp. micro-economics) and Commerce. Our country desperately needs such strategy decision making managers.
IT in India, is only a service sector. It only serves to provide maintenance/enhancements to already developed software. Even the big organizations like Microsoft, Google, Adobe and Oracle keep the "real" stuff in their base countries. A chance to work on those stuffs is obviously reserved for the brightest brains of IITs etc. and that too outside India. Students must realise that not everyone of them is that much gifted.