Look before you leap

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Look before you leap
— Choice of a career: What & Where ? —

By: Oinam Anand *

I have got a friend. His home is in the next town, some three or four kilometres down from my residence. He always carries a smiling visage whenever we meet. Money is no problem for him. His problem is his deep concern about the education of his children, one son and one daughter.

We were classmates during our high school days. He was not so brilliant student in the school. He managed to pass every examination by copying from others and I was one who had willingly helped him during his examination days. Luckily, he had failed in the Matric examination and did not continue to study further.

'Luckily', in the sense that if he had passed the Matric examination and had continued his further studies he would end up as a petty Government employee. But fate had another decision for him. He dropped schooling and became an active worker of a politician of our Constituency in the early 80s.

When the politician had won the election and became a Cabinet Minister and he sprang up as one of the Minister's favourite aide and in a couple of years he became a well-known Special Contractor. Now he owns a large area of land, a multi-storeyed building and new model cars.

In outward appearance and manners there exist a sharp difference between his life style and mine. But emotionally there is still a deep attachment in our hearts because I have always had a real soft spot for him in my heart and I am sure he will also feel the same.

As God has given me enough to meet both my ends and to be frank I feel content at how my fate has put me and I have no remorse in my life. But to my friend, it seems a certain thought haunts him always. That is, he still thinks himself illiterate. In spite of his wealth and amenities in life he still thinks himself as an imperfect man in the society. For this reason in the beginning of my essay I have mentioned that he is deeply concerned with the education of his children.

Whenever we got spare hours, in coffee houses and other places, we shed our belongings - he took off his cloth of being a rich man and I took off my idea of being a man of erudition and we became as innocent and intimate as we were in our childhood days and spent many hours in the nostalgic remembrance of the past.

Some days back, he had visited me. That day my friend was bearing a rather serious look on his face. When I enquired about his unexpected visit he told me that his son had just appeared the XII Examination and he had to manage for the future study of his son.

He wanted me to suggest a few names of reputed College and engineering institutes in the country. He left happily when I assured him that I would certainly help him and thus postponed the matter of our discussion upto the declaration of the result of the XII examination.

My friend was one among the thousands of parents who are looking forward to the future career of their children. In today's competitive world securing admission in a reputed college and University calls for excellent scores in the relevant entrance examination. Competition is everywhere and while it is getting tougher to dilemmas before the parents increases.

Students' life after the 10th Standard, more specially after the 12th standard mean a lot to them. There has definitely a chance to make them a better person. These two years after matriculation and the following three/four years of graduation in different fields of knowledge have been the best period in their lives.

After a long month's examination schedule, students would want to have a break. But the tight schedule of competitive examination ahead for engineering and medical streams have made most of the parents and students restless in preparing for the entrance test. In the next few weeks the result of the examination will be out. Isn't it quite natural for students and their parents to take a decision in the next few days and that would decide the kind of life they would lead in future.

The question that lies before every parents is that whether they will persuade their children to continue the general course of study. It will certainly lead their children to be just another graduate or post graduate knocking at the doors of every office seeking employment.

Whether they will insist their children to join in the race where a fortunate few who hold good positions all over the country is a tough decision for which a moments decision may depend on any of the two possibilities.

Here a dilemma still confronts the parents. Those who have got brilliant children well equipped with knowledge and skill to rub their shoulders with their equals in the examinations the percentage of success is very high. And those parents who have got clumsy children drop the idea that their children will bring the moon for them and engage their children in profitable trades.

To them a small goal that is close by can often be effective when the bigger ones seems rather a distant dream. Therefore the problem lies for the parents who have got mediocre children obtaining high second class and second class grades. They are eligible to contest the race and at the same time are not so sure about the end result.

Here I have remembered a complaint of a boy. 'I always try my best in science because my parents want me to become an Engineer or a Doctor. I cannot live to their expectation because my interest is in other field. I want to become a lawyer. I used to get sick of listening to the words of my parents telling me how well my cousins were doing in their examinations and I am the only one to defame my family.

Then, there is certainly a gap, a wide gap in the thinking of the parents and the boy. The most important thing here is the choosing of the right kind of career soon after a child has completed his/her higher secondary examination. Those who don't chalk out a successful career themselves, they land up taking the wrong education and opportunities slip by.

Oinam Anand wrote this article for The Sangai Express
This article was webcasted on April 14 28th, 2006

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