Results of Class 10 are now out and it is time for students to make a choice between science and commerce who are confused about WHICH STREAM TO CHOOSE AFTER CLASS X?
For many students, humanities is not even within their purview list of consideration. Academicians feel that humanities’ subjects like geography, history, sociology and psychology, are increasingly being given a short shrift. “Students are conditioned by parents and even schools, at times, to only pick science or commerce. This is not healthy and could have serious implications for the future.Earlier, at least those who aspired for the civil services used to opt for such subjects.But even that is on the decline now. I have been meeting civil services aspirants who don’t have a grounding in humanities and are unaware of how society functions; they don’t realise that studying sociology could have taught them lessons in managing people. I don’t know what changes these bureaucrats of the future are going to bring about,” said an educationalist, E S Ramamurthy.
Philosophy as a higher education choice was once the `in’ thing. But now it all seems to be a thing of the past, said the professor and head, department of anthropology, University of Madras, Sumathi S. “It all boils down to what the student will earn. With humanities not being considered as a lucrative choice, the traffic is more towards engineering and science,” added Sumathi.
Not just the students, the teachers are also not aware of the opportunities that humanities offer. “When teachers, who are supposed to be the guiding force for children, are in the dark about humanities, where do we see an interest spiking?” asked Sumathi. A student of a CBSE School said that his school had coerced him to choose science over humanities.
The principal of Chettinad Vidyashram,Amudhalakshmi S, however said that there has been a turnaround and things are looking up for humanities. “We started the humanities group about a decade ago. We offer economics, sociology and psychology as core subjects, while for electives one could go for legal studies, political science or history. Initially the response was lukewarm with one or two students evincing interest. Now the response is overwhelming. About 40-50 Class 10 students who got their results recently have signed up.”
Amudhalakshmi also said that the low interest could also be due to the fact that including the top Schools of the city, there are very few schools offering humanities as an option.
SOURCE: http://goo.gl/ygYQKi
