Rashi was the only child of her parents. Her parents were doctors. It was an unspoken decision that she will also get into medicine. Rashi studied hard and did get into a medical college. In the second year, she failed. All hell broke loose at home with her parents accusing her for not working hard and not focusing. Two days later, she jumped off from her balcony. The only child of her parents was no more.
Let’s examine this case. The unspoken rule of doctors paving way to next generation of doctors, the undue pressure to excel, the social pressure are a few causes that triggers such suicides. Well, there is nothing wrong with one studying to become a doctor. Apart from it being a noble profession, it takes years of hard work and dedication. But is it necessary for an individual to become one just because it is his/her parents’ profession? In the above case, had her parents tried to find out which stream Rashi was interested in, the story might have been different. According to statistics, there are more than 14,000 suicidal deaths by students due to parental pressure every year. The numbers increase by the year and these are only reported cases. There might be many more that goes unreported.
The need of the hour is a holistic way of examining our decisions and judgements when it comes to the career choices of our children. Gone are the times when we had the perception of the 90% and above opting for Science, 70-89% opting for Commerce and the rest choosing Arts as their stream. Today our children have a variety of fields to choose from, according to their interests. Now, the emphasis is on the phrase “according to their interests”. Will every parent allow their children to even explore what their interests or strengths are? This is a question that every parent must address.
Indeed an education planning has to be personalised and not generic. A systematic approach of identifying the best career streams is needed. It has to be a customised programme with a very scientific method to ascertain the individual’s abilities. The method adopted for the same is fingerprint profiling.
Fingerprint profiling is a tool that is used to understand the skill and competence of a child. Some of the key areas ascertained by this tool are:
- Learning and Communication Skills
- Type of Quotient & their diffrent Levels
- DISC Profiling
- Achievement style
- Action behaviour
- Ascertain whether the child is rational or emotional
- Activeness of 5 senses
After analysing the above areas, the apt career for the student is derived at. Once the career choice is identified, the stream selection is done to achieve that career. This is followed by subject selection. The academic and non academic activities are accordingly planned.
Over a period of time, the programme selection is done, followed by university selection and the country selection.
In today’s time, this kind of programme is very relevant due to many reasons like rise in single child families, global competition, education emerging as a complex arena, new opportunities surfacing and expensive education system. Hence, the return on investment of the parents in such a programme is justified. We can term this solution to the current scenario as education portfolio management.
In the present education system, the tools have changed but not the approach. Also, upbringing of the child plays a very important role. As its rightly said ‘a child cannot be made someone, but can be helped to be someone.’ The change needed is in the approach rather the methods. The methods make learning different and maybe interesting. But the problem remains. It does not focus on the strengths that can be identified and tapped. The education portfolio management focuses on a child’s strength and guide on those lines so that the right career choices are made. This will result in the individual emerging as confident and successful in his/her chosen field.
-Makarand Bhatt
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