Neglect of humanities

FOR every Eliza Bansal from Lehragagga village in Sangrur who had stars in her eyes as she topped the AIIMS entrance examination, there are many children in the district who must still be floundering around, unable to fathom how to go about chasing their dream of becoming a historian or unravelling the social tangles that the country is grappling with. For every Pranav Goyal of Panchkula who aced the JEE (Advanced) test, there are children with matching aptitude and zeal, raring to acquire wings to access the window of opportunity offered by various streams of liberal arts and pure sciences: a study of a culturally-rich ancient language is equally absorbing and rewarding than handling a test tube in a laboratory to make new discoveries. While it is perfectly fine to shower accolades on the young doctors and engineers-in-the-making, the vacuum in pure sciences and liberal arts is likely to atrophy the faculty of creative thinking and also our quest as a nation to create world-class scientists, researchers and economists.

Our school educational system has neglected non-science, non-commerce students. Over the years, the state seems to have stopped paying the same attention to liberal arts and pure sciences as it does to those opting for engineering and medicine. Not only most schools lack quality teachers at the most formative stage — higher secondary level — but also students are discriminated against in matters of stipends and scholarships, as the funds are mostly funnelled towards the applied sciences side. This bias will lead to a vicious circle of mediocre graduates getting into the job market and, in turn, giving substandard output. The twisting of historical facts to make us believe in our intellectual prowess during the ancient times — the flights, plastic surgeries, Internet, live broadcasting etc — is one byproduct of the prevailing mediocrity.

There is also this unsubstantiated belief that a degree in arts will limit career choices and not be monetarily beneficial. A Canadian study has found that students in humanities and social sciences earn lesser, but have more career stability. They are insulated from the boom-and-bust cycle that engineers are subjected to.