The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A path driven by parental pressure

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 16, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A path driven by parental pressure

Akhila Seetharaman

When you talk of higher education, Hobson's choice acquires new meaning — engineering or medicine.

CHENNAI: Bringing up the rear of his class at the end of the sixth semester, Mathew Roy (name changed on request) doesn't regret choosing engineering, despite the fact that it wasn't his idea. "I wanted to get a bachelors degree in Business Administration or a B. Com," says this son of a businessman.

"But my mother told me to take engineering, so I did. Within engineering I wanted to do mechanical but my father liked ECE, so I took it." Even with a backlog of six papers, Mathew feels happy that he is fulfilling his `parents' wish'.

Many parents insist that they give their children unlimited freedom when it comes to deciding what they want their life's work to be. Engineering or medicine: the decision is entirely left to them. This is where the tragedy lies. Breaking away from the given options is not an option. As a result, `professional' courses swallow up not only many potential artists, writers and musicians but also potential physicists, zoologists and economists.

Jayshree completed ECE in 1994, after great pressure from her parents.

She had a flair for language and wanted to study literature. Nevertheless, she did reasonably well and went on to pursue an M.B.A and subsequently moved to the United States.

But her heart has never really been in her chosen area of work. Now, spurred on by her parents, her sister is also studying to be an engineer. Prof. C. Rathnasabapathy, principal of Velammal Engineering College, says he comes across such cases every day. A student with innovative ideas in mechanical engineering ended up in IT because his father thought it was a better bet.

"Another student wanted to study electronics, communications and electrical engineering, not for any other reason, but because that was what both his sisters had done," says Prof. Rathnasabapathy.

Very few students have an innate urge to take a particular branch of engineering, he says. "Each student must be given the chance to realise his potential," he says. Parents must allow their children to develop passion for subjects they are inclined towards, and encourage them."

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