The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : There are not many takers for Biology

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 19, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

There are not many takers for Biology

Meera Srinivasan

educationplus

PURE SCIENCE: Recent statistics show that students opting for biology have gone down by 40 per cent. Photo: S. Sivasaravanan

Chennai: "I want to become a doctor." Till a few years ago, most students could be heard saying this. Once every student's dream, Medicine may soon lose its demand, considering the drop in the number of students opting for Biology in Class XI.

Much to the surprise of academicians, a significant decline in the number of takers for the subject has been observed. Principal of D.A.V. Boys Senior Secondary School C. Satish says there is a 25 per cent decrease in the number of students opting for Biology, compared to last year. "In our State Board schools (of the D.A.V. group), the number of students choosing Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology-group has gone down by 40 per cent," he says.

The reason?

Even in the State Board Higher Secondary examinations this year, a total of 1,69,161 students appeared for the Biology paper. According to Director of Government Examinations Vasanthi Jeevanandam, the number of students appearing for the subject has gone down by about 15,000. School heads and analysts attribute the decrease to the growing opportunities in the Information Technology sector. While a student of medicine is in the final year, some of their batch mates have already completed engineering and found a good job. As a result, more students prefer to opt for the Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Computer Science combination.

Salem-based career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi says attractive pay scales and wide range of opportunities available in the IT sector give students the impression that Computer Science is a more feasible option.

"Not just engineers, even B. Sc. and BCA graduates get placed in good IT companies with reasonable pay packets," he says. Even top residential schools around Nammakal have observed a considerable drop in the number of students opting for biology, he notes.

Better job prospects

NASSCOM's prediction that there would be a shortage of manpower in the IT industry in the coming years has given students more confidence about job prospects in the sector.

The number of students who took the Computer Science examination (as part of the State Board Higher Secondary Examination) this year was 26,696 more than the number last year.

The trend would not only result in a significant drop in cut-off scores for medical and dental admissions. It would also influence admissions into paramedical courses. "There will be hardly any takers for courses such as agriculture, veterinary sciences and alternative medicine," Mr. Gandhi says, adding, "Courses in life sciences will also have fewer applicants." In addition to this, academicians foresee a setback in research and a paucity of teachers in these subjects.

A temporary phase?

Though a cause for concern, academicians see this change in preference as a temporary phase. Chairperson of Higher Secondary Zoology Text Book Committee and former head of Zoology Department at Government Arts College (Nandanam), P. Sargunam Stephen, says the situation is bound to change during the next couple of years.

"This is a temporary phase. Students who are genuinely interested in the subject will opt for it no matter what. Moreover, only research in Biology and medicine can give an answer to epidemics and concerns such as global warming."

With medical tourism coming up in a big way, the demand for experts in medicine and paramedical streams will be very high, he adds.

And with the inclusion of chapters on Immunology, Microbiology, environmental issues, Biotechnology and Genetics in the enriched Biology syllabus, the subject has only become more interesting and relevant.

Enriched subject

Principal of P.S. Senior Secondary School Vijayalakshmi Srivatsan also feels the fall in demand for Biology is temporary.

"Though we have more students opting for Computer Science, we have a constant number (25-30) students opting for Biology every year." She says that while a computer course may be completed at any recognised coaching institution, Biology can be taught only in school.

More prospects

"It will never come in the way of a student's prospective job in the IT sector. They can still take up the job."

In the long run, she sees Biology as having more prospects due to advancements in areas such as Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering.

The demand in the IT sector is controlled by the global market scenario, while the demand for doctors, paramedical professionals, researchers and teachers is determined by local factors, she adds.

"Though a course in medicine, and later, specialisations may take close to 10 years, once the student is done, sky is the limit!"

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