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Stepping up to solve a single specific academic related problem in Pakistan, I enlisted a number of problems that distracted students from their goal and threw them into an abyss of depression. Amidst the problems, the topnotch pitfall I found was lack of career counseling that created a long chain leading to other mental problems.
The prime reasons I find regarding this problem is that students are either disengaged from their career field or they are not interested in it. In fact, in our country, a lot of students choose medical or engineering without any particular reason or prior knowledge about the field of study whereas rest are unable to find out their interest. Hence, they regret pursuing it or change their field of study after bachelors.
This depicts that how little population of Pakistan which is involved in getting a higher secondary education or above, is fallen into the trap of minimum career counseling. Only three percent of students in Pakistan are exposed to career counseling facility. Rest of them follow the wish of either parents’ or educationist of their society who themselves might not have had an idea of the competition of this generation.
Collectively, school, parents, and students themselves can primarily be held responsible for this flaw. Let’s discuss one by one. First, students follow the traditional trend directed by elders or so-called erudite of their society. If not, then some choose their disciplines compatible with their gender and other join their peers’ gang. There is another group who think that doing what their crush is doing is a sign of love for them.
Many people ask for the scope in terms of employment and yet they lose their potential in such measurement scales. Next comes parents who force their children to study the subject which has either higher acceptance in society or one which they themselves wanted to pursue in past.
At times, a child is pressurized to do what his all family will. Lastly, schools nowadays focus a lot on study and grades rather than on learning. In this battle of quandaries, a child either does not perform well or even if he does, he or she remains dissatisfied.
This untapped and always ignored area should be taken into consideration by schools, Parents, government, and students themselves to achieve a successful career in life. Which will ultimately contribute to the students’ career as well as in the country’s economy.
When a child is not satisfied he either quits his/her chosen field or performs badly. In result; unemployment, lower productivity, poverty, corruption, and many other evil forces take birth in society. Since career counseling has the direct connection with the economy of a country, in short, the solutions I suggest are that students who want to pursue their higher education should be guided by their school teachers or counselors.
Schools with their limited or extended resources should either approach career counselor or outsource them. Also through various extracurricular activities and projects, schools can find out latent talent of students.
