Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and suppo

“What is success”? The research has shown that success means different thing to different person such as to some it may mean getting at the top of organization while for some it may mean spiritual upliftment. Therefore, any institution, be it educational, cannot inculcate the fixed definition of success in mind. The prompt states that educational institutions have an onus to urge students to pursue in which they are likely to achieve success. In my opinion, I strongly disagree with the prompt and would argue that institutions should left the option to choose field of study as per their preferences. The reasons for my stand are mentioned in the subsequent paragraphs.

First of all, does success mean excellence? As per research findings, excellence is personal, moral, spiritual and intellectual upliftment which is at pinnacle of one’s career, success is only a meagre and sometimes insufficient component. For instance, an engineer who has performed well in his academics because of parental or societal pressure to earn a reputed degree but have penchant for wild life photography and covertly pursue it, it may happen that this person may not well perform in his education skills beyond a college and may even flounder at trifling problems. Further, a passionate artist, if forced to choose study mathematics or finance because of more lucrative career options, he may pursue these career options but every moment of his life, he would regret not pursuing his field for arts. This mournful behaviour definitely would affect his performance at work and he would be chastised more often than not. Therefore, the institutions must not encourage students to choose fields because of its reputation. It matters because institutions were developed to nurture the inherent talent and not forcing their will on students.

Secondly, does success continue forever? As per research, what successful is today, may be antiquated or vulnerable tomorrow. For instance, during the period after 1st world war, there was a push from national authorities to imbibe the nuclear engineering among students in order to develop nuclear weapons. It was highly remunerated career then. But as time passed by, peace process started, this career option started to fade away. Further, during late 90s, there was push from industry to educate students in the field of marketing research involving market surveys and field studies. Many business schools were in news for their placement records with highest ever salaries for their students were offered by companies. However, with the advent of data science and automated research, the necessity of field surveys diminished because companies started to hire people experts in reading data on social networking websites to ascertain consumer behaviour. Therefore, the educational institutions cannot persuade students to choose successful fields which may be transient. It matters because in this fast moving and well integrated countries, no career option is sustainable for long time.

Thirdly, does success leads to self-satisfaction? It may not so. For instance, the famous mathematician, Mr. Ramanujan were poor in his marks in all subjects except mathematics. And at that time it was not prudent to pursue mathematics since India was under colonial rule and therefore, no opportunity used to exist for such pure science field. His school advised and hound him to choose something else so that he could help his family to make the ends since he was from penurious background. But undeterred by these tribulations, he pursued mathematics and was offered a bachelor degree by the college in UK and for his subsequent research in mathematics he was conferred the doctorate. He became a paragon for other Indians who despite not having any formal education beyond school has made his name in the world. Had he pursued what his school advised, he would have not discovered theorems which are being used today to solve many complex problems. It is appreciable since educational institutions do not know what their students like to pursue and they do not accept the findings that passion for a field attracts the success to a man automatically.

Of course some would argue that educational entity, being the incharge of developing the next generation of knowledge must advise their students to choose career leading up to success, however, they negate the relationship between the interest of a student and an impact he can have for his inclined field of study. Many examples prove that disregarding the advice from a school and pursuing own passion actually defines success such as Mahalanobsis (the great statistician), Bill gates (founder of Microsoft), Steve Jobs (founder of Apple Inc.) and Indra Nooyi (former CEO of Pepsi Inc.). In conclusion, these institutes must realise that they are there to enhance the inherent talents and skills of students being in harmony with propriety, but not for discouraging the students to choose a field which is not popular considered its success probabilities.