Educational institutions should actively encourage their students to choose the fields of study.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address

While it is desired by the vast majority of individuals that institutions should provide the students with the option to go for their own choice of study, yet there appears to be considerable loopholes to that belief. It is of course very logical that students pursue what interests them more rather than struggling with courses they find difficult or the ones that do little to help them in their careers ahead. This way, they would get more time to invest in their preferred courses that will finally help them achieve their goals. However, this might not always be true of every student. Some might be quite unsure of their passions at the time of choosing a field of study and end up taking the wrong course. This would have devastating effects on the lives of these student and on the society as a whole.

Like Antony Robbins said, “Passion is the genesis of the genius”, any student prodigy who is given the independence to choose his or her line of interest rather than pursuing irrelevant fields of study, are much more likely to succeed in achieving the desired goals. Since passion drives a person to naturally work hard, the student who pursues a desired course of study would be automatically drawn to sedulously devote to his or her studies, as opposed to the one who is forced to take up undesirable subjects. The former ensures that the student lands up in a job that he/she likes, while the later makes it difficult for them to actively chase their dreams, finally rendering them muddled with career choices and in many situations, with poorer scores that hamper their selection in jobs or higher institutes of study.

Besides, passion also ensures that students sustain in their future jobs, with ease. While around the world, there are huge numbers of employees who are dissastisfied with their work, passionate entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are living proof of what following passion can lead students to become. Moreover, passion can relate to success in any field besides studies. The world would have been bereft of a tennis legend if Serena Williams was forced to study medicine instead of pursuing her dreams and talent.

While the above is true for students who are clear with their career paths or passions at the time of choosing their field of study, yet there might be students unaware of where their talents lie, or are simply unable to decide what field to choose for a successful future ahead, right at that point. Young, inexperienced students are generally confounded by the raft of options available and even when they might initially have an aim, they might later discover more lucrative fields that they had the knack for, but did not pursue. This presents a depressing situation wherein the students might not have the option to reverse everything from the beginning to pursue the choice they only learnt about later in their lives. Change of mind is very common and if that happens too late in the career of the student, then he/she would have to deal with an unpleasant career path. The student would then end up doing something he/she was never made for. This takes the life and enthusiasm out of individuals and finally leave little joy for the world around them as well.
Besides, as children most students are beguiled by attractive professions like medicine or engineering, but are unaware of the amount of struggle that is involved to become one of those professionals. As a consequence, when students lured by the pay scale or lifestyle of successful professionals in a field, opts to pursue the field and are then unable to cope up with the syllabus or requirements, they are thrown into a state of despair followed by a overwhelming sense of failure. This is hugely evident in the staggering student suicide rates in countries like India for instance, where students aiming for a degree from the prestigious IITs, suddenly face the unyielding syllabuses and the stringent admission testing processes. Till 2015, the IIT suicide rate reached a startling 15000. Sources claim that 90% of the suicides are due to the syllabus pressure felt by the students, and the rest 10% are drop out cases. Hence given these circumstances, it is not prudent to encourage all the students to independently pursue their preferred fields without ensuring that they are aware of the demands and requirements of pursuing the particular field.

Hence, while it is very necessary that a student is given the freedom to choose a preferred field of study, yet thorough counselling and guidance is important in order to direct them to opt for the right decision. This is because, while some students might be very perspicacious and lucid about their talents and ambitions, some others might just misconstrue between their passions and whims. The former category of students will be benefited by the independence in choosing a field, whereas, the second category might be distressed and broken because of wrong career choices. Moreover, a student seeking a single choice might be so engrossed in following the chosen path, that he/she might end up being unaware of the happenings in the rest of the world. Therefore, instead of providing the unrestricted liberty to select a particular field, educational institutes should first provide a preliminary awareness of all the possible fields students can choose from and then proceed to guide and direct them to make the right choice according to their passions, ambitions and liking, while ensuring that they reap the maximum success from the chosen path.