Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.

Education institutions play a cardinal role in the life of students. Schools help in developing the overall personality of students, exposing them to various fields of study, etc. However, they should not discourage students to study subjects in which they are likely to fail because, the basic purpose of schools is to increase the interest of students in various fields of study and not to intimidate them. Education institutes should pave the way of their students so that the student can succeed in his/her field of study.

The term ‘success’ very is subjective. It may mean monetary gains for one person and, respect and reputation for others. Moreover, who will decide that a student will succeed in his chosen field of study? Teachers? Well, what if there is a student who is good in physics as well as he/she is good looking; so that one teacher encourages him/her to pursue a career in physics as it may some day make him win a nobel prize and other encourages modelling just for money. This will not encourage him/her but also increase his/her confusion.

The old apothegm, “Failure is the first step towards success” holds true in every part of life. There are many scientists, innovators whose first step to success was failure. If someone would have daunted them about their field of study, humans would have been deprived of electricity, telephones, cars and many other inventions that make our life easy.

Who knows where a student will succeed? Educational institutions may encourage their student, who is good at maths but is just a tyro in English literature and is passionately in love with it, to pursue his career in maths. But because of his zealous attitude towards English literature he is more likely to succeed in this very field. Teachers would not have thought that Beethoven, a dumb, would create the most classic symphonies in the world. Who knows where success is hidden!

As the old adage goes, ‘Success is often a miss-step in the right direction’; preplanning for success is futile. Success, being a subjective term, educational institutions should not dissuade students about their field of study but rather schools should strengthen the foundation of that student’s field of study which he/she may eventually choose.