Recently, the results of NEET, Class 12th and Class 10th were declared. In the aftermath of these results, we unfortunately, registered few student deaths in relation to “bad” or unexpected results. This trend is a constant, every year, irrespective of exam scandals, which of course worsens the problem.It cannot be quite overstressed that we are facing a structural problem when it comes to student psychology, exam stress, pompous celebrations of the “successful”, parental and societal norms and expectations, constricted employment landscape, saturation of career options and other related issues. Let us look at this problem briefly and note few things in this regard.
NEET or such exam frenzy & obsessive celebrations are problematic. The point is not to cynically dismiss individual achievements. But we need to look at the larger picture. A certain sociological setup creates a certain class of standard jobs. This creates a bottleneck for employment landscape. Instead of obsessively reifying a specific job, we should focus on expansive employment avenues. To be sure, our youth is large & (standard) options are scanty & thus “unemployment” is inevitable. Moreover, a good functional society needs diverse hands & minds; saturating them into this or that pursuit not only creates unemployment but also a dysfunctional community. We need to think beyond MBBS, Engineering, Civil Services & other related options. When we constrict “standard” (acceptable) livelihood options to two or three avenues, unemployment is inevitable not to mention the unimaginable stress that the students have to go through in securing their places in one of these limited – socially accepted – options.
The constriction of employment landscape to two or three options necessarily inflicts psychological violence upon students simply because different students have different psychological types. Not all students, by their very inherent nature, are – constitutively – made fordoing maths. Similarly, not all students are naturally talented for the arts. Since the society has narrowed down acceptable options to two or three, students are forced to follow a certain pre-decided path,violating their inherent makeup, and as a result, eventually, failing at it miserably. There is a clear structural problem, for example, within higher education, teaching different arts subjects. Since the other alternate available options are either unknown (owing to lack of exposure or due to a lack of socialacceptance), multitude of students join colleges, irrespective of the fact as to whether or not they have the passion or the talent for a particular subject.
What this does is that they end uplargely failing at it, whilst creating saturation for the other students who actually have the passion for the respective subjects. Lack of viable alternatives, forces them to opt for academics merely in the quest for employment (rather than the passion for research), which otherwise, by its very nature, (more so) in this part of the world, is the most unstable pursuitof livelihood. A proper awareness and acceptance of viable alternatives can rectify these structural problems. A lot of students, in case of the availability of viable alternatives, may not have even pursuedthe higher education; this would not only have ensured livelihood of a large chunk of our youth but it would also have significantly decreased the saturation for the passionate.
To reiterate, there is an absolute disregard for the natural psyche type of students when it comes to (peer) forcing hundreds of them into the preparation of an exam for which they are not suited. Worshipping one specific exam creates a facade of intelligence scale; as if “NEET” is the reference point for capability, potential, talent & intelligence. This supposed failure creates unimaginable self-loathing in so many students who could have done wonders in other avenues. This self-loathing occasionally transpires into suicides as well.
Intelligence & ‘qabiliyat’ have no specific scale. Intelligence has diverse expressions. Parents seem to have no idea of “personality typology”. Anyways, children face huge psychological violence in the way they are carelessly beaten into certain normative pursuits disregarding their individual unique personality types. For example, an introverted child is shamed in public or family functions for not being outspoken enough while as an extroverted child is rebuked for not being silent enough. Parents, by and large, completely ignore (or simply lack an understanding about) the fact that every child is a “type” in itself and not any ‘tabula rasa’ (blank slate). If parents do not realize it, a certain amount of psychological violence is inevitable.
All of this happens, because, parents understand that under the present circumstances only a few specific career paths lead to “izzat daar nokri”. The societal taboos relating to so-called “izzat daar” standard jobs clubbed with lack of alternative avenues, creates a pathological constriction in the lives of young students which actually stifles their actual growth & potential. 10th class, 12th class results create a wave of anxiety within students. Many people will quote ‘Virus’ from ‘3 idiots’ that “life is a race”. It is true that life itself is a struggle. But that does not mean that we will unnecessarily create unfounded – socially constructed – taboos regarding the kind of jobs that one may do, to further make the lives of students more miserable.
Since the kind of world we live in today particularly the part of the world we belong to, employment landscape is mercilessly choked & constricted by a certain sociology which has deep tentacles. It selects only few standard jobs (mostly drawing upon the popular fantasy of “thez kursi” with power gradient & a deep rooted “class” reality of society) whilst tabooing many other livelihood earning ventures, (which otherwise would create more humble dignified independent living), thus constricting the whole employment landscape.
To change a certain sociological constitution of a society takes decades because it has centuries old roots. Only if we talk about it today, we may expect some change in coming decades or else it shall continue for years to come. Status quo feeds off of its own condition such that it becomes a tightly woven web; if we, for example, take the example of marriage & how it participates, gets modified & perpetuates this particular sociological condition.
Unless and until we do not start severely critiquing our own long-held arrogant demeaning senseless taboos about careers & livelihood options & instead do not think about small viable alternative business models or private ventures, our youth will continue to be threatened by robotic exams, economic frustration, psychological violence, drug problems, incompetency in mismatched jobs & what not.
(Author has done Masters in Philosophy from the Centre for Philosophy, JNU and is currently pursuing PhD at the same centre. Feedback: [email protected])
