Higher Study Choices

 

Until 2000, students securing good grades in SLC (now SEE) would choose Science as their priority subject in intermediate or 'plus two' level. Science was, and is, a gateway to engineering, medicine, and other areas that would yield better incomes to professionals. Those not wanting to join the stream would opt for Maths or English as their major in Humanities. Subjects like Nepali Literature, Political Science, and Economics were treated as inferior ones. 

Education as a stream at the university would be ranked at the bottom in terms of the student choices, while Management was something that society would mention in an adage, 'A wayward son ends up in commerce, while a wayward daughter becomes a staff nurse'. The second part of the saying had its roots in social concepts that daughters should be limited to household chores, not work outside. 

Sociology never received the respect from the students and society. For many, pursuing disciplines like Sociology was just a 'timepass'. As the country entered a liberal economic regime in the early 1990s, attraction to management and commerce studies went up significantly, with many pursuing BBA or MBA. For several decades, higher study was pursued generally by a few motivated individuals whose primary intention was to broaden their knowledge and contribute to society, if possible. 

However, in modern times, education has become a tool to satisfy individual economic needs through high-income jobs. Those who pursued general subjects in Social Sciences and Education would ultimately curse themselves for choosing subjects that didn't lead to high-earning jobs. It has a significant repercussion on their psychology, confidence, and social positioning.  

Societies in the Indian subcontinent have greater respect for a few so-called 'high-profile' subjects. The society has long been disgracing its own youngsters based on the disciplines they pursue in their university courses. Parents, therefore, guide or force their kids to take up subjects that command respect from society. Likewise, there is another section that had interest in humanities but pursued engineering, and failed to excel in either of them. A Bollywood blockbuster '3 Idiots' has beautifully portrayed it by telling a story of a youth who wanted to be a photographer, but his family forced him to join engineering. 

As a result, we have unsatisfied professionals and employees who keep complaining about their job mismatch, low pay, unfit/unsuitable environment for their nature. They keep on boasting that they would have done a lot better in other sectors. While a few of them have managed to satisfy their 'first love' subject/work with a part-time job or training, many have failed their employers, families, and themselves. 

In Nepal, thousands of high school science students don't join medicines or engineering in their bachelor's degrees but enroll in management, economics, or other subjects in humanities, commerce, or social science. In particular, the number of students pursuing BBA instead of medicine or engineering is increasing after completing high school in science. 

Now, we have fewer historians, linguists, geologists, and geographers. The economy is not only run by the doctors, engineers, or managers alone; it also needs sociologists, economists, linguists, educationists, planners, psychologists, and whatnot. But sadly, universities in Nepal are shutting down the departments of many such disciplines. Lower payment, lower job satisfaction, and a lack of specific skills have frustrated both the employees and employers. A change in the social mindset and workplace attitude is needed to bring about change in the scenario. There is diversity in society and in the economy, so there should also be diversity in education and disciplines. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 June 2026.