Parents push kids into mid-stream crisis Unable to cope with science, professional courses, students desperate to switch streams

Parents push kids into mid-stream crisis

Unable to cope with science, professional courses, students desperate to switch streams

After scoring 94% in her SSC exams, Avantika Rane, 16, a Kalyan resident, opted for science in her FYJC because of pressure from her parents. In less than two months, she was struggling to keep up with the course work. Now, she desperately wants to switch to commerce mid-term. But she is not getting admission in any college. “I struggled in physics. The pressure got so much that I was scared to write my exams, fearing low marks. I took up science because I got good percentage. But I don’t think I am cut out for it,” she says. Colleges admit that in the last two months they have seen many cases of students switching streams after finding themselves unable to cope with the syllabus, particularly those in science and professional courses. Varun Chowdhary says his parents pushed him into taking up Bachelor of Management Studies. But now, in his second year, he is struggling to keep up with the course demands. “We have to give projects and make presentations almost every day. I have not been able to get a good night’s sleep. I am not even interested in studying management. Now, I am going to complete my SYBCom through distance education,” he says. Principals say parents are pushing their aspirations on to their children without taking the child’s aptitude into consideration. Minu Madlani, principal of LS Raheja college, Juhu, says that they recently had two such cases in their college. “One student had taken up information technology. She started crying and said she couldn’t cope up with it. Luckily, we were able to help her take up another subject,” says Madlani. However, students, too, are making uninformed choices. “We had a lot of cases of students switching over from maths to psychology because they thought psychology was ‘easy and scoring’. Often, students have no idea what a course entails. They simply enrol because their parents say so or because their friends are taking it up,” says Harsha Mehta, principal of SIES College, Sion. Psychologist Seema Hingorrany says, “Instead of looking at their child’s aptitude, parents are looking at his/her percentage while selecting a stream. Students are conditioned to believe that only a certain stream or subject is the road to success. Parents should stop reflecting their insecurities on to their children.” She warns that such children get hooked to anxiety pills or go into depression, and may even turn suicidal.