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  • Category: Miscellaneous
    Points:10

      

    Why do we prefer to highlight academic qualifications?

    'You know, he is an outstanding student and always comes first in school.' That's how Mr Y described his neighbour's son. I just nodded with a smile.

    It's not at all surprising and I am sure most of you experienced the same during a conversation. When a person describes the quality or traits of a young one most of the time it's her/his academic qualities. Yes, academics and career are quite essential but I am keeping those out of this discussion. When we discuss with others, many do agree that academic qualification or achievement is not the only thing in life as there are a lot more things. Even when discussing celebrities in various fields we discuss their specific traits in their domain and not their academic achievements. Yet, when it's about a young one, be it in the family or outside, unless she/he has made a mark in other domains, mostly, we fail to recognize those talents and only talk about academics. What may be the reason behind it?
  • #775687

    Points:5
    Most of the time what the author says holds good. Many times we concentrate on the job and the qualifications of young people. When we talk about a person who concentrates on the qualification and career of the individual only. When we talk to our friends we ask them what their children are doing and ask about their qualifications and job only. This is a very common happening.
    But, of late, I am observing some change in this attitude. Parents are trying to train their children in extra circular activities. This change is mainly due to electronic media. There are many avenues to showcase the talent of the individual in other fields. My granddaughter is learning music and dance. My daughter-in-law takes videos of her when she is singing and dancing and posts on our family WhatsApp group.
    We all should start giving importance to other skills in addition to education. We also should talk about the conduct and character of the individual, I feel.
    drrao
    always confident

  • #775691

    Points:5
    We are attaching more importance to the academics currently since this is the age of the competition and without having an impressive results in our examinations, it would be difficult to get a prestigious job. Hence whatever studies we are doing we need to show the best in term of the results.
    However, it does not mean that the other activities should occupy their places in the backseats. A good performance in the academics is the important characteristic of the success but without having a sound communication skills, one cannot achieve the reasonable success. Moreover, the employers of the organisations would be more interested to know the extracurricular activities of the candidates such as the their performances in the sports in the football, cricket, volleyball etc apart from their studies.
    For a girl child, the other party would be more interested to know her more about her culinary skills so that she could manage cooking in the kitchen if such a situation arises. All her educational achievements would be meaningless if the they are not well versed with cooking, stitching and tailoring.

  • #775700

    Points:5
    This is an interesting post by the author. It is a fact of our lives that most of us only give credit to the academic success or academic qualification of a student and his performance in it. We do not ignore but at the same time we do not give any cognizance to extra curricular activities as if they have no role in shaping the future and helping in making the career of a student.
    Traditionally speaking, it was always like that in the past and there are some changes now in the society under which people have also started recognising non academic success or performance of the students as there are many areas where the skill based learning is helping the students to get a job and make a career.
    My father had told me that when he was in High School (some time in the year 1938) people in his village only thought that he will immediately get a job if he passes in the High School examination. Otherwise there was no opportunity for any other job in that particular area. When he passed in the class 10 examination he got selected in clerical cadre in post office. Getting a government job in the British regime was considered a very big thing in those times.
    Today a good number of avenues have opened up for making a career for the students and simply to push them for academic pursuits is not the only solution for making a career.
    Knowledge is power.

  • #775701

    Points:2
    Yes, I agree with the author that we only discuss the academic area of a person. One of my professors always told me that your degree doesn't have the heat to boil a cup of tea. So, we should always try to develop our skills. We should not only discuss academic area but we should know the different areas to know the different skills of a person or the students.
    Honesty is the best policy.

  • #775706

      

    Points:7
    I agree that it happens so when we introduce a student to someone but I doubt whether it can be generalised. We do highlight the qualifications or one's academic skills when we introduce or point to a person who is studying or is well qualified but the importance of highlighting qualification ends, I feel, once a person is attractively employed or otherwise. In such cases, we highlight his position.

    Then what about those who are not academically qualified? We do introduce people who are skilled in some areas by highlighting their skills. We do say that he is a good carpenter or artist or writer and so on. So, it is not all about academic achievements, the general tendency is to highlight one's positives, though highlighting negatives is also prevalent. That is why we don't look for the academic qualifications of Amitabh Bachan or Sachin Tendulkar.

    At the same time, I would also like to mention the negative aspects prevalent in this area. We get to see a lot of people interested in highlighting the negative aspects of a person. I am sure that most of us must have come across such introductions like saying that so and so was a good student but he was careless and not serious and wasted his opportunities and so on.

    So, I think, it depends on so many factors, including the attitude of the person who is highlighting, as to how a person would be introduced and which facets of him would be highlighted.
    'Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all'.
    -Aristotle

  • #775711

    Points:5
    Acquiring academic qualifications is still a very important matter in the lives of students. It is also true that after that they are going for some skill based or value added courses to increase their chances of competing for the jobs.
    In this matter I will like to add one point that today there are so many online agencies which are imparting very good skill improvement or technical courses for the benefit of students. Surprisingly, some of them are totally free without any terms and condition. Many big guns in the field of IT like Google and others are designing some plateforms where students or other professionals can learn as well as undergo some online tests and asses themselves and go ahead in that journey of acquiring knowledge. So in comparison to earlier times there are many facilities today which a student can take advantage and improve his or her skills and knowledge in a particular topic. This change in the educational environment today has brought a paradigm shift in the minds of people and now they are understanding the fact that it is not only the academic qualifications that matter but it also matters to learn certain skills and techniques which are required in some areas. I think it is a good trend and with this the tendency of highlighting only the academic qualification of a person will decrease in coming times.
    Knowledge is power.


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