“You are the choices that you make “. Scary, right? Every day, we make decisions. Big, small or choices that might not seem important. It could be as simple as “should I watch channel one or two?”, “should I reply to the text now or later?” Or it can be as major as “should I get married?” or “Should I invest in a startup business?”. Even if everyone has different path in life, for most, the first crucial decision is choosing a major in university or college. This is the type of decision that sets one’s life path to the better or worst. High achiever or not you will face this choice. For most high achieving students in Ethiopia, it has kind of been an obvious trail, join High school, get straight A’s, ace the university entrance exam then study Medicine or engineering. This has been the trend for almost the last decades. But why?
Primarily the entitlements and social beliefs given to studying Medicine and Engineering is surreal. Specifically, from the surrounding of these students especially from family members, relatives, neighbors, friends and also teachers. In our society it is believed that the disciplines, medicine and engineering are the only noble fields that are good enough for the apt pupil. This norm has made an impact on them that most of them join the field in order to get the social acceptance. Additionally, the fact that students during their high school experience are not exposed to the work environment of the outside world strikes banefully. Exposures like internships, volunteer works and part time jobs are stimulating to the skills and talents students have with in them. I believe that bad experience is better than no experience at all. knowing I am not good at something is better than wondering if I am good at it or not. This major reason can lead to not knowing what other disciplines are provided by universities and colleges.
If a student doesn’t know he has a Sketching ability and a creative eye he would never consider becoming an interior designer and studying architecture. In other case, most students from the rural side of the country are not privileged to witness advanced technologies and infrastructures. Which means they are less likely to get excited and wonder about the science behind the recent 5G network in Ethiopia or the Virtual Reality in the science and technology museum. Rather what they are exposed to are the under equipped health posts and the long unconstructed roads they take to go to their school. It is not a matter of choice to them, but a mission to provide a better health care to the elderly in the community and shorter time of travel to school to the children. They say, “Where we live is who we are”. Not entirely but, our surrounding definitely plays a significant role in the decisions we make.
But what happens after joining campus? Everyone knows that Medical and engineering schools are challenging, but what is not talked enough about is the mental challenges that comes along with. These disciplines require extra-long hours of studying and work. This not only can make them feel stressed, but feel overwhelmed constantly and face depression. This will make them feel like they are wasting their time in life. Their academic achievements will not be as good as they were in high school. They will start to regret their decisions and feel like they are not good enough. Many drop out, while some find a way to stick in and graduate. Spending 5 and 7 years studying something you are not passionate about is unquestionably hard. Doing it for the rest of your life is even harder. With the number of students graduating from Medical and Engineering schools increasing every year, there is high number of unemployed professionals due to the imbalance in the employer- employee rate, which gives employing organizations the advantage to over exploit professionals.
The impact continues. Depression on a person does not just affect one person. The lack of emotional closeness and the loss of the ability to have fun together can affect the health of the family’s dynamics. Parents may feel guilty, they may blame themselves for the situation. Moreover, if their child decides to drop out and start to study another discipline, that is an economic loss. All these consequences add up to affecting the country. It is common these days to come across with professionals with bad work ethics which most probably is a result of not being passionate about their career. So, what should be done?
The first step that should be taken is to raise awareness about other disciplines and aware the society that each field is as important as Medicine and Engineering. Most importantly, if high schools have a curriculum which offer practical teaching learning methods including well organized school clubs, this would be a great asset in the self discovery pathway for students. As mentioned earlier volunteer activities, internships and part time jobs should also be perceived as important as their education. The other important thing high schools can do is offer guidance department for their students on career choice.
As a digitalized generation, every person has the access to the world on their hands. Now imagine how easier it would be for students if Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MOSHE) and the Universities in Ethiopia have an updated digital presence, providing information on disciplines they provide, the number of in take for each discipline for every year, projects that students have built. These websites would have been the ultimate guide. Consider the disciplines as alternatives listed down below.
1. Computer science
Computer science is the process of solving complex organizational problems using technical solutions. The reason this is such an important field is that computers and technology have been integrated into virtually every economic sector, industry, and even organization operating in the modern economy. It’s virtually impossible to run a modern business without utilizing computer driven technology, which is just one of the many reasons why people consider computer science to be so important.
2. Biotechnology
Biotechnology deals with the use of living cells in environmental, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. Moreover, it is an interdisciplinary field that provides today’s generation with an opportunity to explore new vistas in the field of science and technology. Moreover, this emerging field also offers numerous career opportunities, from research and development, sales and marketing, to quality control and assurance. Students who successfully complete a degree in biotechnology can seek promising career positions in fields like the food & beverage industry, textile industry and pharmaceutical industry, etc. The option of pursuing a career in research and teaching is also wide open for biotechnology students.
3. Biochemistry
The BSc industrial chemistry program is designed to develop formulation scientists for the manufacturing industry. Polymer science, surfactant chemistry, reaction engineering, process engineering, and computational chemistry are among the problems that students are exposed to in formulation science. Throughout the program, students are taught cutting-edge techniques for developing formulations with the goal of optimizing their physicochemical properties.
Software engineering is the application of principles used in the field of engineering, which usually deals with physical systems, to the design, development, testing, deployment and management of software systems. All the software running around the world will need experts in software engineering to develop, maintain, and improve their working. This means that the software engineer demand in the future is going to rise, for more managerial roles like taking care of automated software.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles
- https://csuglobal.edu/blog/why-computer-science-so-important
- Biotechnology: A Popular Career Choice | Shoolini University
Written by :Hanna.F
1 Comment
Well, this was informative to say the least! I really appreciate what was said in this blog, as it tackles key issues we Ethiopian youth suffer. It’s so sad and concerning that a humans life, success, and satisfaction most of the time (mainly in such countries as ours) is decided by which department that was forced on us, leaving us with ourselves to deal with the life long mental stress, and misery.
Keep up the good work, and I’ll be sure to spread the word of the work that’s being done here, Cheers!