More students shun science,opt for ‘easier’ humanities

In 2010-2011,the number of students doing BA in private and government colleges as well as universities stood at 2,30,654. On the other hand,while the number of Science students was a mere 63,140,the number of Commerce students stood at 61,000.

Speaking to The Indian Express,state Director General (Higher Education) Balbir Singh Malik said the trend of heavy concentration in the Arts stream at the graduation level has been continuing for many years now. “Many rural secondary schools don’t have Science stream. Even in schools where Science is available,children prefer taking up Arts as they find it easy. There is a need to motivate parents and students at the school level to to take up Science and Commerce,” he said.

Malik added that parents and children are not aware of how graduation in Arts limits their career options. Also,along with motivating students to take up Science,more infrastructure will have to be created. “Our efforts are to bring up the number of Science and Commerce students to at least 50 per cent together. The ideal ratio is of approximately 33 per cent in each category,” he said.

In colleges and universities,seats available for Science and Commerce streams are much lesser than those available for the Arts stream.

Take the case of Government College Saha — a township near Ambala. According to Principal Amrit Pal Singh,against 240 seats in BA,he gets about 400 forms. “Commerce has 80 seats. We are happy that we got 86 forms this year and all seats got filled,” he said. The college does not have a Science stream.

Commerce is faring better at Government College,Barwala. Principal R C Goyal said the cut off percentage for the general category this year was more than 50 per cent for Arts,and more than 55 per cent for Science. “The classification into these streams happens when students join Class XI. Awareness regarding skills required in the job market is very low,so most students prefer Arts,” he said.

Till April this year,Goyal was heading the Government College Sector 1,Panchkula. The college has 400 seats for Arts and 300 for Commerce,with good demand in both categories.

In the Science stream,the college has 120 seats for BSc (non-medical) and 40 for BSc (medical). Put together,all Science seats sometimes did not get filled. Some non-medical students also tend to move out after they get admission to engineering colleges,said Goyal.