Forced choices.

THE issue of inadequate academic coun-selling facilities for students in educational institutions is rather acute. I have had the chance to teach at some government colleges in Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. Approximately 99 per cent of the students I have interacted with consider themselves misfit in their chosen fields. The reason is simple: someone pushed them towards those fields. The outcome of this forced career choice is academic anxiety and lack of interest in their studies.

Recently, an associate degree programme (ADP) has been introduced for undergraduate students in two disciplines; Biological Science and Humanities. Almost all the students are clueless about these academic choices. We arranged an informal academic counselling session to facilitate the students, but the pattern of forced choices prevailed, and we failed to make any...