The Choice of Course

By: Jonalyn V. Maraa Every high school student seems to be agitated in entering college and eager to pursue their ambitions in life. Different courses are taken by different kinds of students according to what they want to be in the future or just according to their financial needs. However, due to country's financial situation caused by economic recessions, the real ambitions of every students seems to be set aside and disregarded because of their desire to earn sufficient money for their family. Hence, it can be said that the courses taken by every college students now primarily depends upon the course which gives more opportunity to earn, here and abroad, and not because of their pursuance to their ideal and desired careers or professions. In this case, choosing a course to take in college now gears away from the natural purpose of applying oneself to a profession which would maximize the skills and knowledge possessed by every individual in accordance with their personal interests. Instead, students now choose courses which would lead them to most available employment someday. In many colleges and universities in the country, various courses are offered, yet only few courses are popularly taken by many. Some courses are unpopular due to its impracticality as graduates of these courses only ended up as underemployed, if not unemployed. This observation is now a public knowledge which the education and employment sector of the government must address. Nevertheless, the causes must be determined in order to present the proper action for this situation. The sectors mentioned must meet to balance what one is offering and what the other is willing to take in order to avoid the waste of human resources. Further, if only few courses are taken, other

aspects of our economic environment will not be supplied with proper manpower equipped with sufficient skills and knowledge. All else being available--financial resources, employment

matched to their desired course, and the desired course in accordance with their personal preferences, every student would choose course based on what interests them the most. They would choose one which would give them personal satisfaction and one in which they could apply their knowledge and skills in the most efficient ways. Nevertheless, due to many unavailable matters in real life, such as jobs which could match their desired course and sufficient financial resources, the students only ended up choosing one which is mostly popular due numerous job opportunities available and disregarding their own interests and ambitions. The unavailability may be rooted down to economic recession which an underdeveloped country such as ours is frequently experiencing and is deeply felt by every family. Even if nowadays, our government is claiming that we have a growing economy, this is still hardly noticed by many due to prevailing poverty. Therefore, instead of choosing what course they want, students are now choosing what they need. This may seem not a problem, yet when analyzed, it may be discovered that there would be imbalanced in the supply of manpower to every aspect of our industries and economic sector. More and more students would engage themselves into the popular courses which, for them, would give them immediate jobs with opportunity to work abroad to earn dollars. Also, this situation would also lead to further increase in underemployment and unemployment rate of the country. As more and more students would enroll in popular courses, leaving other courses as undersubscribed, more and more graduates of

popular courses would compete, hence, the available jobs for such courses would be lessen. Thus, those who cannot compete with the employment available and applicable for their courses taken would only ended up working in a job which would not compensate them well, if not make them unemployed. Moreover, the skills, talent, and knowledge which an individual possesses would not be maximized and would just be wasted. Human resources would only be stagnant as their supposed skills, talents, and knowledge are just stocked as these were not productively applied. This would not promote growth and development in every individual. Sadly, this may lead to deterioration of human worth. The remedy for this trend of sticking to popular courses, since economic recession is hard to prevent if not inevitable, is for the government, particularly the education sector, to regulate the number of enrollees for a particular course based on who can really fit in the standards required for a certain course. Further, the salary enough to have a decent life must be maintained or better yet improve, especially during the time when our economy is doing well. Our Constitution recognizes the importance of labor force in our economy. It is more important than the capital. We value human more than money, hence, our dignity must not be sacrificed. Therefore, in choosing course to enroll in college, we must not forget our own preferences. Choose one which interests you the most in accordance with ones own skills and ability. In this case, we can still maintain our worth and at the same time provide ourselves with proper growth and development. This is the ideal situation, hope we can make it real.