Students told to opt for subjects close to heart

Updated on: Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Kerala Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs M. A. Baby called upon students to resist pressure from their parents to study professional courses and opt for the subjects close to their heart, including basic sciences.

“The Kerala government is giving new ideas and courage to the students,” he said while inaugurating a four-day Music Education and Cultural Exchange programme as part of Sadhana an initiative of the State government.

He said more and more students were pursuing Information Technology-related courses not because the courses suited their “actual aptitude” but for “immediate dividends and high acceptability in the marriage market.”

“We cannot blame the students. There is a market for their talents,” he said, adding that his government had taken various initiatives including inviting Nobel Laureates to address teachers and students to encourage them to pursue basic sciences.

He said the government was engaging some of the outstanding minds in various fields such as Romila Thapar, M. S. Ananth, M. Anandakrishnan and U. R. Ananthamurthy and was acting on their advice.

Mr. Baby also disclosed the State government's plan to set up an institute to study the science of music. The government has earmarked Rs. 1 crore for the project besides allotting land. Noted mridhangam maestro Umayalpuram Sivaraman is advising the government on the project.

Music Academy president N. Murali appreciated the efforts taken by Mr. Baby to promote culture, saying even before he was a Minister he organised musical events in Delhi in the 1980s.

He expressed the hope that as students from Kerala had visited Chennai, the students from Chennai also could visit Kerala as part of the exchange programme.

Convenor of the programme M. Balasubramoniam said the objective of the exchange programme was to provide a forum for the students of Music Colleges in Kerala to combine cultural activities to musical educational activities, besides to interact with senior exponents in the field of music and culture.

Sangitha Kalanidhis R. K. Srikantan, T. N. Krishnan, T. K. Moorthy, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, N. Ramani, R. Vedavalli, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, Sikkil Neela, T. V. Sankaranarayanan, M. Chandrasekaran, T. N. Seshagopalan and A. K. C. Natarajan and Music Academy Secretary Pappu Venugopala Rao were honoured.

Students told to opt for subjects close to heart

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