Being in service I couldn’t do side business as I was posted in HRG. There my job was to evaluate the contracts operating in Central Region of ONGC and to control manpower in those contracts, which was not my cup of tea. But, I wanted to continue with my project. Seema helped me a lot. I was nominated by ONGC to guide her as a mentor for her summer training-project in HR. She was doing her MBA from Meerut University. Later on, she developed her interests in Psychology and did M.Sc. in Psychology from Gurukul Kangri University, Hardwar.
She was invited by Officer’s Club to give a talk on, ‘Planning for the Careers of your wards’ to the officers of ONGC, Dehradun. Since it was my project, therefore, I was behind the scene. Seema was an excellent speaker. Had she given 10 minutes on the stage she would have stolen the whole show. Impact of her predecessor speaker would be washed out and after her, each speaker would be referring to her speech.
Since it was a technical aspect I went to her support when she was stuck-up during question-answer session. Mr. Ram Khiladi, Dy.S.E (P) along with other interested officers offered for using her services. His son did HSC from Maharashtra. He was good in studies up to the class Xth. After the transfer of Shri Ram Khiladi from Mumbai to Dehradun, he was not able to cope up with his studies in class XIth.
We administered the 16 PF. As per the results and our explorations, I found the ‘activity’ was “engineering” which he could perform better. I suggested Shri Ram Khiladi continue him with PCM subjects and to keep him away from his direct contact. Ram Khiladi, instead of shifting his son to the hostel or some other place, arranged tutors for various subjects. This arrangement didn’t work. As a result, the boy failed in final exams. The net result was, whenever I happened to be before Ram Khiladi, he used to complain about his son’s failures. I was always suggesting him for shifting him to some other place, which he was not doing.
A stage came when I started avoiding him. He didn’t follow my suggestions but started blaming me indirectly for the fee that Seema took. It was a kind of arrangement from my side to pursue my interests that I was not earning money but sharing my skills and helping others. Whatever the earnings were Seema was taking because he showed the courage for pursuing my interests. Moreover, I started repenting on my venture.
One day it was Rakshabandhan, I saw Ram Khiladi from a distance. I wanted to avoid him. By the time I could avoid him, he came and congratulated me. I could not understand what for the congratulations were? Later Ram Khiladi explained. His son after getting failed in class XIIth for three years took admission in Polytechnic at Shri Nagar, Garhwal at his own initiative. This he did without informing his family and joined there. His son started performing well and secured 69% in the first year for his diploma in Mechanical Engineering. Ram Khiladi repented, ‘had he followed the suggestion for shifting him to hostel probably his four years could be saved’.
In fact, it was the parenting style that had been responsible for his son’s failures. He was not ready to accept. I was having my own limitations that I was a Career Planner but lacking the skills of persuasion an as counselor who changes the mind of his client for a while. Seema was good at this but she was practicing at Delhi. So I could not convince Ram Khiladi for shifting his son to the hostel or to a place where the boy could avoid the heat of parenting.
It is not always necessary that the child requires counseling. Below the age 10, I always suggested the activity to the mother to perform and got results through the child’s performance. Of course, I want to see the child, ‘Is he a normal child and he is growing at a normal speed’. I always focused on his mother. Likewise, either it is always the style of parenting that was responsible for most of the cases for the poor performance of the student. Or the subjects whom he has opted for the study were not able to motivate him. I have seen miracles in the performance as well as in overall behavior only through suggesting the subjects for study that were representing his ‘uniqueness’ and the activity, which the student can perform better than 10,000 people.
Above the age of 15, each student begins focusing on future. Intelligent students are more curious in this regard. It is a compulsion from within for the student to evaluate the present with a view to his future. The moment some maladjustment is indicated, it is reflected in his interests in studies. Parents, especially working parents, they most often feel, ‘better the academic record, brighter will be his chances for getting a better job in future.’
As a result, many problems of discipline and poor performance crops in. Schoolteachers add to the problem, as they are more interested in their own performance as a teacher. Even the psychologists with the institution consider the student as a part of the total system. The efforts are of taming the wild animal, rather than focusing on the ‘uniqueness’ of the student. More inclination toward ‘image’ of an educational center in the open market, there will be more restrictions on the expression of maladjustment.
Solution to the problem is not ‘taming the wild animal’ for maintaining discipline. Help the student in exploring his ‘uniqueness’ and then recognizing the ‘activity’ he can perform better than 10,000 people. Allow him to study the subjects which represent the two i.e. ‘uniqueness’ and the ‘activity’. Coach him unless or until he tastes the success. It will not take more than 2 to 3 months. See the result, but you have to be courageous with regard to breaking the age-old approach of ‘discipline’ as well as taking the student as part of the system.
Moreover, education is not limited to secondary level. Higher education, as well as technical education, has different dimensions. Continuously, for eight years I was associated with the recruitment of Graduate Trainees at induction level. Each year approximately 4 to 5 thousand job aspirants used to undergo personality testing. As I mentioned I have been excellent in monitoring. Around thirty thousand data on the 16 PF were available to me. I analyzed the data state wise.Results were amazing.
Different personality factors were responsible for high academic achievement in different states.What was good for West Bengal might be damaging to Karnataka with regard to academic achievement. For example, take ‘self-motivation’. Youth from Rajasthan will be known ‘enterprising’ if he is self-motivated. He will leave the state in search of the place where he can prove his worth. The same self-motivation will encourage the youth from U.P. to join some activities through which he can make spiritual realizations. This suggests a review of ‘Policy’ for technical and higher education. Success cannot be generalized but the government can develop the infrastructure, so that maximum number of youth is not only benefited but is inspired for the ‘success’ that contributes to the social good of the country as he is motivated to prove his worth in the open market.
Students of higher and technical education are also the voters. If we take into consideration the aspects of ‘personality’, whole exercise of financial planning by Central Government will appear to be futile as it focuses only on money management. For example, economics and psychology both are using statistics. Fundamentally, the formulas for calculating ‘central tendency’ are altogether different in both the statistics. In economics ‘man’ is a commodity and in psychology, he is a ‘unit’. In fact, the exercise of the budget presented by Finance Minister Claims overall growth of the country which is not true. For overall growth of the country, the FM needs to add state wise status of human requirements so that participation of people can be invited. Students can be encouraged, as well as proving their worth in the open market.
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