Rashid Al-Fawzan
Al-Riyadh
Newspapers recently published a study about students in local universities. The study found out that 75 percent of freshmen don’t know what to major in, or what course of study suits their capabilities and skills. About 92 percent of the students don’t know anything about curricula and courses that they will be studying throughout their academic years. What next?
The study that was conducted by Dr. Mazen Balilah is a valuable and important one. When we look around us, we seriously find that a university student doesn’t know his skills, gifts and capabilities so he studies according to his friend or friends or just to fulfill the duty of earning a university degree. He might succeed and continue, but that is where the problem is. Did he study something in line with his skills and gained more to become unique?
What I know is that in Germany they start at the elementary level where a student starts taking tests to identify his or her potential and capabilities. The test makes it easier for the student to know what is most suitable for him or her whether in education or career. That doesn’t meant that every evaluation is 100 percent correct, but let us assume that it is at least 80 percent correct. It is much better than a student being admitted to college without knowing what he wants, or what to study or what his next step will be.
We cannot blame students and we are not talking about the 25 percent who excel and know where to go and what to do.
We truly need to redirect young students in accordance with their skills and capabilities to know where to focus their efforts. When a student follows his passion and works in a field that matches his skills, he will definitely become brilliant and productive. That is where we truly employ the students’ skills. Other than that, we’re just wasting young talent and students are losing too without the right guidance.
When a student is sure of what suits his level of knowledge, we are working toward setting the right goal at the right place. This way students become effective and productive away from frustrations and failure. When we don’t invest in students the right way, the negative consequences are doubled. We need to reevaluate governing quantity or numbers, meaning the number of students. As much as we need qualifications and capabilities, what is most important is having the right person at the right place. Other than that we’re dealing with infinite loss and waste of talent.
