Yanpvuo Yanfo Kikon: Did you know?
- The Despacito singer (cover song which went viral few days back) Zuchobeni Tungoe is actually pursuing her CIVIL ENGINEERING?
- Young Piano maestro Kevin Savino is pursuing his MBBS?
- Athozo Tsukru the 3rd best Beatboxer in Nagaland and co-founder of Nagaland Beatbox Community is set to start off as an ARCHITECT?
What Nagaland needs right now is not making music, arts and entertainment a top priority but JOBS, GOOD ROADS, BRIDGES, HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, SKILLED MANPOWER, uninterrupted POWER & INTERNET, ENTREPRENEURS, SCHOLARS and a corruption free Government with officers selected based on MERIT!
What we need is a fine BALANCE between our over indulgence in MUSIC, EVENTS, SOCIAL WORKS, POLITICS with EDUCATION, PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL so that we can build this ideal society where we enjoy hard but STUDY AND WORK HARDER! We should work 80% and maybe indulge 20% in social works, entertainment etc. But right now it looks like it is reversed. We need to become a more productive society.
Our leaders themselves are teaching us to become boastful, liars, corrupt and hypocrites with their examples. This entire VALUE SYSTEM needs a complete revival wherein we need to bring back our real Naga and Christian values of being humble, honest, hard working.
Entertainment is the best way to grab the attention of the young ones. They will not listen to a boring old man giving a one hour speech. Unless we start creating more our own local icons and role models like these three young talents Zuchobeni, Kevin and Athozo to inspire the other children especially those from Class 6 to Class 10, they will continue to look up to Korean K-pop stars, Justin Bieber and all those icons from developed countries which has little relevance to our society and economy. Their economy can support this kind of lifestyle and entertainment industry. Not in ours! We talk about how Alobo Naga is such a successful musician! But let me also tell you that Alobo is a Masters in Political Science and his success is attributed to his immense entrepreneurial and business management skills in addition to his musical ability.
Because if this trend continues, the idea of escapism will grow so huge that they will forget reality. They will not see the GIGANTIC POTHOLES, BROKEN BRIDGES but will continue to live in an imaginary Seoul or Tokyo or New York in our messed up realities.
We seriously need to level up the education system by creating a strategy to inspire kids to start focusing on the so called difficult subjects like Maths and science! DID YOU KNOW LAST YEAR, as per data from NBSE only 17.44% of students who passed out of HSLC joined science stream? We need more students to pursue science.
We definitely need scholars who are experts in Arts subjects like sociology, history, psychology etc but if everybody becomes a sociologist, historian or psychologist who is going to build our roads and bridges, who will run our telecom and internet infrastructures? Who will treat our patients in hospitals? Who will start up companies and industries to generate employment and improve our economy?
I believe the odd 80% of Naga students take up arts because their parents and elders tell them that this is the best option to take up if they want to become a Government servant. BUT as per data from NPSC, the highest number of people who get through NPSC are alumni of Kohima Science College.
We need to create a perfect synthesis between the Arts and Sciences to build an ideal progressive society. But the reality today is that the trend needs to be balanced by encouraging more students to take up SCIENCES, LAW, FINANCE, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT (MBA) and other TECHNICAL SKILL COURSES - Software, Baking, Design, Hospitality, Carpentry, etc.
I think for the past 60 years, we have produced enough of Arts and humanities scholars which is really fantastic because I hope that with this number of scholars we can expect to have a significant amount of research, documentation done on our history, our society, psychology of the masses, analyse our political events and suggest solutions etc but right now we need to produce an equal number of young Nagas in Science, Technology, Finance and Skill based education.
Vizo Jean Khesoh: The root cause of this is: 1. Many parents themselves are weak in science and mathematics and thus fail to motivate or generate an interest in their children. Instead they force their children to work harder in these subjects only for the sole reason of scoring good grades which undoubtedly makes the children averse to the said subjects.
2. Most of the teachers/professors of these said subjects are only teaching out of convenience, or some other domestic reasons. Passion, genuine love and interest is missing thus the students are not inspired to take up Science or other technical fields. Also many teachers are under continuous strain (private teachers) and enjoy a low salary hardly fit to keep both body and mind sane thus the passion and imagination is juiced out.
3. Many schools lack the infrastructure to make science interesting and a viable career option due to lack of funds, staff etc. Science as a subject relying on facts and evidences needs to be studied hands on with lots of experiments, analysis etc. Thus with this missing many students fail to see the beauty and magnitude of science.
4. There are/may be students whose aptitude leans towards science but unfortunately come from a financially weak family and are unable to afford the fees required for studying science. Also Nagas are quite miserly so helping out deserving relatives, neighbours, acquaintances is out of the question.
5. Most of the Nagas are very weak in language and vocabulary which basically doesn't help when you want to understand scientific terms let alone the subject. Only someone who has a strong command over language will be able to do justice in whichever technical field he/she pursues. Thus language is very important to create, build and renovate. Therefore English being the medium of every field these days, we need to establish a good foundation in the said area.
6. Nothing will work or progress without God's wisdom, so parents, teachers, students and the people need to look for God's wisdom in decision making, in teaching and in learning. Above all, sciences and arts originated from God, thus if we are inspired by the Great master and put into action the inspiration, how much would Nagaland progress and develop. There are many other factors too but this is all I would like to say for now. Thank you for reading.
Tsiken Kithan: A masterpiece article. One of the best articles produced by our very own intellectual I have seen. Good on you Yanpvuo, keep up the good works you've been doing. May God bless you and keep under His protection always.
I have been observing albeit, from abroad that our Naga culture has been becoming too focused on music, entertainments, shows, sometimes just for cheap publicities, all encouraged and funded by Nagaland government at the expense of development. What we have got to remember is that music and entertainments in life has got be like the spice in food and not the main ingredient of any dish.
As of now the successful arts educated become the controller of the science qualified employee like doctors, engineers, architects etc. That I think is the main pull for students preferring to pursue arts rather than science. In the advanced countries no single department or discipline of work or office controls every other department unlike in Nagaland or for that matter, India.
Until such time every branch of occupation becomes equal in status and opportunities, arts/generalist subject would be more popular. After all study of any science subject is much harder than arts subjects. So the bottom line is who'd choose to follow the harder path only to become subordinate to the ones who choose the comparatively easier path??
I'm not discouraging anyone at all to choose science/ professional/ vocational studies which can be more rewarding in fact in the end. Just stating the fact of the life's playing fields of today.
