"Whan that April with his shoures soote,
The droughte of March had perched to the root."

Class X and XII students particularly look forward at this time as it marks the end of rigid and disciplined school life and the beginning of a new and independent adult life. But learning from others mistakes, growing up and taking correct decisions are all part of this adult life. The first decision to be made is regarding one's career because this will single handedly determine the quality of life the individual is going to lead in particular and generally the society.

Students and parents often find themselves ill informed and resource less about the career options available to the student. Parents often seek the advice from their colleagues, relatives and friends while the students depend largely on their friend circle, school teachers and tutors to guide them towards the right career choices.... as a result, hasty decisions based on half baked information are made and students are lured into joining courses for which they have neither the aptitude nor the inclination. This leads to professional frustration within the student who will end up in jobs that deliver neither professional satisfaction nor personal growth.

At this age of "Globalization," when everyone and every society are competing in every sphere of life, we are still attempting for the few traditional medical and engineering courses. There are students who even lost two to three years for a mere medical seat when he could have finished a graduation in a discipline.

Has any society developed only through doctors and engineers? Don't we need good agriculturalists, environmentalists, economists, politicians, social thinkers, so on and so forth? Why are we madly rushing for science, science, science.....? And why not arts, commerce and other vocational courses? Do every science student is job oriented? This is where the gap is. We need, therefore, an arduous journey to fill the gap.

A more interesting, though still questionable, is our research less media with flamboyant and fleshy Bollywood ingredients rather than an objective and pragmatic production. One ridiculous instance is our Bright Flims Production's bright film "Sagatluba Manglan" directed by Chan Heisnam where the actor Danny says, "Diploma gina chahi ahum.........." Where on this earth is there the duration of Diploma in journalism three years?

This is how our research less media fails to acknowledge "the impact of media on our society". For God's sake, hold your tongue and let me speak. Regrettably, there are no critics to analyze our media who keep a vigil when Manipuri actress wears "Mangal shutra" in a Manipuri digitised film. Our digital films are the chewing gum for the eyes. The same is with our local TV channels.

Our local TV channels have never shown any profundity in this critical career making progrommes.

How much of information yields true wisdom?
Is it right to regard our modern media both print and electronic as a blessing which has turned into a burden?
Is there anything that can be done? Of course, there is.

The starting point is to transfer these TV channels, at least partially, from a boredom killing but money making business to the realm of education which is universally accepted as a social responsibility. Yet it would be dishonest to deny the power of TV to some extent.

Government has proved inept for this purpose. Never ever hope from the side of the Government. They are as the saying goes, " Bora na Paigera, Poukara na Paigera Besun gi Besun Ngaktani."

In several cases, a chain of English medium private schools is operated under a particular organization. With the passage of time, the philanthropic spirit of the founders of these organizations has been replaced by a commercial approach which legitimizes the selling of education at the highest price.

These schools cater to the needs of the upper middle class wanting desperately to transcend their present status. In other words, the privatization of school education is rapidly churning out the children from higher income groups into English medium ' public schools' while their counterparts from the poor and lower middle classes continue to go to Government schools.

Worse are our private schools, apart from government schools, that have begun to allow just about any Tom, Dick and Harry to interact with bright students to sell their courses, especially sciences. (Hardly, any private secondary schools have arts, commerce and other vocational courses.) This very questionable touts of learning in the garb of 'counseling' the students, actually try to sell their courses and their institutes.

They play on the psyche of already insecure child and try to induce him into joining their institutes by giving false hopes of a secured and a bright future to the student. In this case, our media helps in advertising the school basically with science stream. The child, intimidated and insecure, jumps into the enticing offer of these 'tutors of learning' in hopes of securing a bright future only to realize that even after depositing a heavy amount, the only one with the brighter future is the tutor, the media and generally the institute.

But, the moral responsibility is that of the schools that allow such unqualified individual to enter and interact with their students, and that to on such critical matters such as career choices. But the school will not say anything as they will also eventually gain in other way round. This nexus between the schools and these individuals has to be brought to light in front of the innocent students and parents who get taken a bumpy ride.

We are not against entrances, but if over ten thousand students sit for a few thousand seats, where is the question of a student attempting conscious career choices?

Is goal orientation and career motivation required before begin or after entrances are over and the student has at least some selection in hand? Those who are ready to move outside our state are more advisable to attempt in various fields such as BBA, BSW, Mass Comm., HRM, Law .etc. And then finally make a career only once he/she has selected to more than one college/course?

If today, dear parents, you convince your child to choose one field and he doesn't appear for any other entrance and looses this one seat, won't he be much more disheartened? Where would the career conscious go then?

A child at class X and XII is like raw clay, with no exact idea as to his choices of field. Therefore, what is required is any student trying for one entrance must try for others. The preparation for all entrance is very similar, so whether you sit for one entrance or five hardly makes a difference.

Consult someone who would not entice you in their selling of education. This is, of course, a very critical step for the individual as well as for our society. Hope our colleges and universities open up more professional and vocational courses in the near future.

"Rome was not built in a day". Let's together make a sound society by single handedly determining our quality of life.

So to say, "Look before you Leap."