Nurturing Potential
A US-based Indian high school lass’ breakthrough in charging a cell phone in under half a minute, won her accolades and an award of US $ 50,000 for developing a fast charging super capacitor which fits into a mobile phone. Margao’s Fatima High School alumni Andrea
Colaco developed a touch-free cell phone technology, wherein instructions can be given to the mobile merely on gestures. This is a pioneering step towards the use of cell phones. Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, industry professionals have already evinced keen interest in the invention and right now our Andrea is seen as a gold mine ready to be grabbed, so to say, and pampered. And now, in Goa itself we have some students who have developed a unit capable of reading number plates from a distance, even tracking the vehicle.
Andrea’s invention has set the ball rolling for further development in cell phone technology for use not just for regular cell phone users but also the invalid, the unattended aged and the sick, where the future gadgets will send out alerts to those tending the less abled.
There is therefore brilliance amongst Goan youth which remains largely unmotivated and untapped. This excellence has been witnessed in sports, even science (Abade Faria pioneered the science of hypnotism), but unfortunately the craze after passing out SSC or HSCC has largely continued to be focused on medicine and engineering! The status symbol it attracts has prompted administrators catering to aspirants to such institutions to hike fees for such courses that today parents are disillusioned at the quantum demanded by some professional colleges ~ many a times amounting to their life-long earnings. This is both illogical and unfair to the other siblings, who deserve equal opportunities in education.
One of the main failures to get a large number of Andrea-like “bright sparks” on the center-stage is the abject obsession with medicine, engineering, even law, where parents as well as students assume that these careers alone maketh a man and commands a premium at marriage. There is largely no quest for innovation and students as well as parents are happy working life-long merely doing the same daily grind, day-in and day-out.
The basic need of education is to make a living, but then there is a significant segment of students who are wired differently, who have the potential to go beyond just earning a living and can be regarded as beacons which could be an asset to humankind. Why has Goa failed to produce such innovators and those with scientific temper over the decades?
It is Goans, not in Goa, but overseas who make a mark, earn respect and adulation from communities world-wide, but are relegated to oblivion in their own mother land. This has been the untold tragedy of Goans.
Evidently, opportunities locally for the progressive-minded are far in between, virtually non-existent. Even parents ready to sacrifice their life-style in preference to promote the quest of their promising offspring are discouraged by the heavy fees quoted by some institutions. Thankfully the government’s Goa Scholar Programme has helped many such sparks to pursue their dream. But this is restricted to the super bright, with the bright ones still feeling left out of pursuing their passion. Worse, the predicament of the parents can well be imagined, who often are caught running from pillar to post, unable to get a clear and prompt response from a centralized body to their pressing queries on career and finance. In any case, there is hardly sufficient scope for those graduating to continue research work in India, thereby snuffing the very motivation of potential innovators.
Students at secondary school level must be assessed, identified, guided and harnessed to take up suitable training leading to careers in new territory. For this, experts in career guidance must evaluate students to determine their aptitude and IQ and subsequently determine those with the knack to go beyond the beaten track. This, of course, is only the first step to determine the potential of the likes of Andrea.
