So there is a great race going on, everyone is studying subjects which have a potential for a high pay off. Medicine, architecture, engineering, chemistry, business (this can be debated due to BCom being almost worthless without further studies), etc are the most popular subjects. That is where the money is and most smart students opt to peruse those subjects.
This is not unlike other countries, take for example US. Most smart desis are pursuing medical, MBA, law or finance these days, and subjects like Computer Science are taking a back seat. Just 10 years ago, Computer Science was THE degree to have, and universities had more applicants than they could accommodate.
Remember back in the early 90’s in Pakistan when studying hotel management was really popular? Because that’s where the money was, and people were going after it.
So this brings me to my question, who studies a subject like Urdu in Pakistan as their major now? Majoring in it has almost no pay off, a person cannot brag about it, and I know this is going to offend people, but Urdu is really treated as a second class subject in schools. I remember in my school Urdu was considered the easiest subject, no one really took it seriously, and most students were more concerned about their marks in math, physics or some other science related subject. If you were in the GCSE, then Urdu was a laughable exam which tested only basic knowledge. It was also completely cool for some students to brag about how little Urdu they knew, and that they only speak English at home. And I went to a no name private school, I can’t even imagine how things must be at one of those elite private school, I bet if you spoke Urdu there, you were treated like some jahil.
People used to study subjects like Urdu back in the days, but back then college was not for everyone, and the great race hadn’t began. You could still get a decent govt job with a major in Urdu. Now I doubt you can even get an interview without a fancy degree from a top university.
I am not dissing people who do study Urdu, but I am wondering about the kind of person who does. I don’t need to wonder about who study’s medicine or engineering. Our education system (ok maybe not all schools, but in private schools) emphasizes science and math so much that is just a natural step. If tomorrow being a philosopher or zoo keeper started paying the big salaries, we will likely see lots of students leaning towards these subjects.
nicely put