KATHMANDU, August 24: When 12-year-old Riti grows up she wants to become an ‘artist-cum-doctor’.

Drawn by her fascination for sketches and her mother’s expectation to make her a doctor, she aspires to achieve success in both ways. Listening to her unending prattle about how she would look after her patients, her mother gleams with utter pride. The pride that comes from the acceptance that she has envisioned her daughter to become a doctor with or without Riti’s willingness. 

It definitely is a moment of joy for a mother to see her child successful and it is for this day she darts ahead on a journey surmounting all the barriers that comes her child’s way. However, does children giving up on their aspirations and acquiescing on parent’s decision justify to the mere possibility that they could have performed way better had they were allowed to give wings to their dreams?

This certainly is a microcosm of what many students have been facing in today’s context. With myriad number of colleges including technical subjects like science and managements in their curriculum, the courses on social sciences have been highly devalued.

"Students are less likely to take humanities stream because they have been guided to put their efforts in such professions that have widening scopes and yield better incomes in the future,” said Vice-Principal of VS Niketan School. Adding further he said, “Overruled by such preconceived beliefs, the students are motivated or even coerced to take subjects out of their interests.”

Moreover, Head of Management and Humanities Department, Narayan Pokhrel agrees to the fact that social construction has a huge role to play for the course of humanities losing its charm. “The inability to establish quality curriculum by educational institutions followed by parental pressure has impinged on the widening scope of social sciences,” he said.

The nullification of such social dogmas that devalues the domains of social sciences is fundamental. With the country witnessing a transitional phase of development, every realm of subject should be equally prioritized because the lowered demand for social sciences could leave a huge gap creating imbalance in demand and supply in the employment sector. 

“In order for social sciences to fully thrive, humanities study should be well prioritized whereby the courses are revised as liberal arts and students be acquainted with both science and non-science subjects. This could hopefully put an end to the hierarchy of subjects,” said Principal of Uniglobe College, Nara Bahadur Bista.

The essence of a subject judged by its scope is more of a debate that seemingly denotes to the question whether science is powerful than religion or vice-versa or whether head is important to heart.

Since the inception of life on earth, social structures and dynamics have held significance to shape human life and society. These age-old sets of ideas, theories and philosophy still rule our thoughts and guide our actions. Thus, whatever way we choose to connect with the society, social science serves as the base to it.