Career guidance, choosing professional stream in Kashmir gets new-age touch
Srinagar, Jan 15: Dubbed as the Kota of Kashmir, Parraypora locality in uptown Srinagar has received the recognition of being a hub of coaching centers that help students prepare for competitive exams, especially the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
Three decades ago, the now buzzing stretch on the Indira Gandhi Road leading to the Srinagar Airport, attracted aspiring doctors in large numbers. Eversince then this trend has witnessed an uptick, bringing to fore the growing popularity of medical courses among students. However, the palpable change on the ground is the growth and a more professional outlook of over two dozen coaching institutes at Parraypora.
One among these coaching centres is ‘Hope Classes’, which began its operations in the year 2016. This institute, as per Shehzad Ahmad Lone, who works as an Information Technology (IT) head at the centre, witnesses as many as 800 students enroll at ‘Hope Classes’ to prepare for competitive exam NEET. Of these almost 70 to 80 students qualify the prestigious NEET exam every year, Lone added. “Better avenues and financial security assured becoming a doctor is the reason that students from Kashmir in large numbers travel outside the valley paying hefty amounts to get admitted in medical colleges,” says Lone.
The result for NEET 2024 was revised and released on July 26, 2024. As per the revised merit list, as many as 13,15,853 candidates qualified for NEET 2024 out of 23,33,162 test takers. The total number of registered candidates was 24,06,079. A total number of 48,545 candidates from Jammu and Kashmir had registered for the NEET (UG) 2024, in which 47,228 have appeared and 24,565 qualified the exam.
As per Lone, the way coaching sessions are now designed has changed over the years, with an increased orientation and individual attention for each student now. A major shift has been seen in the tutorials compared to the 1990s, when individual teachers would teach batches of students.
“MBBS is a legacy degree which has retained its popularity and the manner in which coaching happens has changed. Even today parents of students who join professional courses feel medicine-related courses provide much more job security as compared to other streams,” said Lone, adding that the foray of marquee coaching institutes such as Aakash Institute and Physics Wallah has seen competition among the coaching institutes in Kashmir become stiff.
Bangladesh has emerged as a popular destination for Kashmiri students to enroll for MBBS but medical colleges in cities such as Bengaluru and Pune have also remained a hub for aspiring MBBS students.
“Students in Kashmir prefer to qualify the NEET exam with high scores so that they get enrolled in government medical colleges within Jammu and Kashmir,” added Lone. The second option is to seek admissions to colleges outside the Union Territory, which also includes private colleges.
Nazish Masoodi, originally from Kashmir and now based in Bengaluru for the last two decades, where he runs an integrated marketing agency, says earlier students from the Valley used to seek admissions in different colleges of the country through consultants. With more knowledge, exposure and presence of social media now, people approach medical colleges directly, added Masoodi who has been involved in educational consulting activities for over two decades now.
“Both parents and the students have become much wiser now. They approach colleges directly instead of seeking help from consultants,” adds Masoodi, who is the Director of ‘InterDigitel’. As per Masoodi, apart from digital marketing, his company provides internship to Kashmiri students after they graduate from colleges in Bengaluru.
“Earlier my core focus was consulting work but with passing time we realised that there is a need to diversify,” Masoodi said. Buoyed by expert guidance, choosing a suitable career has witnessed a paradigm shift in Kashmir over the last two to three decades.
The need for professional guidance has gained huge significance leading to mushrooming of organisations such as ‘Move Beyond’. This one-stop platform for students seeking career guidance, counselling, psychometric testing and assistance in studying abroad has been working closely with the UT government, says its CEO Sheikh Inayat Ullah.
“Earlier choosing a career did not involve professional consulting but now the process is much more organised,” added Inayat. The National Education Policy (NEP) strongly advocates for career guidance while in the year 2023 Union Ministry of Education directed states and UTs for career guidance and to promote career guidance tools and courses in school which has been developed by UNICEF, said Inayat.
“In today’s day and age even a career in medicine has super specialisations. Career guidance has become a professional tool. Last year UNICEF held consultations for career counseling in 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir which received an overwhelming response. Every day I receive calls from students seeking guidance for choosing a career,” said Inayat.
