The second iteration of Higher Secondary Education Fair 2016 is being held at Hotel Annapurna in the Capital. The two-day fair featuring only domestic academic institutions is organised by Education.com. Here’s  Jeevan Lama Gole, the managing director of Education.com, talking about the one-of-its-kind education fair that is promoting schools and colleges in the country. Excerpts:

What is the objective of the fair?

The fair targets the newly graduates of Higher Secondary School who are waiting to join the university education, exploring the options for bachelor’s degree in the country. All 40 academic institutions featured in the fair are domestic which are operating either with the affiliation of domestic universities or foreign ones. The students visiting the fair can acquire every detail regarding the bachelor’s and master’s level education, including fee, scope of the courses they want to pursue, and prospects for scholarship.  

What makes this fair different from others?

If we consider the average education fairs we have seen or been to so far, a majority of them are promoting broad education. Here we differ. The Higher Secondary Education Fair purely promotes domestic education. There won’t be education consultancies or foreign academic institutes that we see in other education fairs. Through this event, we want to inform the students that the domestic colleges are capable of providing globally competent education in various disciplines. Many colleges providing management, IT and hospitality education are providing excellent education in the country.

Besides regular information sharing, we will also organise regular seminars where students can get information regarding domestic and international education systems, and scope of different courses, among others, which is not common in other education fairs.

How are our colleges equally competent as the ones abroad?

It is a relative thing. What I mean to say is that students don’t need to travel abroad, spending millions of rupees for various courses nowadays. There are many colleges here competent enough to cater to the need of the students. The trend of establishing colleges with the foreign affiliation is increasing. Students can now acquire foreign college degrees without leaving the country, and the tuition is affordable too.

What is your suggestion to the students who want to pursue university education?

In this competitive age students need to choose a career path keeping 10 years prospective in mind. Thousands of students have graduated from high school recently and they are now qualified to study for their bachelor’s degrees. Studying for bachelor’s degree is setting a departure from school education to university education which is the most crucial stage in setting a career of an individual. Entering the bachelor’s course a no-return-zone,  because here you have to choose the right education to determine your future. Therefore, one should be very careful at this stage. If you plan right you go on to have a great professional career, if not you lose.