Toppers to teachers: BU gold medallists’ career choices are clear

The noble profession

Teaching seems to have regained its charm as a career option, with several toppers and gold medallists at Bangalore University’s 55th convocation saying they want to pursue it.

Naresh K S, who won six gold medals and two cash prizes for his performance in MSc Chemistry, is one of them. After clearing the National Eligibility Test (NET) and the Karnataka State Eligibility Test (KSET), he landed a job in the Forest Department. But he quit the job to pursue a PhD so that he can take up teaching.

Naresh’s family background is humble. His father works at a factory while mother is a homemaker.

Charan Raj T S, who won five gold medals and a cash prize in MA Sanskrit, said he loved teaching and would take it up as a career.

Raj did most of schooling at religious institutions such as Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru and Adichunchanagiri Mutt, Mandya district.

M Kavya topped in MA Kannada from Bangalore University’s Centre for Kannada Studies. She, too, says she wants to become a teacher. She is currently pursuing BEd in order to learn the basics of teaching. The daughter of farmers in Ramanagara, she used to commute daily from hometown to the Bangalore University campus, a distance of 40 km, to pursue the master’s.

At the convocation, graduating students were disappointed as their parents and friends were not allowed to accompany them in view of the Covid-19 protocol.

Surprisingly, Governor Vajubhai Vala, who is the chancellor of the university, and Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, the pro-chancellor, skipped the convocation, raising eyebrows.

A source in the university said an e-mail complaint sent by some syndicate members to the governor was one of the reasons for his absence.

A source close to the minister said he didn’t show up because he had to accompany Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to his city rounds.