get current text <select>

Answer 1

You don't need the semi colon after the html() function and val does not return the html which is what your looking for.

alert($("#<%=sctFieldMain.ClientID %> option:selected").html());

However if you had the following and wanted the value "Example" then you should use val()

<option value="example">some test</option>

Answer 2

Use

alert($("#<%=sctFieldMain.ClientID %> option:selected").html());

EDITED

Also your question duplicates this one and this.