Career guidance via special exams for high school students

At present, these students are influenced by their parents, friends and relatives while choosing their higher education, pointed out a senior official from the School Education Department. “In addition, most of the parents do not give the choice to their wards for selecting their streams based on their interests after Class 10 board exams,” he added.

Stating that even teachers do not identify the interests of the students, the official said, “After careful consideration, the authorities have recommended a separate exam for the students to help them know their preferred choice of stream and career.”

“The exams, which will be held for a duration of about 90 minutes, will contain 90 questions,” he said, adding that based on the marks obtained, students would also be given counselling by the teachers.

“The exam will be simple with mainly objective type questions. The students can select a career option and also provide the explanation for choosing the particular stream during the examination. The exam will have other questions, including choosing their subjects they are interested in.”

The official added that the Class 9 students who attend the special exam should once again appear for the test in Class 10 to know whether they have the same interest. “Exam details of the Class 9 students will be stored and compared when they appear for the same exam next year,” he said.

The official clarified that there would not be any pass or fail criteria and the exam would purely be to know the interest of the students.