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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Making right choices
Helping disabled
children
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Making right choices
WHEN I was just a little girl, I asked my mother: “What will I be?” But today, in Classes X and XII, this question is no longer a peek into the future but a real tangible, rather onerous one, which must translate into a definitive career choice. Career counselling helps students discover their true potential and interest in various subjects in order to help them
choose the right career. So, many a schools already has detailed aptitude tests and professional help to guide students. In fact, personality, aptitude and interest are the three deciding factors on the basis of which counsellors proffer advice. But are parents ready to listen or are they still fixated on conventional alternatives? Dr Harneet, a teacher at DAV, Sector 8, Chandigarh, insists that there has been a sea change in attitudes. Now, more and more parents and students are keen on unconventional careers. However, Krit Serai, principal, Satluj Public School, Panchkula, says, “Parents are opening up but only just a wee bit”. Indeed! Meetu Singh, a mother of two sons both of whom have chosen the safe line of engineering, agrees, “In India, we can’t help but be conformists.” Leena Seth, a schoolteacher, goes one step ahead. She who even coughed up a hefty amount for career guidance (only to discard it later) for her younger daughter is adamant that career counselling is so vague and ambiguous that it serves little purpose. Besides, she feels that parents, especially the mother, are the best judge and guide. She muses, “If in 16 years, I can’t know what my daughter is capable of, no one else can.” So, is career counselling for those students who are a bundle of confusion and don’t really know what they want to be? Or for those whose parents wouldn’t know biotechnology from biology? Not quite. Today, the options and available courses in different fields ranging from mass communications to event management to aviation sector to hospitality industry are so many and so diverse that sans professional direction, even an enlightened parent would not be aware of the gamut of courses. Realising this, Dhillon reveals that their school students have access to not only professional help but also a website where information about various institutes and courses is readily available. In fact, the school has even devised an ingenuous way. Ex-students from different walks of life address the students and make them aware of how and why they should go about for a particular vocation. While Krit shares that they counsel students on the basis of books authored by eminent career advisors, in many a school, like Vivek High School, Sector 38, Chandigarh, active participation of parents is sought in counselling sessions. But the moot question remains: is career counselling a new fad of elitist schools or an idea worthy of exploration? Sushma Gupta, an educator, feels, “Career counselling is not only a very good idea but must be initiated in earlier classes, so that children can make up their mind before the damage (of wrong selection of subjects) is done.” Rather wistfully she wishes that she had undergone it. But now a large majority of school students, especially those affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education Board (CBSE), will have career counselling (if it doesn’t exist already) at hand. The CBSE has made career counselling compulsory in all the senior secondary schools from the next academic session. And Dr Harneet thinks that it’s a brilliant proposition. Though their school does counsel students more extensively in Classes XI and XII, she is positive that it will become more proactive and constructive once it is made compulsory and part of the education system. In the meanwhile, parents would be well advised to remember that making a child choose a field of study that is not really suited to their child’s interests or aptitude could be ruinous. Knowing and understanding your child is very vital. But judge his or her career choice on the objective barometer of potential, not great expectations that you have pinned upon your child.
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Helping disabled children
It might have taken a PIL in the state High Court to direct the Education Department to spare a thought for these disabled children in Himachal Pradesh, but the series of workshops being conducted at the SCERT have helped inculcate a sense of awareness about the specific problems of these children. Taking the different type of disabilities into account, including mild, moderate, severe and profound, the school lecturers identified that lack of training to deal with such students acted as a deterrent in even identifying them and what complicated the situation was the large class strength and lengthy syllabus which failed to give individual attention to these students. Roping in the support of local community, including gram sabhas, self-help groups, NGOs, etc., would help identify such children and they could act as a support to the family in gaining meaningful education. The role of parents, especially that of a mother, and equally significant role of a teacher would help deal with such children in a sensitive manner which would further help provide an amicable atmosphere for their grooming up. Since no such attempt has hitherto been made to identify their problems, the teachers felt that there was more than merely being sensitized and even small issues like comfortable furniture could also go a long way in instilling some comfort to their environs. Battling peculiar problems, such children already suffer from low self-esteem and hence the teachers had an added task before them to ensure that they were made mentally and emotionally at ease while interacting with their normal counterparts. What emerged as a consensus was the need to have a special evaluation system where copies of such children could be sent in different coloured envelops to the education board. R. S. Chowalta, co-ordinator for the workshop, while dwelling on the need to encourage basic education among them, this small step would prove beneficial for them. Since they cannot match the intelligence level of an ordinary child, the evaluation system should be different. The assessment can be more practical based and could focus on interesting activities. Keeping in view their intelligence quotient, teachers opined that learning of complex subjects like mathematics and science should be precise and they should be exempted from multiple-language learning. More vocational and repetitive exercises would make learning an easier task for these children. Use of mother tongue would act as an encouragement. The need for special syllabus to deal with the needs of visually, hearing and locomotive impaired should be devised as each of these children have their strengths and weaknesses. Use of brail language, sign language and other available options should be exercised. While the moderate children can be educated along with normal children, it was felt that the severe and profound children should be dealt with specially in such schools where the trained teachers and aids can help such children to learn something consequential. Resource persons Maya Ram Sharma and Deep Ram Sharma from the Institute of Hearing and Speech Impairment, Dhalli, Shimla, also explained the intricacies of dealing with such children.
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Campus
Notes Dr Paramjit Singh Sidhu, Professor, School of Punjabi Studies of Guru Nanak Dev University, has been appointed as Director of the All-India Services Pre-Examination Training Centre till March 31 next year. His appointment has been made in place of the present Director, Dr Gurupdesh Singh, who is proceeding on sabbatical leave, a university press release said here. Similarly, Dr Narpinder Singh, Professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology, has been appointed as Coordinator of University-Industry Linkage Programme (UILP) in place of Dr R. K. Mahajan who is currently on sabbatical leave.
Dean attends 13th Pan- Arab Orthopedic Congress Dr Jaspal Singh Sandhu, dean, Faculty of Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy of the university, attended the 13th Pan-Arab Orthopaedic Congress, held recently at Muscat (Oman), and delivered plenary lectures. During this congress, Dr Sandhu also made a presentation regarding the forthcoming 12th Asian Federation of Sports Medicine Congress to be hosted by Guru Nanak Dev University next year. This is the first International Congress of Sports Medicine being held in India. Dr Sandhu, who also conducted a workshop on sports medicine there on the invitation of the Ministry of Health, Sultanate of Oman, said the Gulf countries would be actively participating in this mega event to be organised in Amritsar.
Refresher course A three-week refresher course in chemistry for university and college teachers was concluded here. Twenty-one teachers from Assam and Punjab participated in the course. While delivering valedictory address, Prof N. Sathyamurthy, director, India Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, emphasised that the theoretical and simulation methodologies were extremely useful in predicting the properties and applications of future nano materials. The refresher course is an opportunity where one gets the new ideas and information about the new fields, which can be implemented later on, he added. He further said that lecture should be critical as it would save the time of the students as well as of the teacher. Dr Harjit Singh, Professor Emeritus of Department of Chemistry, emphasised that the basic aim of the course was to inspire the teacher participants for the future challenges. The course co-ordinator, Dr Subodh Kumar, informed that in the refresher course "Chemistry Today and Tomorrow", more than 25 resource persons from various institutions shared their knowledge and experiences with the participants. Forty lectures were delivered during the refresher course. — Contributed by P. K. Jaiswar
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Not too long ago the career choices began and ended with options one could count on fingertips. However, as the world undergoes a paradigm shift, turns into one big global village, the students could actually be spoilt for choice. The career choices are in multitudes. So, does career counselling become mandatory? Harish Dhillon, principal, YPS, SAS Nagar, nods emphatically, “Indeed, students have to be made aware of the vast range of possible careers.” And that’s not all; they need to be tested, too. 
AIMED at sensitising the teachers for dealing with the disabled students, who receive education along with normal students in ordinary schools, a three-day workshop organised at the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) advocated the need for special training to help provide a barrier-free environment to these students.