SCHOOL BUZZ
A scientific approach must for choosing 
Class XI subjects
Tribune News Service

Dr Samir Parikh, MD, Psychiatrist, dealing primarily in child and adolescent psychological and psychiatry issues and behavioural sciences points out few concerns about choosing Class 11 subjects.

6 Scene 1

A school has decided a cut-off system for deciding the stream choice. Any student above a certain percentage has to take science, and below it commerce streams. And even if a student with high percentage wants to take commerce, the school does not allow it.

6 Scene 2

 A student of Class 12th, got a low percentage in Class 10th and she was asked to take humanities. But she wanted to take commerce and the school made her opt for humanities only because she got low percentage. She asked the counsellor that among all subjects in Class 10th the lowest she got was Social Sciences then how one can expects that she would do well in humanities?

6 Scene 3

 The students take an aptitude test, and based on the result they take the stream. Even if they don’t want to take it, they are told that irrespective of their interest they have to take the stream as per the result of the test.

Premise:

 The above examples are just a small insight into the arbitrary system that we follow in deciding what subjects the student takes in Class 11th.

There are so many discrepancies in different school: The Subjects offered are different in different schools, the combinations of subjects vary for school to school, and the method of selection is left to personal convictions, and this is all under the same board, the same system!

Not just this, add to this the age of the child, his lack of knowledge about the various subjects and their implications in deciding a vocational or professional course in future and the pressure of parents on the child.

So, in a nutshell, we need a serious outlook into this system of class 11th subject choice and bring a level of scientific approach and consistency in it.

Suggestions:

6 The role of tests

If the question is that can aptitude test help in the choice, then the answer is ‘yes’. And if the question is that should the test be the final and only criterion for it, then the answer is a clear ‘no’.

6 What tests to consider?

Two types of tests can be used, aptitude and interest tests. And ideally both should be used.

Each individual should keep in consideration bit the ability that is shown by the aptitude test, as well as the interest for without interest it is very difficult to have motivation.

The tests should be used as help and a guiding source but not as the final judgement as there have been studies questioning the reliability of these tests. But if used by a professional, in the right manner they can be of help. But it does not end at the test. After the result of a test, it is still important for the student to go and explore the avenues that fulffill both the test results an his own wishes. The student must go and find for his own self the various institutes, talk to students in the field and professionals of the field to have a more in-depth and clear understanding of the field and its prospects.

The test should never be the diagnostic or final criteria, and should be used only as an indicator, and must be followed by an individual session with the counsellor.

6 The role of teachers

Studies have reported that the teacher of the student can be a very good judge of the child’s aptitude and the teacher’s suggestion should be taken very seriously. So, not just a psycho diagnostic test, but also the teacher’s feedback both should go hand in hand.

6 The examination marks

Well, not just marks in the previous examination, but the trend of marks in past few years should be used as an indicator of the child’s ability.

But most importantly, deciding the stream for the entire academic life, by just one result, is not very logical.

6 Role of psychologist

The psychologist would administer the test, interpret the result and then interact with the individual student.

It this session, he needs to find out the interest, assess the motivation and see the understanding the student has about the stream he wants to opt for.

And compare the previous results, take the feedback of the teachers and do a session with the family so that they act as supportive system to the child.

6 Some pointers

* Conduct aptitude and interest test, and use them as help, but never as the final say

* Take the teacher’s suggestion as he is the best judge and the teacher can able to judge the ability of the student.

* Involve the parents

* Make the student understand the implications of the subject choice

* Create awareness about various options, career choices and courses

* Be flexible, if a student realises after a few weeks that he needs to change, then accept it.

* Bring consistency to the system.

Debate Competition

Teevral Garg of Class IX gave tough competition to his fellow competitors of 13 well-known schools and won the best speaker award in the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Inter School Debate Competition held at Chiranjiv Bharati School.

As a matter of fact other participants from Amity - Isha Gupta, Sukanya Deshraj and Rohan Ganpathy all performed equally well and their performance was all the more laudable as they happened to be the youngest participants.

This competition is considered one of the most prestigious ones and highly acclaimed among various inter-school competitions. Students of Amity, Saket, also gave laudable performance at Australian Examination.

The Amity International School, Saket, boosts all endeavours to inculcate the Competitive Zest and the Inquisitive Zeal among its students. The International Assessment for schools, organised by the Educational Testing Centre of the University of New Sought Wales, Sydeny, is one such annual feature here that exposes ambitions to competition in academics at the global level.

Accordingly, the Australian exam was held for four subjects — Mathematics, English, Science and Computer Science on 26th and 27th November 2001 respectively..

The 2001-2002 session saw Rahul Garg of Class VII and Ankit Rungta of Class VIII earning gold medal for their outstanding performance in Computer Science exam and topping in Northern India.

Kids earn kudos

Two students from the junior wing of the Amity International School, Manesar — Paromita Bhattacharya and Aprajita - set outstanding examples in the Taekowondo by winning the Sixth District Taekowondo Championship held at Gurgaon.

Paromita stuck gold in the sub-junior girls’ category, and four-year-old Aparajita claimed silver medal in the (Pee Wee) girl’s category. Kudos to both the little fighting soldiers and hope they continue striving and succeeding in the true sprit of the sport, which is a Korean martial artform.

Summer delights

The Bal Bhavan Public School students got a chance to revel in summer delights when they were taken on a visit to the 14th mango festival held on 6th and 7th July.

Held at the Convention Hall of the Ashoka hotel, this mango festival offers a unique opportunity to view the innumerable varieties of mangoes on display. BBPS students namely M. Snigdha, N. Visalam and Mandeep Bhogal accompanied by their teacher incharge, Ms Sujata Verma, were an enthralled lot, mesmerised as they were at viewing the three hundred varieties of mangoes exhibited.

The festival was inaugurated by the Delhi CM Mrs Sheila Dixit, adding the right touch of authority to revelry.

A Drawing Competition was also organised on the occasion in which around 40 children participated. Mandeep Bhogal of BBPS, Mayur Vihar Ph-II won the 1st prize and was awarded a crate of mangoes, jam, pickles along with certificate of participation.

Game on Bhagat Singh

Mitashi Edutainment and Lumen Phon Multimedia recreate magic with the launch of the first of its kind 3D game on ‘Bhagat Singh’. You have heard about him, you have seen him on silver screen but now you have a chance to be in his shoes and relive the history of pre-independence India.

Priced at Rs 395, Bhagat Singh is India’s first ever 3D animation game, where the player actually plays the role of Bhagat Singh and has to go about completing a mission that involves stopping a bill from being passed in the Calcutta assembly.

The game opens with a short biography about Bhagat Singh, depicting his valour, leadership and his love for the country. Bhagat Singh is then assigned the task to kill Saunders, escape from Lahore, travel to Calcutta and stop a bill that is against Indians from being passed in the Calcutta assembly.

The mission starts with the assassination of Saunders. Evading the soldiers, the player needs to escape to the lodge in the darkness of Lahore, all the time avoiding the lethal bullets of enemy soldiers who leave no stone unturned to capture Bhagat Singh.

The player then reaches the lodge to meet Durgadevi in the morning, who is a critical link for Bhagat Singh as she alone can guide him to Calcutta from Lahore. The entire city is on red alert with the news of Saunders’ assassination spreading. Curfew has been imposed and the Britishers are drawing first blood by putting up posters across the city declaring ‘Wanted-Bhagat Singh-Dead Or Alive’.

With great skill and valour the player has to fight his way through Lahore to take the train to Calcutta. He is now at the Town Square at Calcutta. The city has been imposed with curfew to catch Bhagat Singh.

The main goal in the stage is to reach the terrace of an old building, collect the bomb from Bhagat Singh’s friend and march toward the assembly to hurl it on the executive committee meeting.

Ryan brings pride to the nation

Scorching heat, lazy days, holidays, children enjoying a respite from school - that's the scenario that flashes across one's mind when one thinks of the months of May and June.

So impressed were the organisers of the conference that they created a new and special trophy for the school - `Team Synergy Award'.

This speaks volumes for the effort and teamwork involved in being part of such a mega conference. Prior to this also the school has brought back prestigious awards from Mauritius and Singapore. What is commendable is that these young ambassadors are promoting the culture and essence of our country and youth across the globe and that's exactly what is needed in today's trying times.

Now lets get acquainted with a few members of the winning team and see how they contributed in their own ways to achieve such tremendous success.

Alisha Chaudhry, a vibrant all rounder, made waves as she won the Best Actress award in the skit presentation and was a part of the Case Study winning team. She also along with Sheena Goal fetched the first prize for her team in the poster making competition.

Wishal Rampal and Sharad Arora now veterans in the Quality Circle were invaluable members of the winning team.

They have also attended the preceding quality circle conferences in Mauritius and Singapore.

Meha Dhawan went as a messenger of peace and was highly praised for her dance and skit performances.

PRINCIPALSPEAK
Happiness shared is happiness doubled

At my passing out from school, I had requested my Principal to write something beautiful in my autograph book. In her firm handwriting, she quickly wrote. “Live and let live”. I was a little disappointed at what I had then thought was her stinginess with words, but over the years, as I went through the business of living my life, I realised that these seemingly simple words were deeply value loaded.