CHENNAI:In an effort to provide career guidance to students who have finished their class 10 and Plus-2 board examinations, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) under the Department of School Education has for the first time in the country introduced a career guidance counselling programme for such students.
The programme was introduced by School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan at Prince Sri Venkateshwara Padmavathi Engineering College, Medavakkam, on Thursday.
According to SCERT officials, the two-day programme will help those who have finished their class 10 and Plus-2 examinations and are wondering which course to take up. A total of 1,162 centres have been set up across the State and around 20 lakh students registered. “Today the programme was introduced in district headquarters and municipal headquarters. Tomorrow, it will be introduced in all rural blocks across the State. In Chennai, since it is election time, this programme will be held on April 18 and 19. There are 10 centres in Chennai,” said an official from the School Department. He said the programme will be held with Labour Department’s support.
He further said that the counsellors comprises faculty members from SCERT, defence, police, medical department, experts from employment office, judiciary, successful local industrialists, faculty members from neighbouring universities, academics and people from various fields. The SCERT has already trained these experts in particular fields. In all these centres, there will be several stalls on a particular subject in which the students need guidance. There will be one expert present at the stall. It will also have videos that will consist of expert advice on a particular subject, said the official. “For instance they may guide the students with advice like, instead of pursuing engineering or medicine, they may opt for paramedical courses or ethical hacking courses. The experts will give them details of new courses that are available on that particular subject the student wants to aspire,” he said, adding that the experts will also give details on the loans that are available in the higher studies. Similarly for accountancy and humanities courses, what kind of opportunities and exams are available will be answered by the experts.Each centre will have over 10 to 20 experts.
Speaking at the occasion, Sengottaiyan said the State government will continue to put pressure on the Centre to get exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) examination. New syllabus for class 10 and Plus 2 will be introduced soon and the major changes in the syllabus will be announced soon in the Assembly, he said.