To save time, shorter test in offing for vocational guidance

“This year, with the shorter test, one can only tell students whether they are suited for science, arts or commerce. However, we have already formed a core group of 10 counsellors to rework our existing test patterns and come up with a gist of all four aspects into the new test, which can be finished in an hour’s time. We are trying to reduce time but keep the content relevant on all scores,” said B H Patil, deputy director of IVGS. Three of the counsellors will be from Pune region, seven from Mumbai, said Patil, adding that help of child psychologists will also be sought.

In Pune region, where about 700 students get counselled annually by 66 trained counsellors, vocational guidance officer Deepak Mali agrees that this year’s screening is more or less a cosmetic process. “However, at least there is a start. Until today, a few hundred students only approached us. This way, we will be able to reach out to lakhs of students. The flipside to it is that we do not have the requisite manpower to personally conduct the tests for all these students and guide them. Hence, this year, we are taking it as an exercise to raise awareness while next year will begin the actual testing,” he said.

As far as increasing the manpower goes, Mali said that the proposal has been floated to expand on a short term course for creating counsellors offered by the institute. “The diploma course is of one-year duration and the teacher needs to reside in Mumbai for the same. But we have a short term course of 21 days in which we skim through the basics and train the counsellors. However, talks are on to modify this course to include General Aptitude training so that we can create more counsellors for the next year,” he said.

Sharing details about the upcoming first-ever psychological assessment of Std X students, Patil said that the test, which will help guage the interest of students, will be offered in eight languages. “It will contain 150 questions and should be taken between 45 minutes and 1 hour. After this, we will set up a helpline and are looking at region-wise camps too. Any student who wants to study their reports can approach the counsellors on declared dates,” he said.