Offbeat courses for Plus II pupils
Offbeat courses seem to have become the order of the day. And Class XII students of schools affiliated to CBSE are taking full advantage of the wider options in their curriculum.
Three new subjects — creative writing and translation studies, heritage craft and graphic designing — have been included in the list of optional subjects for students enrolling in Class XI for the next academic session. The first batch of these students will appear for exams in 2010.
City schools received a circular about this change this morning. The prescribed syllabus and books for the subjects are now awaited by the educational institutions.
Interested schools will have to seek permission from the council to start the subjects, after which the council will send a list of approved teachers.
The latest step is being seen as an attempt on the council’s part to encourage students to take up vocational courses at an early stage.
Principals are happy with the council’s approach. “Youngsters with an aptitude for creative fields will benefit the most,” said Lalita Sareen, the principal of Jamshedpur Public School.
However, getting suffic- ient students to start the course is a factor worry- ing some schools in the city.
“Not many students would be interested in vocational courses. Unless there is a healthy number of students willing to take up such subjects, the council will not grant permission to start the courses,” said S.P. Sharma, the principal of DAV Public School, Adityapur.
Availability of qualified teachers could also be a problem for the schools.
But some students have put to rest fears of adequate number of takers for the courses.
“I am more than willing to join the graphic designing course. It will certainly give me an edge over my contemporaries and familiarise myself with basic knowledge before I enrol for a professional course,” said Harsh Sharma, a student of Vidya Bharati Chinmaya Vidyalaya in Telco, another city school affiliated to the CBSE .
Source : telegraphindia.com