It is usually seen in children of Grade 10th pick-up stream based on peer pressure, parent pressure or then suggested by teachers or family & friends. For example, if parents are doctors, the child is made to believe that he /she is born to be a doctor. If you are born into a family of scholars, then what else than engineering? Frankly speaking, Engineering, Medical, CA, IT & Law are a few common professions that society counts on as secured future goals. But there is lots more than this.
First of all, a child & his parents need to understand the streams available after 10th and what subjects are catered under each stream. They need to understand the child’s strengths, likes, aspirational goals and desirable careers. It is very important to understand what a child wants to do in life and what he/she expects from their life. Based on these a career choice needs to be made then which is the stream that is more appropriate because the subject combination you get in the stream should be beneficial for you to make a concrete base. The subjects help you to make a base for entrance preparations, too, and the knowledge you get in those subjects helps you to clarify the concepts in a much better way.
Let’s take the example of two students X & Y, who aspire to be CA, X took the Science stream of PCM Physics, Chemistry, and Maths in 11th, as he was not aware of the other streams and subjects offered under those streams because he had always heard people around him say that it is safest to take science stream after 10th. According to his Knowledge, he could choose any profession & switch to any options after science, but he never thought of the base that commerce subjects could give him for CA, as to become a CA he needed to opt for Commerce with Maths as that makes his preparations easy.
On the other hand, his friend Y who also aspired to be CA opted for Commerce with Maths after 10th as he had been to a counsellor for the session and done his groundwork like what was required to be a CA. Both start their journey & complete their 12th with good scores. Now it’s time for them to start preparations for CA Foundation at the first level. X faced lots of problems as it was all new for him as he was not from a Commerce background, but on the other hand, Y found it easy to cop up as he had the basics cleared in 11th & 12th. It is at this given point of time when X realized that he had made the wrong choice of subjects after 10th, and that’s why he was facing problems to cope with.
Well, to conclude, we need to create awareness among the children and parents about how important it is to choose the right subjects & right stream for the career they aspire to pursue. And to do so, we would have to first make them understand the importance of meeting a counsellor & the relevance of taking a counselling session as that could work as an eye opener for them and help them to wider their scope. It will give new dimensions to their thinking process and assist them to narrow their choices and focus on the filtered ones.
About the Author
Dr (HC) Sonia Achantani is a Certified Career Counsellor and Certified POSH and NLP Trainer. She is the Global Ambassador for the All India Educators Forum. She has been conducting teacher training programs and webinars on various topics.
