Science or arts? Go by aptitude

Successful students of class X board exams are set to make the crucial choice of stream that will shape their careers
Devanshi Joshi.Ahmedabad/DNA

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Successful students of the class 10 board examinations whose results were declared recently have to take an important decision soon. They must decide, in a week or two, which stream - commerce, science or arts - they want to pursue in class 12. In an ideal situation, the best course of action for these students would have been to go for the stream they had an aptitude for. But circumstances being anything but ideal, most students are under tremendous pressure from different quarters to choose a stream they do not like at all. Khushbu Upadhyay from Maninagar has passed the Class 10 board exam with 81% marks. She wants to join the arts stream in Class 12 for she loves languages and always scored the highest marks in language papers all through school. Her mother, however, wants Khushbu to opt for science because "good students study science". On the other hand, Khushbu says she does not want to enter the science stream because she is not good in science subjects or maths. Aman Shah, another class 10 graduate, says he does not know which stream is best suited for him. "I scored an aggregate of 63% in my class 10 exam. I don't know which stream is best suited for me. My parents are of the view that I should not opt for the science because, overall, I am an average student."The dilemma in which these students find themselves throws up questions of general concern. Can a student decide which stream is best suited for him? Radhika Iyer, principal, Udagam School, says students should be guided solely by their aptitude in making this crucial choice. "Unfortunately, some students do what their friends are doing while some others do what their parents ask them to do. Forcing a student to opt for a particular stream without taking his aptitude into consideration can have negative consequences," said Iyer.