Jalpaiguri: Career counseling project initiated for school students

jalpaiguri: A career counseling project has been initiated in Jalpaiguri district as a pilot project with the aim of building a better future for school students and showing them the right direction. Although the project was scheduled to begin in July, preliminary work has already started in the district.

This project is being started in 7 districts of the state as a pilot project under the initiative of the state Education Department and the management of the Samagra Shiksha Mission of the state. The districts, include Birbhum, Murshidabad, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Purulia, Uttardinajpur and Jalpaiguri.

A total of 4 committees have been formed for this project from the state-level to schools. One meeting each at the state and district-level has already been held. Jalpaiguri District Magistrate Moumita Godara said: “The first meeting of the committee formed at the district-level for this project has been held. Career counseling will start from July onwards in the district by linking schools with colleges.”

According to the district Education department, approximately 80,000 students of classes 10 to 12 in Jalpaiguri district will benefit from this government initiative. College and university students and professors will guide the students because they are more interested in learning about subjects outside certain streams of study. They will provide career counseling to the students after receiving proper training.

Multiple schools will be associated with one college, and the students and professors of the college will visit all the schools to provide career counseling to the students.

Antara Roy, a teacher from Jalpaiguri, said: “It has been observed that most of the students after completing higher secondary want to build their future by studying in some particular stream like engineering, medical and government jobs. But beyond this, they are unaware of the multiple aspects of other streams of education that can help build their careers and future. Even a large section of parents is not aware of this