SSC students from Mumbai have aptitude for fine arts, commerce

TOP CHOICE 22% of 3.51L students, who took education department’s aptitude, interest test, pick the subjects

MUMBAI: More than 22% of students who appeared for SSC exams from Mumbai this year have shown interest in fine arts as a possible career option, revealed aptitude and interest tests conducted by the education department.

This year, more than 16 lakh students from the state, including 3.51 lakh from Mumbai division, appeared for the test.

Students can check their results on the state’s official website, http://www.mahacareermitra.in and on the mobile app ‘Maha Career Mitra’.

Fine arts (18.17%) and uniformservices(17.83%) —suchas Army, Navy and Air Force — emerged as two of the most preferred career choices for students in the state.

In Mumbai division, fine arts (22.9%) topped the list of preferred career options followed by commerce (18.14%) and uniform services 17.83%).

In the last three years, the state education department has been conducting ‘Kal Chachani’ (aptitude test) with the help of Shyamchi Aai Foundation to help students make informed career choices after passing their board exams.

Until now, the tests were administered online with schools using their computers for the task. From the current academic year, however, schools have been asked to use a smartphone app for conducting the test.

For the first time, the 90-minute exam tested students aptitude and not their interest in a particular subject — as done earlier.

This year, the department released the report early to ensure that students get enough time to explore career options during the summer vacations.

“Until last year, students used to get their reports alongside

board results. We realised this was too late as most students think about their career options during the vacations. With the mobile aptitude tests, we could declare results early this year,” said Sheetal Bapat, founder-director of the Shyamchi Aai Foundation.

Nirali Shah, a city-based career counsellor said that a lot of career options are now open- ing up in fine arts which might have attracted more students to the field.

“Artists have a lot of opportunities today— from playing the role of an art curator to art education; there are many areas in which there are ample job opportunities today. Commerce however continues to be popular due to the professional courses like BAF, BBA, etc,” she said.