GUWAHATI, Aug 1 - Commerce will be introduced as an elective subject for the State board students of classes IX and X from the next academic session. The Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA) will introduce textbooks for commerce for both the classes from 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Also, laying emphasis on developing entrepreneurial skill among the students from a young age, SEBA is going to include a chapter on entrepreneurship in all the vocational courses.
�The basic knowledge of commerce like banking, accountancy, insurance, etc., is the need of the hour for every student. The purpose of bringing it for class IX and X students is to make them future ready. We are taking a number of such initiatives to link our academic curriculum with practical requirement of the students,� SEBA Chairman RC Jain told The Assam Tribune.
Commerce has been introduced as an elective subject to make a strong foundation for the students who want to pursue their higher studies in the commerce stream. By providing preliminary knowledge about commerce to the students, the new initiative will also help students who look for livelihood opportunities after matriculation, instead of continuing with further studies.
The Board already introduced employment-oriented subjects like healthcare, private security, agriculture and horticulture last year.
�Every year on an average, four lakh students take their matric examinations conducted by SEBA. In the long run, a small percentage of them get good jobs. We have to think in terms of generating self-employment by preparing the students at their high school level. The chapter on entrepreneurship will teach them the basic requirements, advantages and opportunities of becoming entrepreneurs,� Jain added.
SEBA will also introduce a special chapter on academic/career counselling for the students in the English textbook from next year. The chapter will not be a part of the curriculum, but the teachers and students will be encouraged to discuss the same in the classroom. It will contain information about various streams of study, courses available after Class X, higher secondary, degree and post-graduation and job opportunities.
�We want to make available all the basic information about the study and career opportunities to every student through this chapter to prepare our students well in advance to face the challenges of the highly competitive age,� Jain added.
