Need for Professional Evaluation & Assessment of students

By Mehraj Wani

First of all, let me congratulate all the students who have recently passed the 10th and 12th classes and made their dreams come to reality by studying hard. God bless all of you. You are the shining stars and future of this nation.

The point of discussion here is what after 10th? And what subject cluster after 12th? Have we ever thought about knowing self before choosing any subject/stream or cluster? What are we really good at? What can we do differently than others? The important question is what my passion is and what am I made for? Suppose in a group of 20 students, 10 students are performing well in all subjects and 5 students in just math. However, the rest 5 students are performing average in most of the subjects.

We never ask why? We just label them as Non-Performers or in Kashmiri “NaaKabili-e-Mahaz”. Are they really “NaaKabili-e-Mahaz” or just our viewpoint is negative? Are they good at or in Kashmiri “Kabil” in some other fields? Have we ever thought about the vast horizons of learning different fields of studies or just Med or Non-Med?

The solution to the problem cannot be the pieces of advice or suggestion of our relatives or friends. It is much more complicated than we think. Remember nothing is important than discussing your career on the table with a good counsellor. Advice will pour in from different corners like relatives, friends etc. If your friend or cousin is choosing something, doesn’t mean you have to go for the same. Try what you are made for, find your passion. Help yourself now to avoid dissatisfaction later. We have come across many people who chose something in which they couldn’t do well. Don’t add one more person in their queue who is just waiting for some desperate clerical job in some government department. Be independent. Create your own ways and live your life free from compulsions of the society. Dear students let me assist you and help you as much as I can. Please be careful while reading and if you have any questions please ask (mail address mentioned below).

Every human is different and born with different qualities and traits. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences was developed by Dr. Howard Gardner, Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard University and first appeared in his book, Frames of Mind, in 1983. He explored the question, what are the mental abilities that support the wide range of adult activities over time and across cultures?

He took a unique approach and rather than defining intelligence in terms of IQ scores he took a bold and divergent view of human intelligence. He suggested that Intelligence should be described as a combination of psychological and biological characteristics that enable individuals to solve problems or create products that are valued in one or more cultures.

The Theory of MI has been based on research in the fields of developmental psychology, neuropsychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and medicine. It has been widely debated globally and has come to be widely accepted.

Some of us may be good at Math and some of us may be good at Language learning or Sports. We just need to realize it. Not everyone is born to be a Scientist some are born to be Sportsmen and some are born to be Photographers. A person can be People Smart, Self-Smart, Nature Smart, Music Smart, Body Smart, Picture Smart, Number Smart or a Word Smart. Which mean people falling in the category of word smart can learn & speak new languages easily. Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid (Albert Einstein).

There are two ways of understanding all these traits and capabilities, one is the use of Psychometric method and the other one is called as Bio-Psychological method. In Psychometric method, a questionnaire is provided to a person and he/she needs to answer them one by one. However, Bio-Psychological method is based on the science of Dermatoglyphics (the study of skin markings or patterns on the fingers, hands, and feet). This branch’s validity has been proven by anthropology, genetics, medicine, and statistics. Such insight provides guidance to every individual to analyse their talents and also to identify and expand their potential early in life.

Apart from understanding & knowing natural character traits, best learning styles, finding out innate talents, strengths & weaknesses, best parenting method, discovering one’s abilities and best leadership styles & subject/education stream selection, proper counselling is necessary to help students/adults to address the complaints & grievances by a professional counsellor.

As per the recent studies the students these days just are not suffering from Depression/Anxiety but few are also drug addicted and parents often complain that their children don’t respond in a proper way. The method used by our parents is good but there are a lot of other issues as faced by our youth not just limited to being inattentive to studies or staying alone in their rooms but to internal sufferings & even it has been found that physical activities may get involved and the quality of the results may degrade. Moreover, it may not be possible for parents to counsel their children every time and that’s why they speak to their friends. Sometimes friends may have a solution to the concerned problems but if friends are not able to solve the puzzle or if the friend circle is not good enough to support and encourage then the concerned may fall in a trap and social life may get affected.

Dear students, I think it is the right time that you get yourself evaluated first before actually choosing your subjects/stream. The school management can play a vital role in implementing the process at all levels. It becomes the obligation on the parents to stress on the need of Assessment/Evaluation of their children at the school level so that issues concerning & related to the performance in school and the social life of the children may not get affected and may not show its dangerous signs at the later stages of life.

(The author is available as a free counsellor to the pass out students of class 10th and 12th. He can be reached at: [email protected])