Indore: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have developed TAMANNA (Try and Measure Aptitude and Natural Abilities), an aptitude test for school students. It will enable stakeholders to know the aptitude of students of Class 9th & Class 10th.
It has been developed under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
As per the reports, CBSE conducted aptitude test in its affiliated school (across the country) and about 17,000 students appeared for the same. It was a pilot project, and now it will be available for all the students.
As per an official document, uncompromising procedures were followed by NCERT & CBSE for the development of this aptitude test. Various norms were framed from the data collected from 5491 students tested at 11 different locations in different regions of our country which makes it more appropriate to the Indian context.
According to MHRD, these aptitude tests will assess strengths of students and there is no criterion such as fail or pass. Scoring, assessment and evaluation can be carried out in accordance with the details provided in the 'Teachers and Parents Guide.'
HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal in a document stated that every student is unique and different from other students in terms of strength, height, weight etc and also has different psychological attributes such as personality, intelligence, aptitude, interest, etc.
"While one may be outspoken another may be submissive, some may be creative and flexible while others may be precise and specific, and some may excel in expressing their views while some others may do well in reasoning with numbers. It is these variations which make each student unique and sets the base for their behavioural differences in different situations," Pokhriyal added.
The career choices highlighted on the portal include police services, detective, travel and tourism, law, interior designing, and multimedia. The online test and dashboard system for the app are in still in development. However, some resources for taking the test are available on the portal.
Parents need to support skills & unique professions: Rajesh Awasthi, school principal and renowned counsellor for students based in Indore said, “It is high time that we start building skills of students in their fields of interest and this is a good initiative to support the same. However, for a change that gives students enough time to build on skills and not worry about marks, it is equally important that schools work on recognising student’s abilities and interest. Further, parents and schools must support these skills instead of discarding them as hobbies.”
Resources currently available for aptitude test
Primer: The booklet contains a sample test items and report sheet, which helps students as well as parents get an idea about the test before opening the test booklet.
Test Booklet: The test consists of various parts testing language, abstract, verbal reasoning, mechanical reasoning, numerical, spatial and perceptual aptitude.
Technical Manual: The three major considerations covered here include dimensions measured in the test, constructions and standardisations, and technical information. Further, it has notes on interpretation of scores as well.
Guide for teachers: The guide includes scoring systems, possible note of professions according to aptitudes and explains decoding the meaning of scores.
