Hill girls top Vocational Stream exams

Kurseong: Two students from an institute here have topped the Plus Two vocational stream exams in Bengal this year.

They are from Holy Cross Institute, the only school offering vocational education in commerce.

Sweta Bansal, a resident of Bijanbari near Darjeeling, has topped the state with 90 per cent while Babita Agarwal, a Jalpaiguri girl, scored 85 per cent in the exams conducted by West Bengal State Council of Vocational Education.

The results were declared on June 12.

Established in 1976, Holy Cross, situated 7 km from here at St Mary’s Hills, was governed by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education till 2005 when it shifted to the vocational education stream.

“This is the first batch after the new board took over. We feel that the shift has made a difference. Altogether 113 students had appeared in the final year, of whom 27 secured above 75 per cent marks while the rest got first division,” Sister Martha Matthew, the principal, told The Telegraph today.

The school authorities received the results yesterday.

Matthew attributes the performance to the introduction of many subjects in the new syllabus. “The new syllabus puts emphasise on practical training. Whatever we teach them in classes, we also show them practically on the field.”

“We have also abolished typing and shorthand and introduced new subjects like computers, computer accounting and technical marketing which we feel the students learnt with greater enthusiasm,” she said.

However, the good results are not a passport to admission in mainstream honours courses.

According to the principal, one of the universities had sent a circular stating that students from vocational stream would get admission in the pass course if they were to join the mainstream. She did not name the varsity.

Till last year, vocational students were getting admission to honours courses, she claimed.

“At present, we have no plans to take any step but we will approach the council so that the next batch benefits,” she said.

Source: The Telegraph