NEED FOR CAREER PLANNING DOWNWARD EXTENSION; A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON INDIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM

Introduction: The specific aim of this paper is to find out the needs of career guidance programmes at the primary school level. For this, to find out the existing awareness level, the investigators conducted a survey using Career Awareness Scale developed for the purpose. After identifying the existing level, the research attempt focused to find out the prospects and hindrances of career planning at primary level. For this data was collected from the different stakeholders to ensure a multiple lines of approach and to reveal their specific perceptions. It is concluded that the main hindrance for the downward extension of career planning at primary level is the lack of awareness among the parents together with conceptual lacuna exist among teachers. The authors suggest a career orientation programme for a duration of two weeks the effectiveness of which was established as a part of this research adopting a quasi-experimental design. Methods: The investigator followed the single group experimental method. The assessment tool (CAS - Career Awareness Scale) and model (CPOM - Career Planning Orientation Model) was developed by the researcher. These tools was used for content validation. The Reliability tested through test-retest method Results: From the research, we identified a high level of career awareness among primary school students was only 7.1% in before the treatment. And after treatment, it was 30.96 %. There is a significant difference in pretest and posttest of the primary school students in their career awareness scale scores because the obtained ‘t' value (14.78) was more than the critical value at both levels of significance (0.05 and 0.01 levels). While comparing the Boys and girls, the obtained ‘t' value (0.941) are less than the critical value at both levels of significance (0.05 and 0.01 level). It was shown there is no significant difference between boys and girls students in career awareness scale scores. Conclusion: We used a career awareness scale with the 30 items for pretest and post-test. We used two-week training model (CPOM- Career Planning Orientation Model) for enhancing career awareness among primary school students. The findings of the study have reflected the unexcavated nature of the primary level of schooling with respect to career planning. The study asserts the need for promoting a culture of SWOT analysis among the learners. Irrespective of the gender both male and female students are to be fostered. There should be an urgent call for reorganizing the educational culture and a shift in career planning