As part of its efforts in helping the student community of North-East Society for Careeer Orientation & Promotion of Education (SCOPE) organized a career counseling session for students seeking admission in Delhi University. The session was conducted by professors Dr Ratnadeb Sarma (Rajdhani college) and Debashree Goswami (Hindu College) on 22nd June, 2003 at the centrally located Assam Bhavan, New Delhi. The session began with an introductory note by the Secretary, spelling out the aims and objectives of the NGO. The session was made lively by the unending tirade of questions from the aspirants. The professors were quizzed on topics ranging from admission procedure, the cut-off criterion, accomodation, the north-campus and so on. From the session it was evident that the 'greenhorns' had a limited vision of prospective careers as competitive exams (civil services) was the majority choice.

Apart from University of Delhi and JNU most of the students were ignorant about other institutes and varsities in Delhi.

Regarding the issue of Awaited Results of Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) , the only option of the students is leave it to their luck. The NGO is of the opinion that the slumbering authorities should wake up to the predicament of the students seeking admission outside the State. The low marks secured by the candidates in comparision to boards like CBSE, etc is also not making the aspirants' life easy. Though the results were declared for Science stream on time but the Arts and Commerce stream students suffered miserably due to the inefficiency of the system.

The highly interactive session with the participation of more than a hundred students and parents speaks volumes about the benefits of the mission undertaken by SCOPE. The NGO has plans for many more programmes in the near future which will help the student community from North-East seeking admission in places like Delhi.

The NGO, through its website www.scopene.org has been extending all out help to the students of the region, via the Internet. The success of the website in terms of feedback made the NGO go in for admission assistance at Tezpur and Jorhat thus reaching out to a large number of the aspiring students. The admission assistance sessions for Delhi Varsity were conducted at Tezpur and Jorhat in association with 'Navodayans'-the alumni association of Navodaya Vidyalayas in Assam. The organization distributed centralized admission forms of DU and also offered the service of submitting the forms in the various colleges of DU. This exercise received enthusiastic response from the students and parents who thronged Darrang College,Tezpur and Chandrakanta Handique Bhavan( Asom Sahitya Sabha Bhavan), Jorhat in large numbers between 9th and 12th June, 2003.

SCOPE is also in the process of creating a network of professors from DU for constant update on education and career related info. which the students can access from the website. Currently professors from premier institutes like JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University), DU (University of Delhi), ISI (Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi) are helping in a number of ways.

SCOPE would like to add a word of caution on the operation of various private organizations involved in submission of forms to Delhi University. It seems that in recent years the flow of students seeking admission in Delhi University has increased many fold and with it certain agencies that submit the forms in Delhi Varsity for exhorbitant rates have mushroomed. These agencies donot have the proper know-how of the university and cannot counsel the students in any way. There is a grave danger of students landing up at the wrong course or institution.
In future the NGO can be contacted at scope_ne@rediffmail.com or through its website www.scopene.org.

Ashique A Islam
General Secretary
SCOPE
scope_ne@rediffmail.com