To Explore the Vocational Interest of Academically Backward Rural Children From Selected States of India

The interdependence of school and community culture played a critical role in shaping the youth's occupational choice. For adolescent, their vocational choice is one channel through which their life's goal and purpose might be fulfilled. The career choice that adolescents make is a decision that is influenced not only by their development but also by the context in which they live. School environment is a powerful force and plays pivotal role in the all-round development of the child as children spend many hours in schools. Especially in rural settings, children are not exposed to most of the vocations which are currently available. If children get proper guidance regarding various vocations from school teachers, parents as well as from any other person or family members, they can excel in those vocations as per their capability if they opt for it. This research primarily focused to find out the vocational exposure and vocational interest of rural children in selected states of India. Present study was carried out in order to find out the vocational interest of 13 50 academic backward rural school children between the age group of 11 -17 years and to provide results based remedial solutions and interventions. Vocational Interest Record (VIR) developed by Kulshrestha (1987) was used to find out the vocational interests of the academically backward rural children. The scale measures vocational interests of the respondents in ten areas, viz., literary, scientific, executive, commercial, constructive, artistic, agriculture, persuasive, social and household. For this purpose, samples were selected from different villages of nine states in India which includes Assam (Jorhat), Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad), Haryana (Hissar), Himachal Pradesh (Palampur), Uttar Pradesh (Pantnagar), Rajasthan (Udaipur), Maharashtra (Parbhani), Punjab (Ludhiana), Uttarakhand (Dharwad). Results revealed that majority of the rural children from selected states of India were not aware of the availability of different vocational choices. Proper interventions, counselling and guidance should be given to these children that will further help them to settle in their career.