CBSE career guidance checklist
From pavetheway.ai. The staffing rule is from CBSE's circular of 19 January 2026; the rest is a suggested plan, not a CBSE requirement.
What CBSE requires
- Appoint a career counsellor, at a ratio of one for every 500 students in Classes 9 to 12.
- Appoint a Counselling and Wellness Teacher (socio-emotional counsellor), one for every 500 students.
- Career counsellor: a graduate or postgraduate degree in a field such as humanities, science, social sciences, management, education or technology.
- Wellness teacher: a degree in psychology, or a postgraduate degree in social work in mental health or counselling, plus CBSE's 50-hour capacity-building programme.
Staffing
- Count students in Classes 9 to 12 and work out how many career counsellors the 1:500 ratio needs.
- Check each counsellor's degree against the circular and keep the documents on file.
- Name who leads career guidance and who handles socio-emotional counselling.
Class 9 and 10
- Run a career interest assessment and discuss the results with each student.
- Hold one career conversation per student each year and note what was agreed.
- Brief parents before Class 11 stream and subject choices.
Class 11 and 12
- Build a course and college shortlist with each student, in India and abroad.
- Track entrance tests, application deadlines and documents for each student.
- Keep parents informed of deadlines and decisions.
Records
- Keep a record per student: assessments, meetings, choices and outcomes.
- Review caseloads each term so no counsellor is far above 500 students.
- Keep evidence of the programme ready for affiliation and inspection visits.
Checked against reports of the circular on 28 October 2026. Confirm details with CBSE.