chennai apart from the popular science and commerce subjects students from cbse schools are also free to pick from a handful of choice electives ranging from biotechnology to fashion studies the subjects offered by select schools include fine arts entrepreneurship and itour elective in fashion studies is open to students from any stream currently we have 15 students in class xi and 18 others opting for the subject in class xii it is heartening to see boys wanting to learn the subject as well said s athmanathan principal kola saraswathi vaishnav senior secondary school kilpauk with the syllabus designed by national institute of fashion technology and approved by cbse the school has set up a separate laboratory for the course chettinad vidyashram is another school that offers the electivea few who prefer to learn computer science applications can choose the it elective in place of computer science said valli arunachalam principal padma seshadri school nungambakkam according to mahalakshmi ramjee who teaches entrepreneurship at the school the subject has prompted students to pursue courses in college that help them set up their own establishments later i think cbse introduced it to encourage students and to provide jobs for the large number of dropouts she saidbesant arundale senior secondary school kalakshetra foundation is the only school in the city and possibly the state which offers a group consisting of history painting bharatanatyam dance and one of three varieties of music including instrumental melody carnatic vocal and percussion students are allowed to choose one of the electives and match it with other groupswe started the group two years ago and have students from the city and also the northern and northeastern states wanting to join the course the number is small but the students are dedicated we have an oral entrance test to enable us to know if the children can learn the subjects the way we want them to for example a child may have a nasal twang that suits hindustani music but is not right for carnatic vocals we also test the students inclination for the subject says school principal m kalaiarasi