 SECONDARY EDUCATION AND VOCATIONALISATION

Shri V.P. Suri, Director of Education, Delhi Administration, Delhi (25th October, 1990)

- Vocational schools should have a link with industry so that students get exposure to industries and related work situation. Vocational. institutions should also have linkage with financial institutions so that such institutions can give financial support to the students for starting self-employment ventures.

Shri Radha Raman Shastri, Education Minister, Himachal Pradesh (25th October, 1990)

- Vocationalisation of education should be integrated in the curricula right from class VI. This is necessary as at a later stage children might have already developed certain pre-conceived notions about relative dignities of various occupations.

Shri H. Thoi Thoi Singh, Education Minister, Manipur (25th October, 1990)

- Work experience and SUPW should be made a basic component in the teaching-learning programme. The child should be oriented towards work right from class I. Programmes will have to be devised to enable students to earn while studying.

Shri S.N. Bajpai, Education Minister, Uttar Pradesh, (25th October, 1990)

- Vocationalisation of education has not worked satisfactorily so far. For effective implementation of this scheme, educational Institutions should be linked with industry.

Shri Kishan Singh Sangwan, Education Minister, Haryana, (25th October, 1990)

- Vocational courses should be begun from class IX or even earlier.

Shri K. Ramamurthy, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Gujarat, Gandhi Nagar (25th October, 1990)

- For vocationalisation of education more funds should be allocated.

Shri V. Sankara Subbaiyan, Secretary (Education), Government of Tamil Nadu, Madras, (25th October, 1990)

- Vocational courses in Tamil Nadu are quite popular as about 95000 students, i.e. one-fourth of the total, are enrolled in them. in Tamil Nadu, these courses are linked with industries.

Shri Ashok Kumar Mishra, Secretary (Education), Government of Orissa, Bhubaneswar (25th October, 1990)

- The past experiments to introduce uniform vocational education courses were not successful. One or two schools in a block should be identified and a selected trade introduced in them keeping in view the job opportunities in the area. The school should be fully equipped in terms of infrastructure, personnel and blocks and equipments.

Shri K.V. Madanan, Director of Public Instruction, Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram (25th October, 1990)

- The SUPW is a good programme as the students produce many useful and marketable things besides acquiring skills. However, there is need to give proper training to the teacher of SUPW and Work Experience.

Shri Kuruvilla John, Director of Collegiate Education, Government of Kerala, Trivandrum (25th October, 1990)

- In the area of vocationalisation the students should be involved in matters related to school management like preparation of accounts, secretarial work etc.

Shri T. Venka Reddy, Director School Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad (25th October, 1990)

- While introducing vocationalisation, the schools should start with those vocational courses for which expertise is locally available.

Prof. P.V. Indresan, IIT Delhi, New Delhi (26th October, 1990)

- The proposal to integrate vocationalisation with general. education at school level is good, but it raises many issues like competency of teachers to teach many vocations/trades, availability of raw materials for conducting such courses etc.

- Education should be job oriented and if people are convinced that employment is ensured after school education then retention rate will increase.

Dr. K. Raman Pillai, Director State Centre, Thirvananthapuram, (26th October, 1990)

- Introduction of SUPW activities would need lot of financial inputs and in view of the resource constraints the proposal in this regard should be reexamined.

Prof. V.C. Kulandaiswamy, Vice-Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi (26th October, 1990)

- A number of recommendations have been made on vocationalisation of education by NCERT, the Adiseshia Committee and Prof. Kulandiswamy Committee. These recommendation should be taken into consideration. Children should be able to shift from one steam to another. The idea to make vocational education compulsory for all during the secondary stage i.e. classes IX-XII would not be handy. Vocational education should essentially be for streamling in at classes XI and XII.

Prof. Ram Lal. G. Parik, Vice-Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad (26th October, 1990)

- Vocational. education should start from primary classes. It is not pedagogically sound to start it in classes VIII or X.

- Lower secondary stage is rightly integrated with higher secondary. Similarly pre-primary and primary stages should also be integrated.

- SUPW is more relevant than work experience. Vocationalisation of education should not be expensive. It should be in consonance with the life of the community.

Dr. S.Muthu Kumaran, Vice-Chancellor, Bharatidasan University, Tiruchirapally (26 Oct. 1990)

- Vocational education courses should be introduced from Class I Itself.

Prof. C.S. Jha, I.I.T., New Delhi (26 Oct. 1990)

- Vocational education should be given at all levels upto Class XII as a common subject. It needs to be integrated with the total curriculum.

Prof. Vijaya, IGNOU, New Delhi (26 Oct. 1990)

- The proposals on vocationalisation of education are significant.

Prof. B.R.K. Raju, Programme Adviser (NSS) Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, New Delhi (26 Oct. 1990)

- The SUPW integrates the hand, head and heart. This emphasis on integration helps in developing positive attitudes in students towards dignity of labour and manual work.

Shri R.K. Kapila, Chairman, Forum of Public Schools and Principal, Luxman Public School, New Delhi (26 Oct. 1990)

- The Committee should examine whether anything significant has been achieved by the 12 year school system instead of the earlier 11 year school system.

Dr.Jacob Aikara, Department of Sociology of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay (26 Oct. 1990)

- It is not clear how the linkage of education with industries can be implemented in rural areas.

Shri Shatrughan Prasad Singh, Joint Secretary, Bihar Madhyamik Shikshan Sangh, Patna (29 Oct. 1990)

- There should be an effective link between the world of school and the world of work. The theoretical part of curriculum can be taught in the first shift and vocational education programme in the second shift. There should not be separate streams for academic and vocational courses. Vocational curriculum should be made more relevant and need based. The competence of teachers for teaching both the academic and vocational courses needs to be improved.

Prof. A.K. Sharma, Joint Director, NCERT (Views of NCERT) (29 Oct. 1990)

- The Perspective Paper has not properly examined the 10 year general education concept implemented in the 1970s.

- It is not correct to say that the existing vocational education scheme has not attracted students. The data available with NCERT shows that the scheme has been well received in 9 States.

- The suggestion for vocationalisation of secondary education (classes IX to XII) through a common curriculum with vocational component raises the following issues:

* Will the general undifferentiated curriculum be upto class X or upto class VIII (VII in many southern states)?

* In what way is the suggestion different from the existing work experience (WE) component with pre- vocational bias for all students?

* At what stage additional vocational components will be offered for those who opt for job placements or have 10+2+3 pattern of education?

Shri V.K. Manchanda, All India Federation of Teachers Associations (29th October, 1990)

- Without a proper linkage between education and industry and more jobs in the market, vocationalisation will not succeed.

Dr. Shiv Shankar Mishra, Head, P.G. Department of Comm. & Management, Marathwada University, Aurangabad (29 Oct. 1990)

- There should be strong and effective interactions between industry and education to make vocationalisation a success. The students should be able to join the apprenticeship after the +2 level and also should be able to come back and continue studies after doing apprenticeship.

Shri J.P.B. Bhatnagar, Editor, Musalman, Madras (30 Oct. 1990)

- The practice of earning while learning should be introduced. This will help in creating sense of dignity of labour.

- The talents of children should be nurtured by developing their professional skills. Every child should acquire proficiency and expertise in at least one profession, trade or occupation.

Sh. A. Vijay Raghawan, MP, (30th October, 1990)

- A study will have to be carried out why vocationalisation of education has not happened in most of the States. Perhaps the poor industrial development of those states is a reason for this.

Shri J.N. Kaul., President, SOS Children's Village India, New Delhi (5 Nov.1990)

- Education should have a definite vocational bias which would enable a person to earn his/her living.

Smt. Nirmal a Despande, Harijan Sevak Sangh, Delhi. (5 Nov.1990)

- Vocational Education is a must. It enables the student to find his moorings in the society.

Shri Davendra Sharma, Federation of Publishers and Booksellers Associations of India, New Delhi (6th November, 1990)

- Designing of vocational. courses should be done keeping in view the capacity and psychology of children of different stages. At lower level the teaching should be limited to the development of concepts only. It will decrease work load and will prevent the child from becoming disinterested. In schools we must cultivate a culture condusive dignity of work. Adequate funds should be provided for vocationalisation of education.

Shri Shankar Vedantam, Student, Visvesvarya College of Engineering, Banglalore University, Bangalore (7th November, 1990)

- There is a need for involving industry in the area of vocational education. Industry should be brought to the school to run vocational- courses and provide avenues for employment.

Shri P. Sreerama Krishnan, Student Member, Syndicate, University of Calicut, Calicut (7th November, 1990)

- In order to increase the productive potential. of education for the service of the society, stress should be on vocational education.

Shri Pratap Samal., Secretary, All India Democratic Students Organisation, New Delhi (7th November, 1990)

- When jobs are not assured vocational education will be contradiction in terms. It would only deprive the students who opt for it from pursuing higher studies.

Shri Gregory Sequeira, President, P.G. Students' Union, Managalore University, Mangala Gangotri (7th November, 1990)

- Unless jobs are assured after vocational. educational. courses there wo'nt be enough motivation in students to join these courses.

Shri O.P. Kohli, Member, Executive, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, New Delhi, (7th November, 1990)

- Vocational education should be treated as an independent system and not a part of general education.

Shri B.P. Khandelwal, President, Council of Boards of School Education, New Delhi (26th October, 1990)

- Adequate preparation should be made before introducing the scheme of Vocationalisation of Education. There is also need for ensuring both horizontal and vertical mobility for the students going for vocational courses. It is better to establish separate vocational schools with better infrastructure for learning of skills and also providing opportunities to vocational students to get jobs. It should be made very clear whether vocational curriculum is a terminal course or not Vertical mobility should be provided to students of vocational courses either by modifying the conditions for admission to university courses or by instituting separate advanced courses in the fields of vocational subjects.