SECONDARY EDUCATION AND 
VOCATIONALISATION
 

Shri Chitta Basu, MP, General Secretary, All India Forward Block, 28, Gurudwara Rakabganj Road, New Delhi (15.10.90)

- Education should aim at necessary social changes in the country. It must motivate our students to work for socialist reorientation of our society.

- There should be general education for all upto Class X and after that arrangements should be made for most of the students, for different kinds of vocational training for two more years, mainly in schools but in other centres of vocational training too.

- Some of the students considered fit for higher technical education like engineering, medicine, agriculture etc. should be allowed to pursue their studies after the 12th class.

- Higher education, particularly in general streams, should be restricted to the meritorious few, and this is possible only when a relevant system of vocational training is made available for general students.

- The schemes for vocational and technical education should be planned in such a may that it makes the right to work real and effective.

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Prof. S. Guha Ray, Population Studies Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 Barrackpore Trunk Road, Calcutta

- Secondary education should be vocationalised.

Dr. K. Bakta Vatsal Rao, 2-2-1144/1/B, PO Lane, new Nallankunta, Hyderabad (6.10.90)

- At the +2 stage of education., the vocational and generation education streams should be combined in view of the poor response to the present separate vocational stream. The +2 stage of education should receive special attention. It should be de-linked from the school stage and an autonomous body should be established in each state for monitoring the +2 stage of education.

Shri S.P. Patil, Headmaster, Z.P. Primary School, Pune (30.9.90)

- At the secondary level, vocational education should be provided.

- There should be sound corelation. between school education and employment.

- Autonomy should be given to schools. They should be kept out of the purview of inspection by education officer etc..

- There should be strong link between education and employment.

- Vocational courses should be formulated in such a way that students can Join immediately after passing out from school. Apprenticeship Act may be amended for this purpose.

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Shri Sita Ram Singh, Lecturer, H.N.K. +2 School, Arrah, Bhojpur, (Bihar).

- Neighbourhood school system should be introduced and free and compulsory vocational education should be provided to 9-12 age group.

- All students should be engaged in productive work; sale and marketing of products should also be done by the students themselves. Profits could be given to students and school.

- Some hours should be fixed for practical field work.

- Secondary education should be employment oriented so that after passing out from school they could engage in employment like photography, book binding etc.

Shri G.S. Sharma, President, Karnataka Unaided Schools' Management Association, 9 Vanivilas Road, V.V. Puram, Bangalore (15.10.1990)

- Small scale industries should be involved in a big way in efforts to making vocational education life-oriented and achieve the goal of empowering people to work. Subjects chosen for vocational training should depend upon environment and needs of the locality.

Prof. A. Rama Rao, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016 (14th September 1990)

- Vocational Education was given pride of place by Kothari Commission. The NPE 1986 also reiterated this position. The Review committee may formulate suitable strategies for implementing the concept of Vocational Education with practical and implementable programmes.

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Shri Achyutananda Raut, Bijapur, P.O. Madhupur, Distt. Cuttack, Pin 754204, Orissa

- Vocational training should be tuned to the local conditions. Education should establish effective linkages between the world of school and world of work. Secondary education should not be fragmented into vocational and academic streams.

The Principal, Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Karad, 415110 (11.10.1990)

- A national fund for professionalizing the technical, business and commerce education should be developed. Industrial units business establishments, banks etc. should have education wings. The in-house training facilities of these institutions may be thrown open to the students.

Shri Harminder Singh Dhanoa, Lecturer, Govt. College of Education, Patiala AND Dr. Sunil Dutt, Lecturer, Sohan Lal DAV College of Education, Ambala City.

- No doubt vocationalisation of secondary education is a must but for this, we should provide resources to the schools. More ITIs and polytechnics need to be opened to divert students towards vocational streams.

Prof. Jacob Aikara, Professor and Head, Unit for Research in the sociology of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Post Box No. 8313, Bombay 400088. (6th October, 1990)

- The idea of making work experience or socially useful productive work compulsory at the elementary school level and having a core curriculum of vocational component for all students at the secondary level is worth while.

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- The proposal to provide opportunities for higher education to those who follow vocational courses at the higher secondary level is in the right direction. It is likely to make the vocational courses more attractive to students.

- The proposal for involving the industries in vocational training through "work benches" and "Practice schools" is a commendable one. It will not only enhance the respectibility of the vocational courses among the employers but also provide the much needed financial assistance for the vocational courses.

Director, Pre-University Education and Ex-Officio Secretary to the Board of Pre-University Education, Government of Karnataka,. Palace Road, Bangalore-560001 (16th October, 1990)

- Our experience of the last forty years has shown that vocational courses are merely theoretical and those who come out of it feel themselves as fish out of water when they enter the field of work. Care should be taken, therefore, to make these courses really practical in order to effect operational linkages between school and work places. Duplication of courses (Polytechnics and ITIs) should be avoided.

Dr. R. Bandyopadhyay, Director, Centre for Applied Systems Analysis in Development, D-5/8, Salunke Vihar, Pune-411022 (19.10.90)

- It is necessary that formal pre-entry educational system (before taking up a job or entering a profession) should be integrated with post-entry educational and training systems available with various organisations offering productive employment.

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- Attempts should be made (as in West Germany) to create appropriate adjustments between streams and graduation from vocational and technical education system on the one hand and the needs of the enterprises on the other.

- Education should have a common stream upto class X; in every curriculum courses there should be a compulsory component of vocational courses. Such courses should have both theory and practical parts. Actual work practice should from part of such vocational courses. Skilled mechanics and technicians should be involved in imparting vocational work experience in formal and semi organised production centres, maintenance workshops, etc. Concepts of 'work bench' and 'practice school' should be given practical shape.

- All existing ITIs should be upgraded where the initial entrants should be outputs from class X of schools. Existing diploma level polytechnics should be utilised for giving 3 year courses after +2 stage. Degree level courses should be of 4 year duration after + 2 stage. Post-graduate/research work in vocational/professional subjects should be done at University and advanced level Institutions. Expenditure of such institutions should be met by the government, R&D organisations and R&D units attached to corporate organisations.

- At secondary education stage 40% of the cost should be realised through education cess and contribution of the community. The remaining sixty percent should be borne by the State.

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Shri Y.K. Gupta, Reader in English, Regional College of Education, Mysore-570006 (8th October, 1990)

- Vocational education should be an integrated part of curriculum right from elementary stage to collegiate stage. Weightage to work-experience should be reasonable - at elementary level 30% to 40%, secondary level 20% to 30% and higher secondary level (academic stream) 20% in terms of time and curriculum.

- Since the courses offered by the polytechnics and under vocationalisation of higher secondary education cater to the middle level workers of the productive organisation, duplication in offering the courses should be avoided by the two system.

Shri S.S. Salgonkar, Jt. D.E. (School Education), Directorate of Education, M.S., Pune (10th October, 1990)

- Holistic view of education necessitates close coordination between different departments dealing with education through periodical coordination meetings. However, such integrated approach at the micro level may not be possible. The scope of vocational and technical education is limited to areas having infrastructure suitable for such type of courses. Vocational and technical education, however, needs substantial inputs in terms of skilled manpower, workshop facilities, etc. Therefore, the planning of vocational and technical education at the district level or below may have to be done independently.

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Shri P. Lyngdoh, Assistant Headmaster, Sokha Government High School, P.O. Sohkha via Dwaki, Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya (13.10.1990)

- The incorporation of Socially Useful Productive Work in the curriculum will not serve the purpose unless job opportunities are created. Job opportunities can be created through development projects only. Therefore, coordination of all concerned connected with development would be necessary for successful implementation of proposal of SUPW.

Prof. Ali Ashraf, Director, Gandhian Institute of Studies, P.B.No. 1116, Rajghat, Varanasi (13th October, 1990)

- The Perspective Paper does not examine the causes underlying the failure of efforts on vocationalisation in the past. The vocational training in our society is part of the family trade and children learn the traditional art and craft in their own families. The problem is that, the children either grow up following their caste/family occupation without going to school or go to a school of a kind that uproots them from their traditional occupation and renders them useless. An effective method would be to combine occupational training with general education with a view to raising the status of those employed in traditional arts and crafts.

- At present higher priority is given to technical education of a higher order than that of ordinary requirements. The technical education at the maintenance and repair level will help in tackling the problem of unemployment.

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Prof. Sourindra Bhattacharyya, MP (Rajya Sabha) (22.10.1990)

- The proposals on opening up of school system and vocationalisation of education raise certain questions. Firstly, whether such a school set up would be adequate to fulfil the needs of universalisation. of education and secondly, whether the various aspects of structural changes necessary for the new school system have been full considered and how the change would be effected. What happens to non- formal schools and vocational institutions has to be worked out. Modalities of multi-point entry have to be worked out. Staggering of working hours for school and responsibility for non-formalised education would require co-operation of teachers whose willing co-operation is essential for the success of the proposed scheme. While the idea to depend on the proposed school system of education in the work of universalisation of education is welcome, the field of Higher Education with its teachers and students must be utilised for achieving universalisation of education, really and truly.

Dr. (Smt.) Jyoti H. Trivedi, Raj Mahal, Juhu Koliwada, Bombay (17th September, 1990)

- Up to the higher secondary level education should have both general and vocational components.

- At the higher level, one-year of compulsory practical work in the designated field at the designated place should be part of the curriculum.

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Shri R. Slattery, Principal, Teacher's Training College, Sitagarha P.O., Hazaribag Distt., Bihar (22nd October, 1990)

- Work experience should be an integral part of the curriculum at the primary and the secondary levels. There should not be compartmentalisation into academic and vocational streams.

Shri D.J.K. Cornelius, A-916, Poonamalle High Road, Madras (24th October, 1990)

- Course development and training skills should be matched with the needs of the employing agencies and indeed, a significant part of the training should be desirably carried out at the user institutions.

- The system should be flexible enough to take into account the needs of the learner irrespective of age or subject Inclination. Students should be permitted to take subjects according to their preference and abilities and be permitted to "float" classwise and receive remedial assistance whenever necesary.

Dr. B.P. Barua, Director, Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation,, Block: DD-34, Sector-I, Salt Lake, Calcutta (16.10.1990)

- Once quality of education is improved in government funded schools there will be automatic development of common school system and neighbourhood schools. One of the measures for improving the quality of education is to give more stress on learning than on teaching after the students have acquired the basic skills of learning. To facilitate self-learning every school should have a

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well-equipped library with qualified staff who can not only organise the materials but also teach the students the technique of gathering desired information from various documents.

Dr. (Mrs.) Radha Thiagarajan, Vice-Chancellor, Alagappa University, Alagappa Nagar, Karaikudi (19.10.1990)

The introduction of vocational education at the higher secondary level has not achieved the desired objectives. Although the drop out rate has been considerably reduced as a result of it development of skills has not been to desired extent. The chances for vertical mobility for vocational students have become remote.

Dr. S. Unnikrishna Pillai, Principal, Regionl Engineering College, Calicut, Kerala-673601 (18.10.90)

- The 'work bench' and 'practice schools' concept though laudable., is unworkable in practice considering the numbers involved. Even in higher technical education where the numbers are very small, work training programmes have not been successful by and large.

Shri K.S. Acharlu, Gandhi Vigyan, 80, Temple Road, I Main, Malleswaram, Bangalore-560 003 (8.10.90)

- Assessment of the SUPW should not be in terms of marks assigned to different processes but on the basis of skills learnt and the needs satisfied by individual students or in small groups. A diary of the day to day work done, the knowledge gained, production achieved with sketches and tables of statistics will more than answer the needs of assessment.

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Ms. Marie Correa, All India Association for Christian Higher Education, 39, Institutional Area, D-Block, Janakpuri, New Delhi- 110058 (16.10.90)

- School learning should be made attractive with variety in methodology. No home-work should be given. All texts should be retained in school itself.

- The syllabus/curriculum for education from pre-primary to doctoral research stage should be planned as a whole. Phase I should be from KG to Class VII (agewise 3-12 years). The subjects should be divided Into a series of units each to be completed in three months. It should include academic subjects which are relevant to life and work, arts and crafts (SUPW) and moral values. Internal assessment by the teacher concerned should be the only form of evaluation. Thus Interest would be sustained, the "drop-out" rate would drop, the link between the worlds of school and work would be maintained and there would be provision for multiple entry and exit points. At the end of this stage a form of career guidance tests should be planned to determine eligibility for specific vocational courses or specialised higher educational programmes. The second phase should be Stds VIII-XII (ages 13-17) following the same system with gradations towards more knowledge in the world of school and more practice (field work) in the world of work. Phase III should be university education for graduation., post-graduation and research which again should be inter-linked. Here the freedom of choice of modules would be significant.