VOCATIONALISATION OF HIGHER SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE MEMBER-SCHOOLS OF THE CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION
The Central Board of Secondary Education switched over to the 10+2 pattern from 1st May, 1975 beginning with class ]X. The courses at the secondary stage centred round general and comprehensive education covering different aspects of human experience and endeavour. The Senior Secondary stage (+2) commenced from 1st July, 1977. This stage is characterised by diversification of education aiming at offering opportunities for selection of subjects and programmes of study from a wider scale in order to suit different tastes and talents.
In pursuance of the recommendations of the Education Commission of 1976 and further reiterated in National Policy on Education, 1968 issued by Ministry of Education & Social Welfare, Govt. of India, an effort has also been made to link education with productivity.
Accordingly two streams have been provided in the scheme adopted by CBSE viz academic and vocational. Earlier, there was a proposal that an undifferentiated scheme containing both academic and vocational courses be provided. The students under this scheme may choose either all academic courses or vocational courses or they may also choose suitable combinations of a few academic and one or two vocational courses. It was also envisaged that the vocational courses should be of the duration ranging from 6 months to two years. Each vocational course would have a weightage of half to two months depending upon the length of their duration. The idea, behind such proposal was to attract more students to vocational courses without alieniating them from the academic courses.
Courses-Nature and Object Subsequently, National Council of Educational Research & Training in its document 'Higher Secondary Education and its Vocationalisation' suggested two separate streams with a provision that a student may be allowed to transfer from the academic to the vocational stream and vice versa, without having to start in the other stream from the very beginning. The courses therefore were structured in such a manner that in the first semester of each course common elements of theory drawing from basic disciplines are emphasised so that the students may provisionally belong either to the academic or to the vocational stream.
Since the purpose was to divert as many students as possible to the main stream of life the vocational courses were designed to be terminal in character so that those offering vocational courses are not handicapped for their future studies. As such an effort was made to provide a vertical link both with the courses of academic nature as well as vocational and technical nature.
The, courses were kept of of uniform duration i.e. 2 years coinciding with the duration of the academic courses owing to the fact that in the transitional stage it was difficult to locate the facilities in or out of school for the extended courses. This also involved the difficulty as to whether the schools should be made responsible for these extended courses. This also involved the difficulty as to whether the schools should be made responsible for these extended courses or they should be managed by other independent agencies.
Broadly speaking the aims of vocational education could be summarised as follows :-
(i) To link education with productivity.
(ii) To make students more employment-worthy with the ultimate aim of making them capable of self-employment, if the need be.
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(iii) To provide the students with essential occupational background and familiarity with the tools, materials, processes and technological knowledge .
(iv) To provide more broad based occupational experience rather than training for a specified job. With a view to making students available as many avenues as possible after termination of education.
Structure & Placement The CBSE adopted the scheme of studies and the courses prepared by NCERT. To begin with the following course structure was suggested.
Share of total time
available
(a) A core course for all the students
offering academic or vocational stream 25%
(i) One language 10%
(ii) General Study 15%
(b) A Vocational course 75%
(i) Study of basic Sciences or Social
Sciences relevant to vocation 25%
(ii) Practical skills and occupational
experience 50%
Subsequently it was felt on the basis of feed back received from the schools that the total load of curriculum as provided in the scheme above was very heavy considering the total time available at the disposal of students. The subject of General Study which was compulsory for all the students, was thus later dropped from the scheme and the time allocation was redone, As per the existing scheme a student now has to offer one language and one vocational courses carrying 20 per cent and 80 per cent of the total time respectively.
Selection of Courses The courses were selected in keeping with the employment potential in the country. Advice in this connection was sought from the Director General of Employment & Training, Government of India, which suggested the broad areas where the employment potential was relatively high in keeping with the economic, policies and programmes of the Government. A wide variety of courses were selected relating to Agriculture, Engineering and Technology, Commerce and Trade, Home Science, Health and Para-medical services etc. etc. the list of which is at Appendix A. The basic guiding factor in providing a wide choice of courses had been as follows :-
(i) To cater to the varied aptitudes and interests of the students.
(ii) To meet the requirements of schools as necessitated by regional diversities.
The courses were divided into four semesters and credits were assigned to each one of them. Emphasis was laid on assessment of practical skills hence internal assessment was given a considerable weightage. In actual practice however the semester system was not found much practical on account of several factors. The biggest criticism of the semester system was that this would increase the multiplicity of examinations and thereby will make public examinations more dominant than ever. The semester system therefore was done away with by CBSE, replacing it with two examinations : one at the end of Class XI and the other at the end of Class XII. Since the vocational courses required continuous assessment to be done internally by the schools therefore the assessment in Class XI was wholly made internal. The schools are required to maintain a continuous record of the students growth in these courses, with particular reference to the skills that are involved in the process.
Implementation The CBSE has different categories of schools which are administratively controlled by different agencies. The schools of the Union Territories such as Delhi, Andaman &
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Nicobar, Chandigarh etc. are administered by their respective administrations while the Kendriya Vidyalayas come under Kendra Vidyalaya Sangathan, Besides this, the CBSE also has military schools, Sainik Schools and independent schools attached to it which are again controlled by their respective organisations. The responsibility of vocational courses in these schools therefore primarily rests with these organisations as far as the finances, equipment and teachers are concerned. The Board in order to help in effective implementation of the programme supplied lists of minimum requirements and equipment to guide the schools and agencies in properly equipping their workshops laboratories and farms.
As far as the independent schools are concerned the Board circulated a detailed questionnaire to assess their potentialities. The schools selected vocational courses out of the given list according to their regional requirements. The vocational courses were allowed by the Board only to such schools which had adequate facilities in respect of equipment and finance as laid down by it.
Position of Vocational Courses in Schools (a) Union Territory of Delhi
The Vocational courses were started for the first time in Class XI during 1977-78 in 17 schools of the Union Territory of Delhi of which 2 were the Technical Higher Secondary Schools and the rest the non-technical schools. The break up of the courses offered by different schools and the candidates is as follows :-
Name of the Course Number of Number of
Schools in Candidates
which provision
made
1. Basic Electrical Technology 2 165
2. Electronic Technology 2 142
3. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
Technology 2 143
4. Canteen Management 1 -
5. Accountancy and Auditing 5 121
6. Stenography 5 75
7. Nutrition and Food Preservation 1 26
8. Dress Making & Designing 2 15
9. Textiles and Designs 2 20
707
(b) Arunachal Pradesh
1. Stenography 2 20
The provision was also made for the courses such as Agriculture, Dress Making & Designing, Accountancy and Auditing, Office Management' and Secretarial Practice, but no student opted these courses.
(c) kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
Provision for different courses was made in 24 Kendriya Vidyalayas the details of which are as follows :-
1. Dress Making & Designing 12 -
2. Furniture Making & Designing 7 -
3. Photography 1 -
4. Canteen Management 1 -
5. Fisheries 2 -
6. Stenography 2 8
(only in one
school)
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(d) Other Schools
5 schools other than Govt. Schools and Kendriya Vidyalayas offered vocational courses which areas follows :-
1. Basic Electrical Technology 2 15
2. Secretarial Practice 1 11
3. Accountancy and Auditing 1 33
4. Stenography 1 9
From the picture given above it may be seen that only the erstwhile technical schools offered the subjects related to technology while the others did not offer perhaps on account of heavy initial investment. Enrolment in these areas is quite satisfactory wherever provided for. The schools other than technical offered only such courses which did not require heavy investment and wherever the teachers were readily available particularly those relating to Commerce & Domestic Science. Of these courses the ones relating to Commerce and Office Management were more popular than the others. 2 schools have also gone for such new courses as Textiles and Designs.
It is also evident from the above figures that though provision was made for such courses as Photography, Canteen Management, Fisheries ; etc. which have a good potential but there were no candidates for these courses wherever provided for.
Problems and their Remedies The situation, as is obtaining today indicates that the vocational courses did not meet with encouraging response from the field. There could be several reasons, a few of them are listed below :-
(i) A great majority of the students wish to seek employment in organised sector, therefore very few students like to take risk with the career unless one is sure that a particular course would lead him to a specific job. This points to the need of more centralised system for identifying the courses which are acceptable to the organised sector and whose equivalence is already determined. The industry and Commerce, as is the practice in Government organisations also care more for general training in the area concerned.
(ii) The climate for self-employment was still not encouraging so that the students with the type of training provided in the schools could feel themselves confident to risk a heavy investment.
(iii) A heavy investment is needed by the schools in terms of equipment and teacher which can be rendered useless by the changing demands of the employment market. This factor has discouraged several institutions to come forward for vocational courses.
(iv) Due to geographical distances, particularly with reference to CBSE schools, it has not been possible to share the limited resources available. This has further increased the cost of investment.
The CBSE because of geographical diversity in the country cannot lay down a uniform nature of courses. In order to make these courses more attractive as the experience suggests these courses need be designed at the grass root level particularly by the schools themselves. This is all the more necessary owing to the fact that the students who have to terminate their studies in order to enter main stream of life would settle by and large in the same area where they have grown up. Their employment market therefore lies in their own districts or the states. The courses therefore should be relevant to the local requirements and be acceptable to the industry, trade or any other organised sector in the area. It is however necessary that in order to provide a proper boost to these programmes a survey at the national level is done by the appropriate agency to identify recognisable courses in different disciplines and sectors and to estimate their potential with respect to different regions of the country. Such an effort will not only make the courses more acceptable but will also help in coordination of efforts. Based on such a survey, the school may take up the programme for such syllabus development.