OCCUPATIONAL EDUCATION is not new to our country. Its roots goes back to British era when in 1854 under Woods dispatch, it was introduced in India. In 19th century, India had a reasonably good vocational and technical system. But the suspicion that vocational education is ‘second class education’ away from academic education and restricted only to rural areas became very strong.
It’s a very general assumption that general education creates ‘general human capital’ and vocational education crease ‘specific human capital’. This force us to make a choice between them rather than taking both as part of our curriculum. Till date, vocational education is only restricted to polytechnics, colleges at tertiary level and institutes outside formal education; in a few states it’s included in senior secondary schools and post senior secondary level.
The UNESCO in 1974, recommended vocational education as an integral part of general education, a means of preparing for an occupational field and as an instrument to reduce the mismatches between education and employment and between school and society at large.
Many unemployed youth from rural or semi-urban backgrounds, who cannot access higher education and seek white collar jobs are driven by jobless despair. On the other hand, there is a shortage of skilled professionals. While our education system focuses on higher education in IIT’s, IIMs and AIIMS, the real priority should lie in developing primary education.
The ASSOCHAM paper conducted a survey recently and published that a meagre 2 per cent of the Indian work force is vocationally qualified against 65 per cent in Germany and between 75 and 80 per cent in the USA, EU and China. It also illustrates that India lags far behind other nations in the field of vocational training.
The courses taken up as part of vocational training have also changed over the years and include not only potters, blacksmiths, technicians and nurses but also event management, tourism, teachers’ training, cooking, airlines, salesmanship, etc.
Introducing vocational training at the primary level has its own advantages. It’s seen as the answer to an enrolment problem ie the tendency of numerous students (especially lower class students) to drop out of schools without occupational skills. More specifically, it is believed to be an effective answer to rural problems to eliminate unemployment. It is very useful to reorient student attitudes towards rural society to halt urban migration. These policies would make our education system more of a professional building programme and thus will enable the youth to work in diverse work areas.
In our democratic country, we need to introduce an education which can influence one’s life. Today’s youth should not come out of school not as merely as intellectual geeks but also as practical men of nation. As Gandhi said, “India lives in its villages (which) lack access to higher education. So, even a tenth standard passed person ends up sowing his father’s fields. In today’s world even a clerical job needs a graduation degree. If at all; this tenth standard person would have been introduced to some kind of vocational education at primary level of his education; he would have certainly prevented being a parasite on his parents. He could choose from various courses offered, which he can pursue rather than sticking to conventional jobs paying menial salaries.”
This training would also benefit rural women in India who are married after a certain age without even completing their education. If they learn some sort of vocational work like stitching, pottery making, embroidery, salesmanship, nursing, teachers training etc; then they have strength to earn their own livelihood without being dependant on anybody else.
The fact that acquiring higher education can only enable you to earn your living should be completely erased off, at least from our country. The need is to impart knowledge of all kinds right from the very early age so that later on he/she should be capable of doing something to earn his/her livelihood; rather than being dependent on others or feel crippled of not acquiring higher education.
A survey reveals that 97 per cent of employment is in the small and medium sector. Vocational education develops ‘skill culture’, which India lacks in huge way. It changes the mindsets of people towards the manual work in contrast to pure academic culture and preference for white collar jobs.
If our education system becomes slightly flexible in taking vocational education a bit seriously and introduce it to compulsory primary level, we can get internationally certified carpenters, car mechanics, retailers, export-import assistants, wholesalers, masons, electricians, gardeners, beauticians and the like and India could transform itself from an economy burdened with unemployment to an employment generator.
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