VIJAYAWADA: Even though the State Education Department had announced to start skill education in schools from the current academic year, topics for the same are yet to be finalised due to lack of coordination among officials.In fact, the Union government in coordination with the State government has initiated skill education in over 50 subjects in 206 schools across the State under the Rashtriya Madhyamika Siksha Abhiyan (RMSA). The main concept is imparting quality education in English Medium to children in Educationally Backward Blocks (EBB). The overall programme is designed to cover all 200 sessions.
The State is adopting the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) aligned curriculum and text books prepared by the Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education (PSSCIVE) located in Bhopal.
Vocational Education Programme
There will be one to two Vocational Coordinators for the concerned set to coordinate the programme and also provide required information to AP-RMSA and APSSDC. Apart from this, they need laboratory set-up in schools with the tools and equipment required for each set as per the list provided by PSSCIVE.
In addition to the regular theory and practical, there will be Industrial visits and Guest Lectures in the Vocational Education Programme. The Centrally sponsored project received good response in 2016-17. Following the same, the State government wants to get it implemented in all the government schools across the State for students in Class 9. However, the project is not getting on track even after 50 per cent of the academic year is over.
126 schools last year
Speaking to Express, Anuradha, State coordinator of RMSA AP, said that in 2016-17, they had conducted courses in 126 schools across the State. “But this year, we increased it to 206 schools, including model schools, Social welfare schools etc. The State government has the proposal to get it implemented in all schools and we have identified 50 courses with both IT and non-IT courses,” Anuradha said. She stated that under the RMSA project, the infrastructure of all schools has improved, additional class rooms built, furniture provided and laboratory facilities created. “Soon, we are thinking that the department would roll out their courses,” she said.
The RMSA official said that the skill set courses include media, entertainment, physical education, finance and banking, health education, computer training, fashion designing and apparel making and beauty and wellness training and many more.