BHUBANESWAR: The Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) has decided to form a special committee to review the quality of vocational courses and bring those at par with regular courses offered in Plus Two colleges of the State.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Department of Higher Education (DHE) Principal Secretary Gagan Dhal here on Friday.
About 10,000 students take admission into vocational courses in different junior colleges every year. The courses were originally conceptualised to make the students self-sufficient in terms of employment. But there are no official statistics so far to suggest how the students pursuing vocational courses fared after completion of the courses.
Different skill-based specialisations are currently offered under the vocational courses which include Dairying, Poultry Farming, Crop Production, Medical and Laboratory Technician, Repair and Maintenance of Power Driven Farm Machinery, Insurance, Creche and Pre-School Management, Tax Assistant and other similar courses.
CHSE Chairman Basudev Chattoi, who was also present at the meeting, said the main responsibility of the committee will be to take stock of the number of students who have become self-sustained after receiving training under the courses.
Few years back, CHSE had notified that students pursuing vocational education with subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology will be treated at par with their Plus Two Science counterparts. Despite the notification, Council officials received the reports that students, who pass out of vocational courses, are being hard pressed to get admission in regular graduation courses on many occasions.
In order to tackle this stumbling block, CHSE has been asked by DHE to revamp the curriculum of vocational courses keeping in mind the course structure of national boards like Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
Chattoi said they will look into the drawbacks and lacunae in the existing course structure and bring about a change accordingly. The Council will now work on a draft proposal which will be sent for final approval to DHE.