BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to inculcate skills among children right from the early education years, the state government has decided to include pre-vocational training for students at the elementary level.
Pre-vocational education will be started by the School and Mass Education department for students of classes VI to VIII where they will be trained in various trades from January.
The Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) has readied a module for pre-vocational exposure under which, there will be 10 days of bagless activities in an academic year during which students will be given hands-on training, lectures and taken for industry visits among other things.
The department has planned to launch the module under Samagra Shiksha - a Centrally-sponsored scheme of vocationalisation of school education and strengthening teaching-learning and results for states program (STARS) funded by World Bank.
While under Samagra Shiksha, 100 schools across all districts have been identified for implementation of pre-vocational education, the number is 600 under the WBB-STARS programme. Eleven trades have been included in the module including agriculture, food processing, tourism and hospitality, plumbing, electronics and hardware, IT, apparel and beauty and wellness. The students will also be trained in art and craft of their respective districts.
Director of OSEPA Anupam Saha said the purpose of starting pre-vocational education among the students of classes VI to VIII is to motivate them towards vocational courses so that by the time they reach class IX, they can choose which vocational trade they want to pursue in their higher grades.
At present under Samagra Shiksha, students of class IX to XII in government schools are pursuing vocational courses as a compulsory (elective) subject. For the pre-vocational training, Rs 10 lakh has been released by the government for all districts under Samagra Shiksha and Rs 84 lakh under WB-STARS programme. The step is being taken to align the school education with the National Education Policy-2022.
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