COIMBATORE: The school education department has directed headmasters of government higher secondary schools to take class 12 vocational students on an industrial visit (IV) in October.
Official sources said that senior officers from the school education department have assured educational officers in the district that funds for the IV would be released soon, and the process is already underway. Earlier, on August 28, TNIE published a report titled — Fund crunch gets in the way of industrial visit of vocational school students.
An educational officer in Coimbatore told TNIE that a meeting was held on Wednesday with the 17 headmasters from government schools in the city that offer vocational courses.
"In this meeting, we directed the headmasters to take students for the industrial visit starting next month and instructed them to make the necessary arrangements for it. Funds will be released to the schools by the end of this month," she said.
Welcoming the move, a headmaster who attended the meeting told TNIE that they have planned to take the students on the industrial visit between October 6 and 14 within the district.
"In 2023, the school education department introduced industrial visits for Class 12 students to help them understand current industry trends and ensure trade-specific exposure in vocational education. For this, the state government allocated Rs 600 per student for the visit. However, like last year, we had received no communication about the visits and funding until the end of August, and we took the students on the visit only in August of last year," he said.
"Until the end of August, officers had been saying that there was no chance of releasing funds for the industrial visit. Now, the department has directed schools to take students on the visit. As a result, at least 20,000 students from 400 government schools across the state would benefit," he said.