NEW DELHI:To boost vocational education, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is working on a new incentive scheme to target private schools and is exploring the possibility of including courses on cyber security, forensic science and early childhood care in the curricula.
The government wants to introduce vocational education in government-aided and registered private schools and is toying with the idea of launching a pilot project in one or two states before launching it nationally with a proposed Rs 1,500 as incentive for the students as fee concession.
States like Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, which have a large number of aided schools, will get sanction for more schools under the scheme from the next academic year and preference would be given to special-focus districts and rural areas. With a view to ensure safety in case schools do not adhere to the norms, a disqualification clause has also been included in the scheme.
At a review meeting, the need was voiced for setting Industry Advisory Boards at the state level by roping in industry players for facilitating internship, training and assessment of skills of students with certain prefixed standards.
Courses on new and emerging sectors such as optical fibre, cyber security, forensic science and early childhood care are on the agenda of the Ministry.
The HRD Ministry wanted to implement the incentive scheme through State Boards of Education and is in the process of convening a meeting of State Boards of Education along with the industry representatives to ensure proper coordination among the industry and the Boards of Education.
Sources in the Ministry said the government wanted to target the secondary and higher secondary education to promote vocational education.
Under the Centrally sponsored scheme of vocational education, the vocational subject has to be taught as an additional subject at the secondary level and as a compulsory subject at the higher secondary level.
At a recent meeting, it was emphasized that to create clear pathways for developing skill proficiency within school education and to raise the stature of vocational education at par with other subjects, it is important to assign sufficient teaching and learning hours to the vocational subject.
Though many state Boards have taken steps to reform the scheme of subjects in alignment with the scheme guidelines, the State Boards of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh while adopting the competency-based curricula and courseware continue to offer vocational education as a seventh subject at the secondary level. Though it offers vocational education as a seventh subject, the State Board of Chattisgarh has a provision for tabulation of result on the basis of marks obtained in best six subjects.
However, the states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha are yet to initiate change in scheme of subjects.
The Ministry has recently emphasized to the states that offering vocational education as seventh subject will not only overburden the students, but will also pose difficulties in providing adequate teaching-learning hours for the subject.