The Division, India, and Bharat!
The division between the educated and the illiterate, between the urban and the rural, the successful and the unemployed, the organized factory worker and the landless laborer, is growing day by day. It is almost like we have two nations, co- existing and cooperating to some extent on the same land; India growing towards the 21st century and Bharat still struggling to come out of the 17th century. No nation can progress fast unless there is enough homogeneity and mobility across the society in terms of talent, education, and capability. Vocationalisation of education is not only about vocational training for one stream, but to increase the vocation oriented components of all education for all students. This is what Mahatma Gandhi intended in his “Nai Talim” system; this is what was recommended by the Kothari Commission report through “work experience” and socially useful productive work”. But these have failed; I believe the failure has been in implementation process not in the concept. Vocationalisation of education is now the need of the hour because it gives the capability to act, actually it does something much more fundamental. It stimulates and develops intelligence. Both vocational education and vocationalisation of all education will involve skills development. Whereas in the vocationalisation, the skills development is intended to build the capability to act in a variety off real life situations, the vocational education gives skills for a specific vocation under well-defined limitations.
The need and importance of vocational education can be assessed, and is further high-lighted, by having a look at its various uses and advantages: (1) Vocational education aims at reducing unemployment among the educated youth and thus helps solving the giant problem of unemployment; (2) It will entail many economic benefits. It means increased productivity which brings economic prosperity to the people and to the country at large; (3) It suits individual aptitudes, and so, ensures better results; (4) It instills among the youth a sense of security and usefulness, which goes a long way to make them better citizens. But vocationalisation should not be clone in an unsystematic or haphazard manner. Vocational education should be imparted in proportion to the manpower requirements, otherwise it will result in a grave situation of unemployed technocrats, So far, very little advancement has been made in the field of voca¬tional education. Some of the causes of the slow progress of vocationalisation are : (1) III planning and a rather casual attitude of the Centre or the States; (2) Biased attitude of people, considering vocational education as inferior education; (3) Lack of finances, workshops etc; (4) Obsolete vocations such as book binding and carpentry in this age of electronics and advanced technology; (5) No attempt to organize the training of teachers for technical subjects (6) Lack of sufficient co-ordination and co-operation between the different departments of the Government—Directorate of Labour and the Directorate of Education.
The industrial and labour market trends clearly indicate the necessity of strengthening of vocational education in India. The introduction of vocational education at secondary level through bivalent schools and SSC (vocational) will enable to broaden the vocational education base at secondary level of education. A clear pathway for vocational students to enter higher education streams is the way to move forward. Through this concept it can act as an endeavour to provide some of the possible solutions to address these issues. Framing of vocational qualification framework, introduction of vocational degrees and setting up of a Vocational University with polytechnics, community colleges, CPs and other VEPs as affiliated colleges are some of the recommendations which require further deliberation at National and State level.
About the Author
Vani Madhav Pradhan
Vani Madhav Pradhan is currently pursuing B.A LL.B from Institute of Law, Nirma University. He is also pursuing Company Secretary Course. He is a quick learner and an avid reader.
