PRAYAGRAJ Unhappy with the diminishing count of students enrolling for vocational subjects at the high school and intermediate levels year-after-year, officials of the state secondary education department have issued orders for efforts to be made to encourage more and more students to take them up.
Presently, less than 1% of the total students registering for the class 10 and class 12 exams of U.P. Board take up these courses every year even as the board spends lakhs of rupees in getting the question papers of these subjects made annually. The officials concede that the situation needs to be redressed as the entire focus of the central and state governments is on skill development and providing employment-oriented education to students.
Therefore, Mahendra Dev, the director of secondary education, has sent a missive to all district inspectors of schools (DIOSs) instructing them to register the maximum number of students possible for these vocational courses, said a senior state secondary education department official. Vocational education scheme is operational in 892 government and government-aided secondary schools of the state, the official added.
The missive, a copy of which is with HT, points out that guest subject experts have brought to the notice of senior officials that principals of many schools do not take admission of students in these vocational subjects due to their own willful or negligent attitude. This is leading to a low count of registration in these trade subjects on offer across the state.
{{/usCountry}}The missive, a copy of which is with HT, points out that guest subject experts have brought to the notice of senior officials that principals of many schools do not take admission of students in these vocational subjects due to their own willful or negligent attitude. This is leading to a low count of registration in these trade subjects on offer across the state.
{{/usCountry}}Some principals, the missive claims, have even initiated process for closing down these trade subjects in their campuses after first not giving admission to interested students in these approved trades and adjusting the admitted students in other subjects deliberately. The missive dated April 19 points out that there is a provision to admit a minimum of 25 students or even 10 students under special circumstances in these trades.
Confirming the development, DIOS of Prayagraj, PN Singh, said that instructions have been received to ensure admission of maximum number of students in vocational courses. “The responsibility of the principals of the schools concerned where the number of students will be less will also be fixed as part of this exercise to encourage students to opt for vocational trade subjects on offer at class 10 and class 12 levels,” he said.
Although vocational courses have been available for U.P. Board students for years now, such courses in trades of plumber, solar powered equipment repairing, disaster management and electrician were started for high school students only in 2023. However, out of 31,16,454 students who registered for class 10 exams in 2023, not even one took admission in any of these courses.
Many other vocational subjects on offer at high school level also did not fare well like health care which had just four students, automobile which had eight, retail trading which had 19, mobile repairing which had 22 in and even IT that attracted mere 38 students across the state. The number of students enrolling for intermediate-level vocational courses was also very less in 2023.
Out of 27,68,180 intermediate examinees in 2023, mere 40,006 opted for vocational subjects, including 22,187 boys and 17,819 girls. This included only 18 examinees in secretary and English Typing course, 19 in Bee Keeping, 20 in Embroidery, 24 in Dairy Technology, 52 in Sericulture and 53 in Cooperative across the state. Similarly, there were very only a few students in other courses as well. The situation was the same during the 2022 board exams as well, as per U.P. Board records.