Diversifying Education as a Strategy for Expanding Skilled Labour Market: An Overview of Vocational Higher Secondary Education in Kerala

Vocationalisation of education had beenan important point of focus in almost all discussions on education in India, even as early as in 1944, when the Sergeant Committee which was constituted to look into the issues of revamping the educational system in India recommended the setting up of separate technical schools for vocational training. The subject was actively considered in the post independence period as well, fully in line with the looming concerns ofnational reconstruction as seen from the reflections of the Education Committee headed by Dr. Radhakrishnan (1948). Following this, the Mudaliar Commission (1952) suggested a basic framework of education, specifying that the post secondary education should be terminal and vocational courses should be started from Class IX onwards. It was in response to the recommendations of the Kothari Commission (I966)- which outlined and recommended reorientation of the educational system in India-that vocationalisation got concretized in the country. The Commission suggested a uniform pattern of 10+2+3 education in the entire country and clearly stated that vocational education should be a distinctstream at the plus two stage to cover atleast 50 per cent of total enrolment. Further, these courses should be terminalin providing knowledge and skill upgradation of students for entry into middle level jobs.

With the National Policy on Education 1968 accepting the recommendations of the Kothari Commission, vocational education became a prominent part of the educational reforms in India. In 1976,a centrally sponsored scheme was launched to concretize the conceptual framework of implementing vocational education in the country. It limped ahead and got extinguished with the discontinuance of the programme in 1979. However, it was resumed later following the recommendations of the Working Group headed by Dr. V. C Kulandaiswamy in 1985, which formulated the concept of vocationalisation at different levels with an action plan for its promotion. This committee recommended that the Central Government should mobilize the financial resources for its implementation.

The National Policy on Education 1986 emphasised that introduction of a systematically planned and vigorously implemented programme of vocational education is crucial in the proposed educational reorganization. Vocational education will be a distinct stream intended to prepare students for identified occupation spanning several areas of activities as justified by the Kothari Commission. These courses will ordinarily be provided after Class VIII to keep flexibility to divert 25 per cent of the higher education students by 1995. In a bid to enhance the scope of vocational education, the National Policyon Education 1992 decided to involve private sector and non governmental organizations in the placement of students in wage labour or self employment for vocational pass outs. Subsequently, Department of Education had proposed a scheme ‘Each one- Place One’’ for ensuring the support of non- governmental organizations in strengthening vocational education.

In the formal sector, the VHSE programme is implemented at the plus two level by state governments through approximately 6700 schools. More than 150 courses are offered in six major disciplines viz., agriculture, business and commerce, engineering and technology, health and paramedical services, home sciences and humanities. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has of late sought the help of the Department of Economic Affairs to help the products of VHSE programme set up their own enterprises by means of loans from nationalized banks and finance companies. The non-governmental organizations would also get financial assistance for implementing innovative projects on vocationalisation of education. It is reported that at the national level, 168 NGOs have been finically assisted for projects on issues of school dropouts and rural unemployed youth.

Kerala has been one among the very fewstates that were eager to implement Vocational Higher Secondary Education Programme in the initial years. However, it was not so zealous to go further as seen from the slow pace in upgrading the capabilities of the system and putting in place appropriate organizational mechanisms to improve the quality of education, during the lateryears.

When VHSE was introduced in Kerala in 1983-84, only 19 schools were selected for this system. Later it was extended to 73 schools offering courses for 27 vocational subjects in 1985-86. In 1997-98, there were 310 schools offering courses for 27 vocational subjects, with atotal of 814 sections in 45 subjects. As on 2003, there are 375 schools with 1000 sections. Annual sanctioned intake is 30000 students 2002-03 375

Geographical distribution of VHS Schools in the state shows a remarkable regional imbalance, with 61.7 per cent of the schools situated in districts south off Thrissur and 38.3 per cent to the districts in the North. However, significant focus on rural population is notable as far as vocational higher secondary education in Kerala is concerned. Out of the total number of schools that have existed as on 2003, 75.5 per cent are located in ruralareas. Looking at the region wise distribution of vocational schools, proportion of rural schools is seen more in Pathanamthitta District (85.4 per cent) followed by Ernakulam District (81.5 per cent). The proportion is lowest in Vadakara Region, which is constituted by Wynad and Kozhikkode districts.

There has been a steady increase in the number of applications and the number of students admitted to the courses. Overa period of four years since 1998-99, the number of applications has increased almost about 1.6 times and the number of students admitted 1.5 times. However,the per centage of admission to total application has remained almost the same without any significant statistical variation, fully in line with the insignificant variation within the patternof increase in the number of students seeking admission and the number of students admitted.

The low ratios of admission to the number of applications could be of two reasons: one, the rejection levels of applications are too high for want of required qualifying marks or two, the number of vocational seats have not increased with the increase in the number of students every year. Though the yearly statistics of the increase in the number of schools since 1989-90 till 2002-03 is not available, a cursory look shows that the number of schools has increased only 1.2 times over a period of five years from 1997-98. The year wise availability of the number of seats in each school has not however been takeninto consideration to draw more inferences in this regard.

Strikingly, the ratio of annual intake to the total number of students passing outfrom SSLC, the major exit point of secondary school education in Kerala hasalso remained without any significant variation across the years, though there is a marginal increase from six to eight in2000-01 and 2001-02.

The distribution of enrolment across disciplines in Vocational Higher Secondary Education clearly indicates a rather unbalanced focus on prospective vocational subjects, particularly those related to agriculture and allied sectors. Apropos sanctioned intake and actual enrolment in the nine categories of vocational subjects taught in the state, Engineering tops the list with 14 subjectsand 32.8 per cent of the total intake capacity and 35.3 per cent of total enrolment. Business and Commerce rankssecond, though much lower in proportion of sanctioned intake and actual enrolment (20.4 and 21.0 respectively).Though more number of courses are oriented towards engineering and technology, followed by courses on Business and Commerce, a closer look at the content of the disciplines show that recent developments in these sectors have not been adequately represented. The emphasis on agriculture and allied sectors are also inadequate. Though largely rural in its setting and profile, theVHSE System would have been of greatersignificance to the rural development sector, if the curricula and content were designed with the objective of facilitating rural enterprises and thereby generation of rural employment

The emphasis on VHSE has obviously increased over a period of fifteen years with the plan allocation escalating from 61.25 lakhs in 1985-86 to 150.43 lakhs in 2001-02. (Table 6) However the Government of India found VHSE to be ineffective and consequently discontinued Central Assistance for three years from 1997-98 to 1999-2000. It was retained again in 2000-01.

Plan funds for vocational higher secondary education showed a sharp decline from 467.20 to 143.86 in the year 1999-2000. The non-plan funds have increased in varying proportions, with an abrupt hike from 3.03 in 1998-99 to 20.29 in 1999-2000. The increase in the non-plan component signifies the enhancement in the allotment of salaries and establishment overheads incurred out of the deployment of more teachers, establishment of new schools and infrastructure facilities coupled with the closure of central assistance

Expenditure on Vocational Higher Secondary Education shows a sharp increase in the proportion of non- plan to plan funds from 3.03 to 20.29 from 1998 to 1999, which has remained without any significant rise henceforth.

Academic profile of a sample of students of VHSE shows that mostly students with low academic scores in SSLC get enrolled in the vocational higher secondary education programme . About 76 per cent of the total number of students enrolled has marks below 400. This indicates the failure of the VHSE system to attract students with high academic background as an alternative to the general stream of education.

The perception of the students on the utility of the programme throws more light into the trend observed above. Out of the sample surveyed, 85.60 per cent ofthe students preferred to join VHSE in view of the scope for employment, 5.47 per cent in view of the scope for higher education, and 3.47 per cent in view of the reservation in professional courses for VHS Students. Though the students aspire to get a job on completion of the course, about 6.04 per cent of the total students who pass out go for higher studies.