Uttar Pradesh students to be encouraged to take up vocational courses

With less than 1 per cent of total students registering for vocational courses in class 10 and class 12 exams of UP Board, officials of the state’s Secondary Education Department have now issued orders for efforts to be made to encourage more and more students to take them up.

The board spends lakhs of rupees in getting 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.

Mahendra Dev, the director of secondary education, has sent a letter to all district inspectors of schools (DIOSs) instructing them to register the maximum number of students possible for these vocational courses.

Vocational education scheme is operational in 892 government and government-aided secondary schools of the state, the official added.

The letter 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 wilful or negligent attitude. This is leading to a low count of registration in these trade subjects on offer.

Some principals 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.