Jul 30 2015 : The Times of India (Kochi) Vocational curriculum 2.0: Radio to bluetooth

Preetu Nair
Kochi:


After 30 years, Vocational Higher Secondary Education (VHSE) has overhauled its curriculum and, to show that it means business, formally conveyed this to every government and aided school in the state to at tract the best talent.
Meant to provide youth with employable skills, these vocational institutions were verging on obso lescence by training stu dents how to repair carbu rettors and diodes when the world had long ago moved on from Ambassador cars and Murphy radios to TSI technology and bluetooth. “For 30 years there was no change in the syllabus, even as technology changed vastly. This year, the curriculum was revised to produce a skilled work force that meets the demand of merging industries and service sectors both nationally and internationally,“ said Abdul Aziz V P, joint convener, curriculum revision core committee, State Council Educational Research and Training (SCERT). So now, instead of valve radio students will get to repair digital radios, instead of black and white TV they will now work on plasma TV and carburettor engines in the lab will be replaced with la test TDI or TSI technology .Those who opt for office secretary-ship will no longer work on the typewriter, instead they will be trained to operate a computer and besides learning how to repair window ACs and telephones, students will be taught how to handle different types of split ACs and smartphones.

The curriculum change has already triggered renewed interest in these courses. In class XI of VHSE schools, for the 33,000 seats, almost 88,000 students have applied. Even as admission process is on, 32,679 seats have already been allotted. In contrast, last year VHSE had received only 67,000 applications and after the admission process was over nearly 2,000-odd seats were vacant.

“Not only is there demand for the courses but even students with A1 in all subjects are opting for courses like livestock management and agriculture. The main reason is that we have revised the courses to meet international requirements as there is enough demand for these courses in Australia and Holland,“ said K P Noufal, director, VHSE. To ensure practical understanding of modernised agriculture, the department is in the process of adopting an agricultural village that will have all modern agricultural facilities for students to learn.

VHSE had also done its homework. Along with curriculum revision, they went to each government and aided school in the state and had a session with class X students. “We told them about the revised curriculum and the scope for each course in India and abroad. Also for the two-year course we will be issuing four separate diploma course certificates that are recognised by the state government and would enable students to go abroad on job visa even after six months of finishing a course,“ added Noufal.

VHSE teachers' have welcomed the curriculum revision and said it is essential to attract talent.