India to Impart Vocational Education to School Students
India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) is implementing vocational education scheme in schools under the umbrella of ‘Samagra Shiksha – an integrated scheme for school education’.
Under the scheme a vocational subject is offered for Classes IX to XII along with the general education to provide necessary employability and vocational skills for variety of occupations. Till 2018-19, the scheme has been implemented in 8,654 schools, with reported enrollment of more than 10 lakhs (1 million) students.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has included the basic contents on Goods and Services Tax (GST) in their textbooks of Economics, Accountancy and Business Studies at different stages.
The NCERT text books for various stages of school education already incorporate the contents relating to the basics of Indian Law and Constitution. NCERT has also developed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) curriculum for teachers and students in school education.
As part of this curriculum, social and ethical issues related to use of internet have been dealt with. The focus of the curriculum is on safe and secure use of web space by students and teachers.
The vocational education scheme is being implemented in all the States and Union Territories. Education being a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and the majority of schools are under the jurisdiction of the State Governments, it is for the respective State / Union Territory Governments to adopt the NCERT model textbooks, having contents on GST and basic law tenets, and the ICT curriculum for teachers and students for their schools.
