Bhubaneswar : The schools in Bhubaneswar and mass education department on Wednesday have launched a campaign called ‘Skills on Wheels’ to promote vocational education across the state.
As part of the scheme, a mobile lab will visit six government high schools in and around Bhubaneswar for three days – from July 18 to 20 – to make students aware about the various vocational education programmes. In this vehicle, two trainers are traveling with the lab to give hands-on experience to the students on the uses and benefits of vocational tools.
After July 20, 2018, the van will cover various schools across the state. The lab has been developed by Lend-A-Hand India with whom the state government has joined hands for better implementation of vocational education programmes in the state.
“The objective of the agreement is to provide world-class facilities to the students in vocational education at secondary school level. Besides, it will ensure quality education to students and develop their skill and make them employable,” said state project director of Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority (Opepa) B.S. Poonia.
It will provide project management and technical support to Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan in implementing vocational education at secondary and higher secondary levels.
In Odisha, vocational education has been given the status of the third language and about 25,500 students are pursuing the vocational education in various schools at present.
“The state government is prioritizing the implementation of vocational education at the secondary and higher-secondary level,” he stated.
The state has been implementing the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF)-based centrally-sponsored scheme of vocationalisation of secondary and higher-secondary education. The NSQF-based vocational education project is being implemented in 314 secondary schools across the state in six trades.
With the MoU, the aim is to take the project to 208 higher secondary schools and 150 secondary schools this year. The state project director of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan will be the nodal officer for implementation of the project.
“We are going to expand vocational education to 95 more secondary schools in the first phase,” he said. It will also be implemented in 25 government higher secondary schools.
Note: News shared for public awareness with reference from the information provided at online news portals.
