Higher Secondary Education and its Vocationalization

Abstract

The characteristic feature of the last two years of schooling (called the higher secondary) is diversification, the aim of which is to avoid forcing students into the academic channel alone and to offer them opportunities to choose subjects and programmes of study in a much wider field of education in keeping with their aptitudes, interests and abilities, with a view to increasing their employability which would, in turn, provide society with personnel having a wide spectrum of knowledge and training for its own needs and upliftment. It also aims at the reduction and elimination of frustration among the youth resulting from the non-productive and aimless education offered at present. With the programmes of universalization of elementary education eventually flowering into widespread general education up to Class X, if diversification does not take place, we would be faced with the problem of having to greatly expand tertiary education of the academic kind, with consequent expenditure, on the one hand, and the danger of unemployment, on the other. Therefore, there is great urgency for designing a diversified higher secondary education in which the academic stream would cater to not more than about 50 per cent of the students at the higher secondary level.