Abstract

The Vocationalisation of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (VSHSE) program was introduced in 2013 by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) to offer optional vocational courses in schools, alongside academic subjects. The VSHSE was launched in Karnataka in 2014-15. In the first phase of a study by CBPS to understand the social impacts and outcomes of this program in schools, several insights were gained into the existing skilling environment in schools. The scheme was found to have been implemented with an urgency at the cost of effective end to end planning, resulting in inadequate preparation of institutions, personnel and infrastructure on the ground. This was further exacerbated by highly centralized planning of the program, fragmented operationalization due to lack of clarity and coordination, and a large role given to the private sector in the implementation which did not account for local concerns.

A second phase of the study sought to examine these findings in more depth to provide a critical sociological account of the impact of the skills program on students from poor and disadvantaged families. This report presents findings from the second phase in the context of major gaps in research on the skilling environment in India that have remained limited to macro accounts of the policy and its implications.

Few in-depth studies examining the impacts of the skills policy and investments are as yet available which go beyond conceptual critiques based on secondary data. This report attempts to fill this gap by linking a micro-sociological understanding of the program in schools. Through this analysis, it provides insights beyond accounts of gaps in design and implementation, by drawing attention to the manner in which the policy translates into processes involving active negotiations by actors as well as the effects and outcomes of these processes.

CBPS. (2019). A critical sociological analysis of the skills development Initiative of India. Bengaluru: Centre for Budget and Policy Studies.