Vocational education and development of indigenous communities: a case study

This paper was delivered at the 'Developing skills for the new economy: international conference on technical and vocational education and training' held in Winnipeg, Canada in October 2002.

The present study is undertaken as part of a major project study on 'Education and tribal development in India'. The major study explores the status of tribes, while identifying their various socio-economic and cultural problems in relation to other communities and the impact of educational development programs on their lives. The present study makes use of some of the data being collected for the above purpose while focusing its attention mainly on vocational education and related aspects so as to assess its impact on the development of the indigenous communities. The field data for this purpose has been collected from the selected respondents of two districts of the State of Andhra Pradesh. These respondents represent three major tribal communities (Koya, Konda Reddy and Lambada) and have been drawn from different vocations. The study specifically focuses its attention on the following issues: (1) vocational education at the secondary school level in the tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh State; (2) the socio-economic background of the parents of the sample respondents and the 'study environment'; (3) the experiences of the respondents about various issues relating to the vocational courses which they have undergone, their subsequent employment and its impact on their lives; and (4) the suggestions made by the respondents for various steps to be taken towards improving the prospectus of tribal education in general and vocational education in particular. The study concludes that the experiment of vocational education being introduced in tribal areas is proven to be successful to the extent that more and more people have been participating. This has created significant impact since a large majority of tribal respondents were of the opinion that the program has benefited them, however it should be supplemented by a provision of distance education which would further reinforce the educational structures in tribal areas and support and strengthen further and continuing education programs.

Selected papers from this conference are indexed from TD/TNC 79.51 to TD/TNC 79.423. Show less