Dte Technical Education

Some Factors For The Spread Of DTE Ed

There are several factors that are responsible for the gradual spread of DTE Technical Education in India. Some of the factors are as follows:

* Most of the households particularly in rural areas are below poverty line. Parents belonging to such households find it difficult to meet the cost of educating their daughters. They would prefer them to be engaged in remunerative works that are income generating. Thus the question of providing vocational and technical education does not arise. Further there is a feeling amongst them that such a kind of education (technical) require long gestation period therefore they would not like their daughters to take it up.

* Related to the above reason is parental apathy towards vocational & technical education. In patriarchal families the need for this kind of education is not felt by the parents. Therefore, they do not send their daughters to vocational courses right from the school stage. There is a feeling amongst them that soft courses like arts and subjects like languages social sciences and so on are best suited for their daughters. This is because their ultimate aim is to get their daughters married and in case if they have any occupational aspirations for their daughters, it is for teaching. This is because it is the only profession they feel that girls can strike a comfortable balance between home and workplace.

* Lack of awareness on the part of the parents regarding schemes and policies run by the Government and voluntary agencies. This is mainly true for rural areas.

* Absence of vocational and technical education in remote rural areas. This absence is even felt from the school stage and is clearly visible at the secondary stage.

* Lack of hostel facilities particularly for rural girls who can take advantage of residential hostels to undertake vocational courses offered in nearby urban areas.

* Lack of guidance and counselling facilities in schools. Absence of this kind of facilities which is more true in rural areas has an important bearing on students-both girls and boys who find it difficult to choose between vocational and technical courses at the secondary stage. Further they have no idea as to what kind of course they should take up.

* Absence of dissemination of success stories of training, vocational and technical courses in states that have provided employment opportunities to girls and women who have availed of the kind of facilities to those states who are lagging behind.

* Lack of local specific vocational and technical courses that are suited to different regions of India.

Apart from the above mentioned reasons it is the gap in educational facilities found in urban and rural areas that are responsible for the very gradual growth of vocational and DTE technical education, particularly at secondary level in rural areas. In urban areas though statistical figures show that the enrolment of girls and women in non- traditional sectors like sciences and engineering have improved since independence along with the needed training facilities, this phenomena is of a limited nature. It is found that girls in majority of the cases continue to opt for soft courses like arts. This is supported by various field studies.