Effectiveness of Vocational Education under NEP 2020 in Tripura: Students' Awareness, Participation and Perceived Employability
Abstract The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 places Vocational education as a key component of the school reform in India and identifies that at least fifty percent of learners must be exposed to vocational education by 2025 with its integration in the mainstream education from middle stage. The National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) compliant Vocational Education Programme, with trades like IT-ITeS, Electronics and Hardware, Agriculture, Retail, Tourism and Hospitality, Power, Beauty and Wellness and Automotive, has been implemented in selected Government higher secondary schools across Tripura, a small north-eastern state with mixed tribal and non-tribal population and predominantly agrarian and small enterprise economy. This paper provides a review of the existing literature and available secondary data relating to the vocationalisation of school education under NEP 2020, highlighting three inter-related aspects of it: awareness about the opportunities for vocational education, the participation and enrolment patterns of school students, and the employment outcomes they believe it will help them achieve. The paper summarises the themes that emerge from the national policy documents, government notifications, and empirical studies on vocational education and employability from India and comparable developing country contexts and places them in the context of Tripura's administrative and socio-economic context. The review finds that the state of Tripura has progressed in implementing NSQF aligned vocational programmes in the state, but empirical studies with survey-based data on students' awareness, enrolments and employability are largely missing and suggests a framework and recommendations for future primary studies in the state.