ATTITUDE OF STUDENTS TOWARDS VOCATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Education

Vocational education an educational programme that provides knowledge, skills, attitudes towards certain vocation for future career. Considering the importance of vocational education for students, the vocational education programme (VEP) has been implemented in secondary of Odisha since 2016 under RAMSA. In this context, the present study examines the attitude of secondary school students towards the VEP in Dhenkanal district. The study adopted a descriptive survey method with a quantitative technique. The population consisted of 36 secondary schools implementing VEP at classes IX and X (as of 2023), from which a random sample of 10 schools was selected. The sample comprising 160 students who have chosen vocational courses as an alternative the third language. A 5-point Likert attitude scale used as tools for data collection. The findings revealed that boys (M = 124.08, SD = 12.20) exhibited more favorable attitudes towards VEP than girls (M = 120.55, SD = 9.72), and this difference was significant at the 0.05 level, indicating that gender is a determining factor for students’ attitudes. In contrast, rural students (M = 124.31) had slightly higher attitude scores than urban students (M = 123.42), but this difference (0.89) was not statistically significant, suggesting that school location does not influence students’ attitudes towards VEP. Additionally, boys’ scores were more scattered, showing greater variability compared to girls, while urban students’ scores were more consistent than rural students. The study concludes that gender influences students’ attitudes towards vocational education, whereas school location has no significant impact. The findings highlight the need to develop strategies to enhance positive attitudes among all students to ensure the effective implementation of vocational education at the secondary level.

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