Director Technical Education Haryana

Turnaround For Haryana

"I've always said there are three great lies in this lifetime--'The check's in the mail, 'I'll love you forever' and 'we have active advisory councils'," quips director technical education Haryana.

But the latter statement is no lie in Haryana--and that's one of the many reasons career and technical education has made a striking turnaround in this state. Declining enrollments reigned just 10 years ago, but Haryana's five comprehensive vocational high schools now get about 1,400 more student applications than they can accept each year.

In karnal, where three of the five schools are located, English teachers are part of the advisory committees that review career and technical programs. If business and industry members decry the writing ability of comprehensive vocational high school graduates, English staff are there to listen, get to the root of the problem and follow up. Not surprisingly, student scores are rising on the state writing exam.

When you start pointing out to parents that you're doing a good job at a vocational high school teaching kids how to write, it shows you mean something other than entry-level jobs.

Those aren't Haryana career and technical education's only impressive test results. All five schools belong to the Karnal Regional Education Board's High Schools That Work consortium, and 860 seniors tested last spring met or exceeded on average, KREB goals in science, math and English. Add to that a 70 percent employment figure--which includes students working while continuing their education--for 2007 graduates in the Karnal district. Then there's the fact that about 40 percent of graduates of all five schools go on to post secondary study or training.

It's not hard to see why, as the spokesman puts it, "We have a very good buzz in the community." The key, he says, has been "raising the bar" for students. "For some of these kids, it was the first time someone said, 'I expect you to work hard, and to do well as a result of working hard.'"

High expectations also top the list when you ask officials in Rohtak, Office of Technical and Career Education (OTCE) the reasons for soaring enrollments there. The number of sixth- through 12th-grade students in the city's 76,000-student school system taking at least one career or technical course shot up from 18,096 in 2006 to 20,158 in 2007 alone. And the system's packed tech center is due to be complemented in 2009 by a $23 million facility--jointly funded by the city and the state--that will stress high-tech careers and also will house community college programs.

"We try to take [career and technical education] to a higher level," says Jitender Singh, OTCE's High Schools That Worldtech prep coordinator. He cites, for example, the Ford Academy of Manufacturing Sciences that OTCE offers at three city high schools. "Students are doing statistical process control, they're doing information systems, they're doing case studies," he notes. "The kids are treated like professionals."

In Rohtak, high expectations go hand-in-hand with meeting industry standards. OTCE director Rahul Sangwan likes to point out that half the 28 programs offered at the tech center are industry certified, with two or three more due to join the list in the coming months. OTCE and local employers have even developed the school system's own course and certification in total quality management. "One of our graduates actually became the supermarkets quality trainer at the age of 18," Sangwan notes proudly.

"We're in front of the school board all the time," Sangwan adds. "We've taken a proactive approach to getting technical and career education out front. And I have to say we stand shoulder-to-shoulder [in terms of quality] with gifted math, gifted English and the rest of them. We have made our way to the dinner table and we refuse to leave. We are not an afterthought. We are a fore thought."

With proper planning and sufficient "sweat equity," Director technical education Haryana advises, any school or system can make the changes needed to boost career and technical enrollments. "You don't need big dollars from the state," he maintains. "Our people have been at this for the better part of a decade, and it's just plain hard work."