Students problem in Technical and vocational education thesis Introduction, Page 4 " Technical Education and Vocational Training in Pakistan "

Technical Education and Vocational Training in Pakistan

Technical Education & Vocational Training as a part of on the whole education system has also undergone significant changes both in quantity and quality. The degree of quantitative change can be seen from the fact. At the time of independence, there was no separate institute for the training of supervisory staff. There were only two engineering colleges(Karachi and Lahore) offering training courses for supervisory personnel.

To bring about the quantitative changes in the Technical Education & Vocational Training infrastructure, a large resource has been allocated time to time; Different measures were also taken into account to get better the quality of the structure. Except few, no systematic studies have been conducted to relate the developmental inputs with the resulting outputs both in quality and quantity.

The quantity of Technical Education& Vocational Training depends on how effective the teaching & learning processes are being carried out in an institutional environment. This teaching-learning consist of several element of the system comprising  the teacher, the learner, the curriculum, access to teaching learning resource,govt. back up support admissions standards, policy and procedures, physical facilities ,monitoring & evaluation standards, examination and industrial relationship.

Research & Development and evolution appeared as the weakest areas of quality improvement in Technical Education & Vocational Training. Some isolated studies are available but their focus is more on the supply related issues pertaining to teaching learning processes, curriculum and physical facilities. The studies on demand related issues like management styles, performance of pass-outs and such aspects which could help to determine the external efficiency of the system & its sensitivity to the industrial needs were never conducted before 1980’s. The teacher studies exposed some trends of employability earning potentials relevance of training to employer ‘needs and gaps in the training programmers. The system also lacked evidence of manpower studies to predict the points at which curriculum revision exercises should be introduced to meet the fast changing requirements of the high tech area.

The literature review also revealed that these initiatives have wide range of aspects with low scope or with specific issues. Such as in the study conducted by any at (1989) suggested that steps should be taken to introduce a system of liaison between industry and institutes. He also suggested that courses of physics and chemistry be included in the curriculum and the course of mathematics should be strengthened. Khawaja et al (1991) have also recommended that all manpower development institutions should increase their effectiveness. He also emphasized the need of industry- institution collaboration with special recommendation that curriculum and content of the institutes should m the need of the job market.

However in the light of the study conducted by Hawthorn institute of Education (1989) major changes in the curriculum of DAE program were made and revise curriculum was introduced in 1996.

In a study conducted by Mirza & Khan (2001) comparison of the objectives of the curriculum with the needs of the industry/empower was made. The results showed that generally the curriculum was all right warranting few changes but its implementation and instruction keep it far below effectiveness.