Why I’m Confused About Technical Education In Indian Schools (And What I’ve Tried)
Last month, I sat across from my 10th grader Arjun’s technical education teacher at our parent-teacher meeting, the plastic chair digging into my thigh, the smell of fried samosas from the canteen stall outside seeping through the open door. She told me Arjun is one of the top students in the subject, he got full marks on his latest project labeling the parts of a CRT monitor. I blinked. Arjun has never even seen a working CRT monitor outside of his textbook. I asked if his recent project—building a working Bluetooth speaker from a secondhand kit he got for his birthday—could count for any extra credit. She shrugged and said the syllabus only calls for textbook diagrams of desktop components, so that’s what she has to grade.
Walking out to the car afterward, I ran into two other parents waiting for their turn to meet teachers, and we ended up comparing notes. One mother told me her daughter goes to a fancy private school in Gurugram that boasts a state-of-the-art technical lab with 3D printers and drones, but the teacher assigned to the lab doesn’t know how to operate any of the equipment. Every technical ed period, the kids just watch pre-recorded YouTube videos about 3D printing and copy notes. Another father, whose son goes to a local government school nearby, said they don’t have a assigned technical education teacher at all. The period is just extra time to finish math homework for the upcoming board exams.
That’s when I realized how widespread this confusion is. On paper, expanding technical education in Indian schools makes total sense. We all know the job market is shifting, and kids need practical hands-on skills even if they don’t go to college. When I was growing up, technical education was an afterthought only for kids who weren’t “good enough” for academic subjects, so it’s good that it’s mandatory now for all middle and high schoolers. But on the ground, no one seems to agree on what it’s actually supposed to be. Some schools treat it like just another theoretical subject to memorize for exams, with 10-year-old outdated syllabi. Some splash on fancy equipment to put in their admission brochures but don’t invest in training teachers to use it. Many just ignore it entirely, because board exam scores are still the only thing that matters for school rankings. I left that parent-teacher meeting more confused than I went in, wondering how we’re supposed to prepare our kids when the system itself doesn’t know what it’s doing.
I didn’t want to just sit around complaining, so I started trying small, low-cost things that don’t require waiting for the entire education system to overhaul itself. First, I brought the issue up at our next PTA meeting, but instead of demanding a full curriculum rewrite or new expensive equipment (requests that would have gone nowhere), I asked for one small change: one technical ed period a month set aside for student-led projects. Kids can bring any small, safe project they’re working on at home—no sharp tools, nothing expensive—and the teacher just circulates to answer questions. We didn’t ask for extra funding or extra staff. The principal agreed almost immediately, because it didn’t cost the school anything.
Second, I didn’t drop 20,000 rupees on a fancy premium robotics kit or a week-long residential tech camp, which I couldn’t afford anyway. I remembered that our local electrician, Uncle Ravi, has a grandson the same age as Arjun who also likes taking apart old electronics. I called him up and asked if Arjun could come help him one Saturday a month for a couple of hours, just to see how things work. I offered to pay 500 rupees a month, and he laughed and said just cover the cost of his tea and Arjun’s cold drink, that’s enough. Now Arjun goes every second Saturday, helps rewire switch boards, fixes broken ceiling fans for local customers, and strips old radios and broken phones for working parts. He says he learns more in those two hours than he does in a whole month of technical ed class at school.
Third, three other parents from Arjun’s class whose kids are also interested in technical work split the cost of a shared set of basic components: breadboards, resistors, small motors, LEDs, and a couple of entry-level Arduino kits. We keep the set at one parent’s house, and each kid gets to take it home for a week to work on their own projects. The whole set cost 2,000 rupees total, which works out to 500 rupees per person—cheaper than one fancy tech workshop for a single day.
It’s been three months since we made the small change at school, and things are slowly shifting. Last week, Arjun brought his Bluetooth speaker to the student-led period, and three other kids brought their own projects: one built a small automatic plant waterer for his home, another fixed a broken remote-controlled car he picked up at a local scrap market. Even the teacher said he learned a few new tricks from the kids that day.
But I’m still confused, more often than not. Arjun still has to memorize the parts of a CRT monitor for his pre-board exam next month, because 70% of his final grade comes from a written theory test. The school can’t change the state board syllabus, so we can’t change that part. I don’t know if what we’re doing now is enough to prepare him for whatever he wants to do after 12th grade, whether that’s engineering or a technical trade. The system is changing slowly, and it’s messy, and there’s no clear path right now. But for now, small bits of actual hands-on learning are better than none, and that’s enough to keep going.
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