NCERT’s new vocational education book is making headlines!
Featured in Hindustan Times, this innovative book brings hands-on learning to life from carpentry and hydroponics to animal care and home automation. Designed under NEP 2020 & NCF-SE 2023, it’s all about skill-building, creativity, and real-world applications.
Empowering students with practical knowledge rooted in tradition and sustainability.
From learning basic carpentry skills, building hydro-ponics, designing home automa-tion circuits to caring for ani-mals and creating ethical adver-tisements for local businesses, the new National Council of Edu-cation Research and Training (NCERT) Class 8 vocational edu-cation activity book introduces students to six hands-on projects aimed at blending practical skills with cultural and environmental awareness among them.
The book roots vocational education in India’s traditional knowledge from Atharva Veda’s ecological ethics in wood-working to indigenous veteri-nary remedies and historical floating farms of Dal Lake and Loktak Lake.
Developed in alignment with
THE CHOICE OF THE PROJECTS TO BE UNDERTAKEN BY THE STUDENTS IS LEFT ENTIRELY TO SCHOOLS, READS THE ABOUT THE BOOK SECTION
National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and National Curriculum Framework for School Educa-tion (NCF-SE) 2023 provisions, the 202-page book titled ‘Kaus-hal Bodh,’ asks schools to orga-nise ‘Kaushal Mela,’ an end-of-year exhibition where students would display self-made prod-ucts and services, share their learning experiences, and engage with peers, teachers, and community members to cele brate skills and creativity.
In NCF-SE 2023, work has been categorised under three broad forms: work with life forms (plants, animals, farming); work with machines and materi-als (carpentry, electronics, auto-mation); and work in human services (advertising, entrepre-neurship, community engage-ment).
Under NCF-SE, students are expected to take up nine projects across Class 6 to 8 with three projects in each class and one from each form of work.
Project 1 on hydroponics teaches students about soil-less farming. Project 2 covers animal care which blends science and indigenous wisdom. Project 3 on wood and bamboo work builds basic carpentry skills using eco-friendly materials.
Project 4 on home automation introduces beginner electronics and Internet of Things (IoT),
while Project 5 on water audit focuses on water conservation Project 6 on creating advertise-ments develops creativity and media literacy among students by encouraging them to design posters, jingles, and reels for local businesses.
“The choice of projects is left entirely to schools. One project may be taken up by students or preferably, the school can design other projects based on local considerations,” reads the about the book section
Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School in Rohini in Delhi, said that the vocational education books pro-vide hands-on learning experi-ences to students. “… Vocational education books raise awareness among students about the envi-ronment at a young age which is important for sustainable devel-opment..” she said.