An Indian View of Vocational-Technical Education.

Overview & Synopsis

Traditionally vocational education has served minority groups and has, consequently, suffered from financial neglect. Since numerous non-minority citizens will never attend college, it is in the interest of all society to improve vocational education. In 1963 the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) established a policy of prevocational education for American Indians, emphasizing academic courses in the 9th grade and 'exploratory' shop courses in the 10th-12th grades. Falling short of their goals, BIA schools showed a 40 percent dropout rate with only 28 percent of the graduates going on to college in 1967. A recent evaluation of Federal boarding schools indicates inadequacies in academic programming, guidance counseling, vocational equipment, and prevocational training. However, successful Indian operated post-secondary schools are beginning to emerge. Improvement in the quality of Indian vocational education calls for: (1) an increase in BIA funding; (2) better information dissemination on grants, fellowships, etc.; (3) more financial support for existing and emerging Indian community colleges; (4) Federal allocations for Indian recruitment and counseling; (5) an all Indian vocational research/development section in the U.S. Office of Education Regions; (6) reservation based courses and workshops for adults; (7) Indian involvement in the National Vocational Education Advisory Council. (JC)