Government has put a special emphasis on promoting skill-based vocational education
to bridge the demand-supply gap, for employable and skilled workers, faced by the
industry
Private unaided industrial training institutes (ITIs) in
the state will soon be graded on the basis of their performance to qualify for government
incentives such as salary grants for their employees.
The department of higher and technical education (H&TE) has made a suggestion to
this effect in response to the long-pending demand of the Ashashakiya ITI Pracharya
va Karmachari Sanghatana, a body of principals and employees of non-government ITIs,
Sanghatana President Sanjay Boraste told. The grading will enable efficiently-run
non-government ITIs to secure crucial grants to further the larger objective of
training students with different skills required by the industry. Already, the government
has put a special emphasis on promoting skill-based vocational education to bridge
the demand-supply gap, for employable and skilled workers, faced by the industry.
Boraste said, Both, H&TE minister Rajesh Tope and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar,
who also holds the finance portfolio, have shown a favourable disposition towards
extending salary grants to 140-odd non-government ITIs established and affiliated
before 2000-01. The cut-off year relates to the time when the Maharashtra government
adopted the policy of sanctioning new academic institutions on permanent no-grant
basis.
We (the Sanghatana) were demanding for some time now that non-government ITIs established
before 2000-01, be given salary grants on the lines of a similar benefit that has
been extended by the government to the Stds VIII to X technical schools and Std
XI to XII minimum competence vocational course (MCVC) institutions, he said.
The government-run as well as non-government ITIs have been playing a significant
role in providing skilled workforce to the industry. As such, we have been asking
the government, why overlook the ITIs when the technical schools and MCVC institutions
were receiving salary grants he said.
According to Boraste, There are 375 government ITIs, which account for 65,000 students
while another 260 non-government ITIs that train 35,000 students every year. Of
the 260 non-government institutions, 169 ITIs were established before 2000-01 and
140 of them have fulfilled all government norms. If the government is to extend
100% salary grants to these 140 ITIs, the financial burden works out to Rs. 40 crore,
he said.
Tope had moved a proposal before Pawar, recommending the need to extend salary grants.
Responding to the same, Pawar had called a meeting at Mantralaya in Mumbai recently.
Boraste said, during discussions, we suggested that the government may release the
Rs. 40-crore grant in two instalments of 60% in the first year and 40% in the second
year. We also suggested that the grant be made applicable from January 1, 2012, but
an administrative sanction of the state cabinet be secured immediately.
Grading of non-government ITIs was mooted as part of the alternatives to release
the Rs. 40-crore grant, he said. The proposal will now be referred to the state
chief minister for a final decision, he added.
Courtesy: Times of India
