Madhya Pradesh set to give a fillip to ITIs

Four years after the launch of a government scheme to upgrade Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) into Centres of Excellence under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, the state government has inched forward to approve the plan.

The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday decided to spruce up its ITIs in 46 districts. At present, these institutes impart training to matriculates on out-dated technology. The state has already received a soft loan of Rs 2.5 crore for each ITI from the Central government to upgrade the ITIs.

“All these 46 ITIs will be upgraded as model ones and known as Ideal ITIs. We will also upgrade and modernise the remaining 107 (ITIs) situated at various locations. The state Cabinet on Thursday approved the plan,” said government spokesperson Narottam Mishra.

Madhya Pradesh has 151 government-owned ITIs. Of them 58 have no building of their own while the curriculum is age-old and machine and tools primitive.

As many as 40 ITIs had been chosen in 2006 for upgrade through the PPP model. The state government had to form management committees, choosing members of small and medium industrialists as chairmen on board. There are five members each from private companies and from the government. But in the absence of proper monitoring and a rather negative attitude of government machinery, the ITIs have become worst place for industrial training.

Private partners feel harassed and are planning to quit their participation in the projects launched earlier on a pilot basis. “We cannot expect ITIs to produce skilled entrepreneurs even for small-scale industries when they impart lessons about truck engines of 1920 make,” said a Govindpura-based industrialist who often faces skilled labour problem. “I have no say in the ITI where I am the chairman and have no penal powers in the committees to take action. Though there is enough fund and we can train students in a better way, local politics and negative attitude of the staffers have put everything in jeopardy,” he rued.

Industrialists complained that in far-flung areas, no one monitors the infrastructure while principals and faculty hardly attend the training. They said training quality is so poor students cannot perform ordinary jobs like fitting.

According to a number of chairpersons, the ITI principals need to be given lessons in better administrative mechanism.