In a bid to follow norms, ITI goofs up with question paper

However, the principal and other faculty said it wasn't a big deal and that no student had complained after the paper. The National Council of Vocational Education and Training (NCVT) have approved the syllabus for the technical courses at the Aundh institute.

The courses for stenographer, tailoring and auto body paint are being run by the State Council of Vocation Education and Training (SCVT). Out of a total strength of 1,500 around 1,400 students admitted to NCVT courses; the remaining 100 appeared for the SCVT exam.

Till last year, all 1,500 students have had to opt for a compulsory subject called Social Studies to study Civics, Statistics and Environment Science as several students are only either class VIII passed or class XII passed.

"Last year, NCVT introduced a new subject called ‘Employability Skills' in a step to wider the scope of Social Studies and made it compulsory for all students doing NCVT courses. R V Kakade, principal of ITI, Aundh, said SCVT is supposed to follow NCVT, but it has not done so yet.

"Rather than keeping just a 100 students out of this new subject which is nothing but a revised format of Social Studies, we give them lessons on Employment Skills through the year. However, to follow government rules around 100 students appeared for the Social Studies paper," he said.

Assistant apprenticeship advisor of ITI, SK Darekar said, "The subject Employability Skills has additional chapters like IT literacy, safety norms in industry, on field working environment and various acts and rights or workers. Tell me is giving additional knowledge to students who unfortunately are not able to opt for subjects, can that be termed as crime?"

Kakade added, "It is the ‘brainchild' of some of our employees, who have differences with me. I only expect that the image of the institute is not be ruined by internal politics." When MiDDAY visited the institute it was found that the goof up perturbed no student at the institute. u00a0