48 per cent of seats in ITI remain vacant

MUMBAI: Admission to vocational courses has been under scanner for some time now, especially because of the declining number of students opting for such courses.

MUMBAI: Admission to vocational courses has been under scanner for some time now, especially because of the declining number of students opting for such courses. However this year, principals of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) have blamed the dismal numbers, especially in private institutes, on the lack of coordination among officials at the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training (DVET) which led to a three-week delay in starting the admissions process this year.

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“More than 3 lakh students registered for 1.32 lakh seats in institutes across the state. While seats in government institutes fill, private ones face the brunt,” said DW Patne, secretary of the Associationof Non-Government ITIs in the state. While the scheduled date for registration was supposed to be June 14, the process finally started on June 28 as the DVET had not finalised an online service provider to conduct the admission process.

According to figures released by DVET, 91% of the 1.8 lakh seats in government institutes were filled by the end of the admission season this year, but only 52.6% of the 41843 seats in private ITIs were filled up. “Some courses, including cutting, sewing and stenography have few or no takers at all. We have done our best to allot all seats and the final results have been good,” said Yogesh Patil, deputy director, DVET.