Rajahmundry: Lapses galore at ITI, students seek probe

Rajahmundry: Students of a private Industrial Training Institute have alleged serious irregularities in its functioning, conduct of exams, practicals and seek an inquiry into the lapses to punish culprits.

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Vivekananda ITI located at Bhuvanapalli of Nidamarru mandal in West Godavari, is being run by Sappa Venkata Lakshmi with the help of principal Satish. She is a benami for school teacher Narasimha Rao, who works at a government boys’ high school at Ganapavaram. Though he is the one who set up ITI, he is a government teacher and hence runs it in her name by looking after its day-to-day functioning.

Though the ITI has nearly 300 students, less than 50 attend regularly as the management has given them that option at the time of admission itself.

Accordingly, students who want to attend regularly pay a fee of Rs 28,000 for four semesters spanning over two years. Students who appear only for exams have to pay Rs 36,000 while those who only want a certificate have to pay Rs 50,000.

BC, SC and ST community students who get a fee-reimbursement from the state government, are not getting it as the management takes it away. The faculty comprises of two teachers who have only passed their X standard and intermediate, as a B.Ed qualification is not asked for. There is no teaching that goes on in classes except to control students and ensure that they maintain silence.

The students alleged that during exams, teachers dictate answers like A,B,C and D for multiple choice questions and in case something has to be written, the principal will write it on the blackboard so that the students can note it down on their answer sheets. For a paper like ‘engineering drawing’, the management hires local polytechnic students to draw diagrams on answer sheets and write the explanation. For this, each student is supposed to pay `500 to the polytechnic student. The students will then be given these slips containing the answers given by the polytechnic students.

The students wondered how the management gets the answers and diagrams ready as the question papers’ seals are opened just minutes before commencement of an exam. They suspect that the management connive with officials to leak the question papers in advance so that they can prepare answer slips by consulting polytechnic students.

The students allege that the principal is harassing them to give money to help them score better and even threatened to fail them if they did not give him money. Vivekananda ITI students on condition of anonymity said, “We are being harassed to pay money for illegal practices. There is no qualified faculty and we want an inquiry by the concerned authorities to expose the lapses and punish the management.”

Vivekananda ITI owner Narasimha Rao said, “I am no way related to the institute and I have no idea of the developments there.”

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