State board plans to bring ITI on a par with Class X and XII

"After ITI, many students face problems if they want to pursue further education. The new process will help them take up higher education without any confusion. The proposal will be sent to the ministry soon," said Krishna Kumar Patil, secretary, MSBSHSE.

As per the state board plan, for students who pursue ITI after passing Class VIII, it will be compulsory for them to pass in all ITI subjects plus will have to take isolated subjects depending upon which stream they want to apply in Class XI. For Arts stream, it will be compulsorily for students to clear English and Marathi. For students who wish to apply for science and commerce streams in Class XI, they will have to clear English, Marathi and Mathematics exam in ITI to make it equivalent to Class X board certificate.

For students who pursue ITI after Class X, they too will have to clear all the subjects of ITI along with the subjects determined by MSBSHSE to get equivalency certificate of Class XII. Students who want Class XII equivalence certificate in Arts will have to clear an isolated English exam. For Class XII Commerce, Book Keeping and Accountancy and English are the subjects to be cleared. For Class XII science equivalence, out of a list of science subjects like chemistry and physics, any three subjects have to be cleared, along with English.

"These are just proposals that we have come up with. The entire process is under consideration. We will send it to the ministry which will take further action. Nothing is concrete yet," said Patil.

"The proposal will go a long way in paving the way for better future of ITI students," said Shashikant Patil, principal, ITI, PCMC. "Mostly, students belonging to low-income group join ITI and their first priority is job. But it was hard for them to enter main stream education after ITI. They used to take up various part-time diplomas as an alternative form of higher education," said Patil. "If the new proposal is passed, it will help them pursue higher education and in turn will help them fetch better jobs," added Patil.

He also said many girls want to go for higher education but they were unable to do so till now. "With equivalency, they can choose whatever they want to do and hence the decision will definitely help them get enrolled for higher education," said Patil.

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