FOREWORD
 

Education of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, including the vocational and technical education have remained matters of special concern of the Central and State Governments ever since independence. Substantial progress has been made over the past 4 decades, however, these groups still suffer from several disabilities and lag behind other segments of population. The National Policy on Education (1986) has, therefore, laid special emphasis on the education of these groups and Programme of Action spells out various strategies for promoting their educational development. Stress has been laid on improving their skills and competencies at all levels through formal and non- formal channels.

The present study is an outcome of a suggestion made by the Ministry of Education to undertake an indepth analysis of utilisation of facilities provided by Industrial Training Institutes and identify critical policy issues. The findings are based on an analysis of secondary data at macro level and a detailed analysis of primary data from the selected ITIs located in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Number of suggestions regarding streamlining of the incentives in the ITIs and improving the quality of training imparted therein emerge from the study.

Finances for the study were provided by the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the scheme of "Assistance for Studies in Educational Policies, Planning, Management and Evaluation". I am grateful to the Ministry for entrusting this task to NIEPA and also giving permission to publish the same. I also take this opportunity to thank the State and National Level experts for providing valuable inputs at various stages of the study.

I wish to place on record my special appreciation for the efforts made by Dr. Kusum K. Premi in conducting this study and for bringing it out in a book form.

SATYA BHUSHAN

DIRECTOR