The Gazetteers Department

The necessity of promoting technical education was pointed out in 1880 by the Indian Famine Commission. The Atkinson Dawson Committee report stressed the need of apprenticeship to the technically trained personnel in the province of Bombay and recommended suitable centres or classes in the regional languages and suggested that minor technical centres should be placed under one central technical institution. In the year 1948, the then Government of Bombay, setup the Department of Technical Education and technical education at all levels in the State was vested in it. The Department until 1963 was also conducting the examination for diploma and certificate courses offered by the polytechnics and some of the technical institutions in the State. A separate board, viz., the Board of Technical Examinations with headquarters at Bombay was constituted in 1963 to take this responsibility. The Board lays down syllabi for various courses, prescribes text reference books and awards certificates and diplomas to successful candidates.

Apart from the above, the Department also looks after the training schemes, sponsored by the Government of India, viz., (i) craftsmen training scheme, (ii) apprenticeship training scheme, and (iii) evening classes for industrial workers.

The Department is headed by the Director of Technical Education, Maharashtra State. He is assisted in his work by the Deputy Directors of Technical Education, placed in charge of the divisions of the State. The Deputy Director of Technical Education, Nagpur, looks after technical education in the Vidarbha region of which Bhandara district forms a part.

The polytechnics cater to engineering or technology diploma courses of three years duration. Theoretical and practical instructions are given to trainees of the diploma institutions who on passing the examination are absorbed in supervisory capacity in the related industry. Technical high schools are secondary schools with a technical bias. Their aim is not to train the students specially for entering into wage-earning occupations but to give them a broad based training in basic engineering workshop courses without neglecting the academic subjects. The aim of vocational high schools, on the other hand, is to provide the students from rural areas with such type of training as could be useful for occupations in industry. The training of skilled workers required for various industries is offered at the Government industrial training institutions. Students are so trained as to make them skilled artisans for suitable industrial employment. The other type of training is mainly vocational where training is offered in cottage and small scale industries with a view to prepare the trainees for gainful employment. The trainees in the industrial training institutions admitted to the trades of one or two years duration could after completion of training join the concerned industry as semi-skilled workers.

The number of technical institutions during 1966-67 stood at 18, of which 4 were subsequently closed in 1967-68, and the intake capacity in selected trades in industrial training institutions in the district was 640. Of the 14 institutions in 1967-68, nine were craft and needle craft institutions. The industrial training institution at Gondia, which is the only institute of its type, in the district, provides courses to train the students as electrician, draftsman, motor mechanic, moulder, welder, blacksmith, fitter, etc.

The total intake capacity of the institute is 192. There are two technical high schools in the district located at Gondia and Tumsar, the intake capacity of which is 80 and 64, respectively. The pre-vocational training centre, Gondia, offers courses in black-smithy, turning, fitting, carpentry, moulding, welding, etc. The duration of the course is for three years. The centre can accommodate 45 students. The facility of basic training and related instructions is also available at the centre at Gondia. During 1967-68 the intake capacity of this centre was 80. The craft and needle craft institutions numbering seven in 1967-68 are located at Bhandara with two and one each at Sakoli, Gondia, Tumsar, Lakhni and Pauni. The intake capacity of these institutions during the same period was 160 and they were run by private bodies.

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