ITI Berhampur to be mentor for 622 high schools & OAV

Berhampur : All the 622 high schools and Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya (OAV) in Ganjam will adopt the 'waste to wealth' concept adopted by the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) Berhampur. All students from the schools will visit the ITI campus and will be trained in good practices. They will install various beautiful sculptures and models at their school under the 5T initiative.

This was decided at a workshop 'Waste to Wealth' held at the ITI auditorium on Thursday. It was attended by headmasters of 600 high schools and 22 Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya in 23 blocks of Ganjam.

Keerithivasan, project director, DRDA, Ganjam, who inaugurated the workshop, said under the leadership of the 'Scrap Man of Odisha' Dr Rajat Kumar Panigrahy, Principal ITI, all the 622 schools will adopt the waste to wealth concept.

ITI, the leading institute in the country, always takes the responsibility for innovation. J Sonal, Commissioner, Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC), appreciated the initiative taken by the ITI and appealed to all headmasters to take various initiatives to prepare items from waste materials at school level, like the ITI students.

"I am delighted to see the sofas where we are seated on the dais. This is the attitude of people who are working in the ITI. We appreciate the innovation", he said.

Binita Senapati, DEO Ganjam, appreciated the ITI principal and said every student has some innovative skill. "If we utilise that skill in a proper manner, the students get good exposure and become self- employable, she said. Dr Panigrahy explained why the waste wealth is essential, what will happen to the environment and how the trainees benefited. He promised to extend all support to high schools to adopt the concept. He explained in the second session 'The needs of skill development for girls' how the ITI can fulfil the dream. He appealed to the headmasters to explain the benefits of various government schemes, like Sudhakhya and how they help the girls. Lunch was hosted for the girl students of the institute with the headmasters. The students and staff took the headmasters to various workshops, e-lab, scrap park, Covid Innovation centre and the scrap museum of the institute.