BTI on the mend under Edu Ministry, says official

Manama

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Bahrain Training Institute (BTI) was mired in corruption and bore the brunt of its repercussions before it was brought under the umbrella of Education Ministry, said a senior official here yesterday.

Rebuffing the repeated allegations that the institute’s services quality had deteriorated during the past few years, BTI General Director Fawzi Abdulrahman Al Jowder said that the institute was in a state of detoxification after it witnessed serious violations four years ago.

“BTI inherited severe issues while it didn’t operate under the Education Ministry before 2011. Independent auditing firms reported violations in the financial and administrative procedures at the institute, such as registration, enrollment and training,” Al Jowder explained.

According to the General Director, BTI didn’t follow any specific policies and standards for registration, admission and programmes, leading to serious violations and weak academic outcomes.

Meanwhile, he rejected the claims that the institute was better off without the Ministry’s supervision. “Reports of the National Authority for Qualifications and Quality Assurance of Education and Training (QQA) highlighted fundamental irregularities in BTI’s training performance in 2010, before it was embraced by the Ministry,” he elaborated.

“These voices that target the institute every now and then in a local publication, should go through the official reports of both the periods-- before and after the Ministry’s takeover. Huge efforts have been dedicated to revive the institute to its respected position,” Al Jowder commented.

The official revealed that the Education Ministry had set a strategy to improve the performance of the institute in the next three years.  He informed that the strategy would be implemented in coordination with QQA and the Civil Service Bureau.