Align technical training to industry needs

When Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, the Cabinet secretary for Education, was releasing the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education results, an important statistic was drowned by the controversy about school ranking and Form One selection criteria.

He announced that, out of the 880,000 students who sat KCPE in 2014, 687,000 would find places in secondary schools. Some 100,000 would be absorbed in the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions. He did not say what would happen to the remaining 93,000, a number that has been increasing every year.

Indeed, the sheer waste of potential represented by the pupils who fall through the cracks should concern everyone.

The government has, since 2004, been investing heavily in technical and vocational education reform. But reversing the negative effects of 40 years of neglect will take time.

Do we really value vocational skills training? How do you explain the many technical training institutions that have been converted into universities and never replaced? Or the fact that, while the entire TVET can enrol only 100,000 students, total university enrolment is 340,000?

If this were purely a question of building more facilities to host more students, it would be easy to solve. But the root causes of our TVET problem goes far beyond the need for hardware. It is a reflection of wrong government priorities, and societal attitudes that rate technical education as inferior to academic.

The quality of education in youth polytechnics is poor and staff morale low. Many youth polytechnics teach the same courses they have offered for years, usually a selection of carpentry, masonry, metal work, beauty care and basic IT.

But perhaps the biggest problem is the disconnect between those who supply the skills and those who consume them. Thus courses in polytechnics must be made more relevant to the needs of Kenya.

Ndungu Kahihu is executive director, Cap Youth Empowerment Institute