State to enroll 1 million students in tech schools annually

The government is targeting to increase the current enrolment of students in technical and vocational training institutes from the current 180,000 to 3.1 million in its latest plan.

In the plan set to be unveiled tomorrow during a meeting between the Ministry of Education officials led by CS Amina Mohamed and Deputy President William Ruto, the move seeks to enroll 1million students annually.

The initiative is aimed at tapping more than 500,000 students who fail to join universities annually.

“The plan will be achieved by expansion of all existing institutions, construction of new ones in each of the 290 constituencies and subsequently equipping them with relevant industrial equipment,” reads the proposal.

Currently 98,000 students are enrolled national polytechnics and vocational colleges while technical vocational centres have 82,000 students.

In the new plan, the government is targeting to have 110,000 enrolment in 11 national polytechnics, 1.4 million enrolment in 280 technical and vocational colleges and 1.6 million enrolment  technical vocational centres.

VOCATIONAL COLLEGES

Currently, there are 11 national polytechnics, 125 technical, vocational colleges operational and 67 TVCs being established.

Of 290 constituencies, 87 do not have a technical colleges. The country has 800 operational technical vocational centres.

During this financial year, 298 departments in both old and institutions being established will be equipped.

It is further projected that national polytechnics will be established to achieve at least one per county. Currently, 10 counties have at least one national polytechnic, while 37 counties do not have any.

The government also want to build capacity of the entire TVET governance system to implement the reforms including (directorate of technical education, directorate of vocational education and training, Kenya national qualification authority, TVET authority, curriculum development and certification council, TVET fund and managers of TVET institutions).

REFORM AGENDA

According to the document seen by Nation, this will enhance efficiency and effectiveness in coordination and implementation of TVET reform agenda.

The government also want to build capacity of TVET trainers to upgrade their skills to be in tandem with current industrial requirements, as well as equip them with pedagogical skills required to implement competence based curriculum and out assessment to ensure effectiveness of implementation of the new curriculum.

It also plans to establish effective quality assurance system that is internationally benchmarked.

The institutions have been hit by low enrolment, inadequate capacity of governance in the entire TVET governance system among others.

Already more than 4,000 tutors in technical and vocational training institutions have been transferred from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to Public Service Commission (PSC).

CAREER PROGRESSION

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Principal Secretary Kevit Desai also cited TSC’s inability to recognise the qualifications of  tutors who undergo training through the TVET training path in their career progression.

Dr Desai said for instance, a trainer with higher national diploma, who scored C- at Form Four cannot be hired by TSC.

However under the new scheme, he said such trainers will only be required to provide their highest qualifications to be hired or promoted.

ATTACT STAFF

“The development was informed by the urgency to move the trainers from TSC in order to comply with TVET Act 2013. This scheme shall be improved eventually in order to attract high calibre staff and to promote staff retention,” said the PS.

Statistics from the government indicate that only 28,866 students applying to join the colleges.

School-leavers have been snubbing technical and vocational training institutions despite the government investing heavily in the institutions.