Equip, don’t build more technical training institutions

The government’s efforts to promote youth training is evident. This year, the National Treasury allocated Sh16 billion to equipping the institutions countrywide.

Plans are also on course to build a technical college in every constituency and a vocational training centre in every ward for areas that do not have tertiary institutions.

And besides the national and county governments’ support, donors have also come in handy by providing equipment and infrastructure.

UJANA360

Despite this massive investment, however, some of the institutions are yet to feel its impact in terms of infrastructure, which is wanting. Furthermore, enrolment is still poor.

Data from the Ministry of Education indicate that, annually, only under 15 percent of the more than 650,000 students who sit the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations join university.

That means the rest have to enrol in technical institutions to acquire various skills. But they can only join these institutions when they are sure of quality education.

This begs the question, do we need to continue putting up more institutions where there are no students or focus on improving the facilities in the institutions that we already have?

A study by Zizi Afrique Foundation’s Ujana360, which seeks to empower youth in technical and vocational education training (TVET), paints a grim picture of a sector seemingly doing badly in terms of enrolment and equipment. The most affected, according to the study, are vocational training centres (formerly village polytechnics).

The country has 800 operational vocational training centres while 67 others are being established.

LOW PROFILE

The study, conducted last year, indicates that youths are not enrolling in some of these institutions while, in those that have students, the quality of the education being offered is not up to the required standard.

The institutions are described as having a very low profile, being inadequately funded and having poorly motivated instructors. These attributes have, consequently, led to the institutions having poor enrolment rates; hence, the youth do not want any association with them.

Further, a majority of the youth enrolled in these institutions do not reside in the respective wards, forcing the institutions to build dormitories. And where they cannot manage, students have to seek accommodation in the neighbourhood, an extra expense for parents.

The management of these institutions has complained that the function was devolved without adequate funding. Even the machinery found in these institutions are archaic. Poor remuneration of tutors has made qualified personnel to shun them since they are not sure when they will be paid — if they will be, at all.

RELEVANCE

And despite county governments having taken over the management of the centres, they have done little to support the students.

Construction of new institutions is not a solution to these challenges. The government should first concentrate on fixing the problems in existing institutions to make them more attractive to the youth.

For example, every institution should have a production unit. This will ensure their sustainability and relevance of the training.

A report by the World Bank and education experts in the country that was released on August 21 indicates that many instructors have not received the appropriate training to teach in technical skills.

The policy report, “Improving higher education performance in Kenya”, further indicates that most of the institutions do not have adequate infrastructure and equipment to support the teaching of the national competency-based curriculum (CBC).

“In addition, these institutions are dispersed across several ministries, resulting in limited homogeneity in programmes and standards,” reads the report.

CONDUCIVE

The “2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey” report shows 30 percent of Kenyan firms cited an inadequately educated workforce as a major obstacle to their operations and growth, compared to only three percent in 2007.

Similarly, the “2017/2018 Global Competitiveness Index” identified insufficient capacity to innovate, a poor work ethic and an inadequately educated workforce as some of the most challenging factors for doing business in Kenya.

Last year, the government unveiled a plan to enrol 1.4 million students in 280 TVET colleges and 1.6 million more in technical vocational centres. That can only be realised if we have well-trained instructors and the institutions have good facilities for a conducive learning environment.

Ms Mukiria is an administration executive at Zizi Afrique Foundation. [email protected]