Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions exist to accelerate Kenya’s industrial and economic growth by providing relevant skills and competencies in strategic disciplines in various sectors of the economy.
However, enrolment in TVET institutions (TVETs) remains low due to persistent negative attitudes by Kenyans driven by the obsession with degree courses and white-collar jobs. Since they do not offer degrees, the courses offered by TVETs are shunned by many who see them as not being lucrative.
Yet in 2019, only 17 per cent of students who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) qualified to join post-secondary institutions offering degree courses. This leaves TVETs offering non-degree courses to absorb over 80 per cent of learners completing secondary school each year.
The situation is compounded by the 100 per cent transition policy introduced in 2018, leading to a surge in the number of students joining secondary schools. After going through the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), all students are enrolled in secondary schools unlike in the past when many dropped out.
This month, 830,000 students are sitting the KCSE exam. In December, another cohort will also sit the same test under the fast-tracked school calendar due to Covid-19. This translates to over 1.2 million Form 4 leavers not qualifying to join the universities this year alone.
Last year, only 600,000 students who attained Grade C and below were admitted to TVETs, leaving over half-a-million others with nowhere to go and cut off from pursuing further education to sharpen their skills for future careers.
Apart from the prevalent poor perception of TVET courses as being inferior to university degrees, students are conditioned to think that the so-called blue collar jobs like plumbers, electricians, carpenters and mechanics are for ‘failures’ in life. We need to discard such fallacies and realize that vocational training offered by our technical institutes is a critical component of human capital development required for the country to attain industrial status under the Vision 2030.
The State is to be commended for massive investment in upgrading TVET infrastructure and boosting enrolment over the last ten years.
Unfortunately, a report released in January by the Auditor-General reveals that notwithstanding colossal expenditure of taxpayers’ money in revamping the TVET sub-sector, many technical institutes remain non-operational either because they are incomplete or are yet to sign up students despite having all the required facilities.
Most of these cases involve sheer corruption and ineptitude that is robbing our youth of an opportunity to develop their skills in readiness to be productive economic actors and members of society.
In one case, a contractor was paid over Ksh. 50 million upfront being 80 per cent of the contract sum but is yet to complete construction. Another contractor had received in excess of Ksh. 200 million when the building collapsed due to shoddy work. In another quite intriguing case, the buildings were fully equipped with furniture and other learning amenities which are now rotting because there are no students.
Meanwhile, the non-operational institutions continue to receive Ksh. 2 million annually as subsidies for non-existent students. At a time when over 600,000 youth who have completed secondary education are idling away in our towns and villages, unable to access and acquire much-needed vocational skills to improve their lives, such wanton mismanagement and embezzlement of public resources should be severely punished. The completed institutions should be immediately opened so as to create room for more students to be admitted.
Soon after his appointment as Principal Secretary for the State Department Technical and Vocational Training, Dr. Julius Jwan promised that those keen on joining TVETs would not be subjected to the grade they attained in national exams as long they had a desire to acquire vocational skills. If fully implemented, this would go a long way in enabling our youth to develop their skills and realize their full potential.
Crucially, we must begin to align the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) currently being rolled out in our education system. The beauty about CBC is that it recognizes the competencies and skills of learners regardless of their performance in exams. Hence the need to ensure a seamless transition from basic primary to tertiary level based on continuous development of the right skill-sets for an industrial economy.
Kenya being a party to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is need to step up the quest for inclusive education, that is, providing real learning opportunities for groups that have traditionally been excluded by the education system.
Mr. Murumba is the Managing Director, Impulso Kenya Limited. Email: peterwafula@impulsokenyaltd.com
