GOVERNMENT | INSPECTION | TVET

The Government has announced a fresh inspection exercise of all technical and vocational education training (TVET) assessment centers in the country.

The move is in a bid to assess the competence of the centers to handle the growing TVET student numbers as the Government moves to enhance standards in the sector.

From a total of 10,000 students from 191 examinations in 2011, TVET learners have increased to 108,400 from 592 centers.

Onesmus Oyesigye, the executive secretary of Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB), said the development owes to the growing confidence in TVET by the public and government support of the sector. He said the inspection will take place between November and December.

“I request all heads of assessment centers to cooperate with our technical teams to ensure that we strengthen the facilities and protocols of assessment,” he said, adding that the board will work with the relevant regulatory and supervisory bodies in the education sector, such as the Directorate of Education Standards, National Council of Higher Education and district inspectors of schools.

Requirements 

Some of the requirements the board will be looking for during the inspection include whether the centers have enough room to accommodate examinations or training and whether the qualifications of their instructors meet the required standards.

“We also want to find out whether the centers have equipment that matches the number of students they have and whether it is tailored to the current standards,” Oyesigye said.

He said centers must have strong rooms to help in the temporary storage of examination materials (both practical and theory) to minimize exam malpractices.

Oyesigye was speaking yesterday at the feedback workshop of institutions and stakeholders of the TVET sector at the Uganda Institute of ICT in Nakawa.

It was attended by more than 100 persons drawn from assessors, principals of TVET centers, and other sector players.

Skilling Hubs 

Ketty Lamaro, the permanent secretary of the education ministry, said currently, more than 70% of districts in Uganda have a TVET institution.

“In addition, the Government has built industrial hubs purposely for skilling the youths. I implore all stakeholders here to mobilize the youth to join the industrial hubs for skilling. The trainees from industrial hubs will later be admitted to formal skilling under the recognition of the prior learning scheme, which was initiated this year,” she said.

Lamaro added that the Government has opened windows of access to TVET training for all interested Ugandans.

“I wish to also encourage you to join our team in mobilizing the graduates who have not yet got employment, to join the TVET skilling programs which promote “situated skilling” so that they can earn a living from their tangible skills and relevant hands as they await earning from their academic papers of “pen-pushing”.

“In developed countries, you find professional lawyers running woodwork workshops. This is time to increase multiple and dynamic career growth in Uganda,” she said.

The UBTEB chairperson, Eng. Silver Mugisha, said the board has approved the formation of the TVET assessment working groups to link training and assessment to the real practices of the world of work.

This is in a bid to keep the standards and trends so that adequate and relevant advice is obtained by the board on curriculum, design, and assessment.