Why vocational institutes yield poor results
Jun 24, 2007
EVERY year, whenever the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) announces the results for technical and vocational institutions, the failure rate is anything from 50-80%. <br>
By Irene Nabusoba
EVERY year, whenever the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) announces the results for technical and vocational institutions, the failure rate is anything from 50-80%.
It has now emerged that vocational schools all over the country lack trained and registered personnel.
“This is a very big problem and it has compromised the quality of training sufficient for the industry,†Alahi Mansoor, the assistant commissioner of technical education in the Ministry of Education and Sports, said.
Opening a two-week training programme at Bbira Vocational Training School along Kampala-Mityana Road recently, Mansoor said there is a high need for trained instructors in the technical, vocational, business education and training institutions.
“We have found that many instructors only know what they are teaching in theory. They do not have hands-on training,†Mansoor said.
His remarks are a pointer to the bigger problem of the constant poor grades in these ‘craftsman’s’ institutions.
The Government attributes this trend to stigma towards vocational training and the fact that many students look at these courses as inferior to university education.
Vocational training is often considered as a last resort because in the colonial days, those that performed well were sent for law and other administrative (office) courses while the poor performers went for vocational training.
“Vocational schools would basically take failures. Given that the training is science-based and practical-oriented, the results would be appalling.
That trend still haunts us,†says Katumba Muragala, the principal of Biira Vocational Institute.
Vocational education covers areas like agro-machines repairs and services, motor vehicle repairs, maintenance and general fitting, general building construction, brick-making, laying and concrete practice, plus carpentry and joinery.
It also covers tailoring and garment cutting, metal fabrication, panel beating and machinery spraying, home economics, electrical installation and catering.
“All these have a practical and numerical aspect. Taking on failures is like suicide. Students can’t handle vocational courses like technical drawing,†Katumba adds.
He says with the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Post Primary Education Training (UPPET), the quality of enrollment is improving, but the quality of students and their work output is still poor.
“Originally, we were taking only P.7 leavers, but we are now enrolling secondary school students also. The influx is because of UPE and UPPET.
The quality of the students we are enrolling is improving because UPPET demands that we take those with up to 27 points.
Previously, we would actually take failures,†he reveals.
But Katumba believes value can only be added to vocational skills by virtue of good grades and consequent flexible job mobility, if the instructors are qualified.
“We do not have the capacity to have hands on training.
You find that the student has passed but is not qualified. The best he can do is come back and teach that very theory. The ones who fail go back to their villages.
“They cannot be employed in serious paying contracts. With time, they also start teaching their colleagues the wrong things they have mastered and the cycle continues,†he says.
According to the 2005 GTZ worldwide news, vocational training in Uganda has dashed hopes that it could solve the problems of unemployment and unskilled labour.
The situation has been worsened by the increased number of private institutions (many of them sub-standard), to tap into the increasing numbers of students.
A recent study shows that 2,000 instructors in private institutions are training without any academic qualification.
“The main weaknesses in this sector are its lack of relevance, poor funding for expensive training schemes and inequality of opportunity for those in need,†it reveals.
Ministry statistics show that only 1.6% of tertiary students are in technical colleges, compared to 59% in universities. But why the irony of few students with poor grades?
Kyasanku Kalifani, the managing director, Mwereerwe Community Vocational Training Institute argues that vocational skills can be improved if vocational training institutes are well-funded.
The education sector took the lion’s share of this year’s national budget, but of the sh752.3b, Universal Secondary Education got sh154.87b, UPE received sh392.4b, while tertiary education was only allocated sh25.5b.
The education minister, Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire, says the institutions are under-funded and there is low capacity for training instructors.
The 2005 World Development Report says teachers in Uganda are not well-equipped to provide vocational disciplines.
The cost of setting up a fully-fledged vocational institution in a rural setting is higher than that of an average secondary school.
Bitamazire says classrooms and workshops in a technical institution are estimated at sh600m, while an average secondary school in a typical rural sub-county costs sh30m.
Aggrey Kibenge, the ministry’s spokesperson says: “We shall still pay a threshold of sh7m per academic year to each of the 46 institutions enrolling P.7 leavers and a variable tuition fee of sh68,733 per trainee, per academic year.â€
However, many heads of vocational institutions argue that the money is little, given that the courses are very expensive.
“We charge sh205,000 per student, but we need more than that. We need to pay the trainers and our rural location does not favour us.
Most of the students are either poor and consider vocational training because they cannot afford university, or have failed completely and do not have interest.
Given that the turn out is low, we cannot effectively run the schools,†Katumba says.
This is the reason many schools pass for vocational institutions, but with no qualified staff, no equipment and no defined curriculum.
The Government should embark on vigorous training of instructors, prioritise the establishment of fully-fledged technical institutions and strengthen the monitoring of private vocational centres.
This can be done through encouraging partnerships with the communities and the private sector through grant-aiding mechanisms, purchase and supply of equipment and staffing.
Some education experts suggest that vocational training should be introduced within the existing secondary schools since the technical institutions are few.
The African Development Bank is undertaking a five-year training project that will see 541 instructors upgraded. A sum of sh242m has been injected into this year’s pioneer batch that will cover 60 trainers.
Emmanuel Bampinga, the chairman of the Uganda Association of Private Vocational Institutions which is coordinating the training, says this will go a long way in improving the poor results of national technical examinations.
But that is just a drop in the ocean.
EVERY year, whenever the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) announces the results for technical and vocational institutions, the failure rate is anything from 50-80%.
It has now emerged that vocational schools all over the country lack trained and registered personnel.
“This is a very big problem and it has compromised the quality of training sufficient for the industry,†Alahi Mansoor, the assistant commissioner of technical education in the Ministry of Education and Sports, said.
Opening a two-week training programme at Bbira Vocational Training School along Kampala-Mityana Road recently, Mansoor said there is a high need for trained instructors in the technical, vocational, business education and training institutions.
“We have found that many instructors only know what they are teaching in theory. They do not have hands-on training,†Mansoor said.
His remarks are a pointer to the bigger problem of the constant poor grades in these ‘craftsman’s’ institutions.
The Government attributes this trend to stigma towards vocational training and the fact that many students look at these courses as inferior to university education.
Vocational training is often considered as a last resort because in the colonial days, those that performed well were sent for law and other administrative (office) courses while the poor performers went for vocational training.
“Vocational schools would basically take failures. Given that the training is science-based and practical-oriented, the results would be appalling.
That trend still haunts us,†says Katumba Muragala, the principal of Biira Vocational Institute.
Vocational education covers areas like agro-machines repairs and services, motor vehicle repairs, maintenance and general fitting, general building construction, brick-making, laying and concrete practice, plus carpentry and joinery.
It also covers tailoring and garment cutting, metal fabrication, panel beating and machinery spraying, home economics, electrical installation and catering.
“All these have a practical and numerical aspect. Taking on failures is like suicide. Students can’t handle vocational courses like technical drawing,†Katumba adds.
He says with the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Post Primary Education Training (UPPET), the quality of enrollment is improving, but the quality of students and their work output is still poor.
“Originally, we were taking only P.7 leavers, but we are now enrolling secondary school students also. The influx is because of UPE and UPPET.
The quality of the students we are enrolling is improving because UPPET demands that we take those with up to 27 points.
Previously, we would actually take failures,†he reveals.
But Katumba believes value can only be added to vocational skills by virtue of good grades and consequent flexible job mobility, if the instructors are qualified.
“We do not have the capacity to have hands on training.
You find that the student has passed but is not qualified. The best he can do is come back and teach that very theory. The ones who fail go back to their villages.
“They cannot be employed in serious paying contracts. With time, they also start teaching their colleagues the wrong things they have mastered and the cycle continues,†he says.
According to the 2005 GTZ worldwide news, vocational training in Uganda has dashed hopes that it could solve the problems of unemployment and unskilled labour.
The situation has been worsened by the increased number of private institutions (many of them sub-standard), to tap into the increasing numbers of students.
A recent study shows that 2,000 instructors in private institutions are training without any academic qualification.
“The main weaknesses in this sector are its lack of relevance, poor funding for expensive training schemes and inequality of opportunity for those in need,†it reveals.
Ministry statistics show that only 1.6% of tertiary students are in technical colleges, compared to 59% in universities. But why the irony of few students with poor grades?
Kyasanku Kalifani, the managing director, Mwereerwe Community Vocational Training Institute argues that vocational skills can be improved if vocational training institutes are well-funded.
The education sector took the lion’s share of this year’s national budget, but of the sh752.3b, Universal Secondary Education got sh154.87b, UPE received sh392.4b, while tertiary education was only allocated sh25.5b.
The education minister, Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire, says the institutions are under-funded and there is low capacity for training instructors.
The 2005 World Development Report says teachers in Uganda are not well-equipped to provide vocational disciplines.
The cost of setting up a fully-fledged vocational institution in a rural setting is higher than that of an average secondary school.
Bitamazire says classrooms and workshops in a technical institution are estimated at sh600m, while an average secondary school in a typical rural sub-county costs sh30m.
Aggrey Kibenge, the ministry’s spokesperson says: “We shall still pay a threshold of sh7m per academic year to each of the 46 institutions enrolling P.7 leavers and a variable tuition fee of sh68,733 per trainee, per academic year.â€
However, many heads of vocational institutions argue that the money is little, given that the courses are very expensive.
“We charge sh205,000 per student, but we need more than that. We need to pay the trainers and our rural location does not favour us.
Most of the students are either poor and consider vocational training because they cannot afford university, or have failed completely and do not have interest.
Given that the turn out is low, we cannot effectively run the schools,†Katumba says.
This is the reason many schools pass for vocational institutions, but with no qualified staff, no equipment and no defined curriculum.
The Government should embark on vigorous training of instructors, prioritise the establishment of fully-fledged technical institutions and strengthen the monitoring of private vocational centres.
This can be done through encouraging partnerships with the communities and the private sector through grant-aiding mechanisms, purchase and supply of equipment and staffing.
Some education experts suggest that vocational training should be introduced within the existing secondary schools since the technical institutions are few.
The African Development Bank is undertaking a five-year training project that will see 541 instructors upgraded. A sum of sh242m has been injected into this year’s pioneer batch that will cover 60 trainers.
Emmanuel Bampinga, the chairman of the Uganda Association of Private Vocational Institutions which is coordinating the training, says this will go a long way in improving the poor results of national technical examinations.
But that is just a drop in the ocean.