By Erick Nyayiera
The Ministry of Education has been urged to fast track the listing of private TVET institutions to enable students benefit from HELB funding.
The Principal of VITECH College Julius Nyerere Akoko says the delayed approval of private TVET institution to benefit from HELB loans and bursary is denying some students training opportunity.
“Not all students can go to public institutions to access TVET training and that is why private institutions come in to bridge the gap,” said Akoko.
He asked the government to allow students who join private institutions to access HELB funding just like their counterparts in public institutions.
Akoko disclosed that efforts by private intuitions offering TVET courses to get listing and approval for HELB funding have been frustrated for many years.
The institutions have fully complied with the Ministry of Education standards and have been certified to offer TVET courses.
“We have made application to be considered for listing but nothing has been fourth coming,” he complained.
He added that lack of access to HELB loans has also affected the enrollment in private colleges yet we play a critical role in training students.
Akoko said both public institutions and private colleges offering TVET courses are training human resource necessary for the country’s development and attainments of vision 2030.
“We are all contributing to one pool of highly qualified individuals who are expected to drive the growth of the country and therefore students across the two divides should be accorded fair treatment,” Akoko said.
He argued that they should not be denied loans because individual students will pay back the money
Akoko on the other hand asked principals at various secondary schools to redefine success.
He said the current definition of success at secondary school level has contributed poor career choices by many students.
He said majority of secondary schools work towards sending as many students as possible to universities without bothering the kind of courses they will pursue in the name of success.
That he said leads to the students ending up with less marketable careers.
“Focus should be shifted to strengthening career guidance at secondary school level to help the students choose what is required in the job market,” said Akoko.
He advised that the parameters should be guided towards pursuing marketable careers instead of trying to send everybody to university.
“A student who has chosen to pursue a career in engineering can start off at a TVET institution before joining an Engineering degree program instead of joining the university directly to pursue any available or less marketable course” Akoko stated.
