Officials from the government have instructed Business and Technical Training institutions to relax the tight entry requirements to make business and technical education more accessible.
Currently, Business and technical training institutions are spread in about 55 districts of Uganda. However, most of them are still being underutilized because of the stiff entry requirements and high tuition.
According to the director for Higher Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Dr Jane Egau, these requirements should be significantly reduced.
“Admissions for students should be based on the willingness of a learner to pursue a course of their choice as opposed to academic qualifications. The tuition too, should be subsidized to enable students from poor families acquire practical skills,” she said.
Background;
The concern on tuition was raised by the Minister for General Duties in the Office of the Prime Minister, Ms Justine Kasule Lumumba on the president’s behalf during the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB).
“Both government and private and government owned business and technical training institutions should subsidize tuition and make business and technical education affordable so that young people can acquire skills and become job creators and be able to compete with the rest of the world,” Ms Kasule emphasized.
On average, students pursuing certificate or diploma business and technical courses pay between Ugx 300,000 and Ugx 1.5million per student per term or semester depending on the course. Certificate courses are cheaper compared to diploma courses.
Students are also required to have passed English and Mathematics at O-level, which is a blockade to most school dropouts who wish to join technical institutions.
For those interested in pursuing a diploma course in animal production, for example, must have passed Biology and Agriculture at A-Level.
The minister also emphasized the need for government to provide business and technical graduates with start-up equipment and materials to enable them create their own jobs immediately after graduating in different disciplines.
Museveni appeal
In President Museveni’s speech read by Ms Lumumba, he noted that Uganda is still grappling with skills gap even though the literacy level has increased from 43 percent in 1986 to 76.5 percent today.
According to the president, promoting skills based courses would bridge this gap, as opposed to the “colonial education system” that has created clerks and administrators of white collar jobs instead of job creators.
Before UBTEB was established, the technical and vocation training (TVET) qualifications and awards were fragmented with no standard measure of competences of graduates.
According to the UBTEB executive secretary, Mr Onesmus Oyesigye, their focus for the next ten years is to build synergies in assessment to produce a competitive labor force that can contribute to economic development.