Enrollment in Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions has almost doubled in the last two years due to increased funding and establishment of new institutions, a recent report has revealed.
According to TVET Sub-Sector Report released October by the Ministry of Education’s State Department of TVET, the overall enrollment in public TVET institutions increased from 297,505 in 2021/2022 financial year (FY) to 345,387 in the FY 2022/23.
This increased further to 406,649 in the FY 2023/24 which represents a 36.7 per cent rise, with the statistics not including that of private technical institutions under other line ministries and Vocational Training Centres (VTCs).
The increase in enrollment is attributed to the establishment of new TVCs in the country, expansion of capacity of existing TVET institutions, and increased funding for special needs TVET institutions.
Other reasons include introduction of annual capitation to all eligible trainees in the TVET institutions under MoE and enhancement of higher education loans, bursary disbursement and adoption of open distance education commonly known to many as ODeL in TVET.
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At the same time, the number of accredited public and private TVET institutions, including those in line ministries, rose from 2,271 in FY 2021/22 to 2,401 in FY 2022/23 and further to 2,605 in FY 2023/24.
The total number of institutions under the purview of MoE at the end of FY 2023/2024 was 251 out of which 230 were operational while 21 were at various stages of completion.
The number of VTCs under the county governments rose from 1137 in FY 2021/2022 to 1,281 for the FY 2022/2023. However, the figures declined to 1,222 in FY 2023/2024 due to the closure of several centres, largely attributed to funding challenges.
The number of private technical and vocational institutions also increased from 1,057 to 1,238 in the same period. The private institutions comprise 1,128 TVCs and 110 VTCs with 45 accredited TVET institutions being domiciled in various line ministries.
When it comes to funding, the report shows that annual capitation of Ksh30,000 per trainee introduced by the government in the financial year 2018/2019 highly contributed to an increase in trainee enrollment in TVET, though the corresponding capitation budget remained constant.
The increased enrollment as per the report has also resulted in the decline in capitation per trainee from Ksh17,258 (57 per cent) in FY 2021/22 to a low of Ksh13,000 (43 per cent) in FY 2022/23 and Ksh14,000 (47 per cent) in FY 2023/24.
The report further showed that the TVET sub-sector in the MoE experienced a capitation deficit of Ksh14,660,938,710 over the period under review with a sum of Ksh3,825,849,210 not being paid in FY 2021/22, Ksh5,936,228,000 in FY 2022/23, and Ksh4,898,861,500 in FY 2023/24 due to insufficient budgetary allocation.
By Roy Hezron
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