Give priority to tech centres, says principal

The National Education

By PETER WARI
TECHNICAL Vocational Education Training (Tvet) centres should be given priority because they absorb school leavers who have problems with the law, says a principal.
Mendi Tvet principal Andrew Sebe said they needed support for proper learning facilities.
Sebe said most of the students that have graduated in the past years were employed in both formal and informal sectors while some were running their own workshops or businesses.
Southern Highlands Tvet inspector Lucinda Saul said Tvet institutions were expensive to run and it had been a struggle to provide the quality training that required.
Saul thanked the national Government with its TFF policy which have helped schools to continue their yearly operations.
The school received a school truck last week and also opened an administration block built by the teachers and students.
Sebe said staff from motor mechanical, welding and metal fabrication, and panel beating and spray painting courses collected the scraps starting from 2016 to build the school truck.
He said the level six centre has a staff ceiling of 19 teachers, 300 students of which 90 are female and only 80 are boarding due to shortage of dormitories.
Sebe said one of the major problems faced was the large number of enrolments due to the Government’s TFF policy.
He said within the four year period under the new management, the school was able to bring forth;

  • Extension of school boundary;
  • New office administration block;
  • New dormitory for boys and the hiring of machinery to prepare land for construction;
  • Erecting of the new panel beating workshop; and
  • Building the school truck after collecting scraps for three years.