Plans to start college councils

THE Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology Department wants to make colleges more attractive for school leavers, acting secretary Dr Francis Hualupmomi says.
“To implement the new reforms and meet the Government’s demand, we will focus on building capability and capacity of colleges,” he said.
“Colleges had been overlooked for years and had dropped in academic and physical status with run down infrastructure, lack of teaching staff and student intake.”
Hualupmomi said establishing governing councils would be the start of this process as they would be the decision-making body of colleges.
He said to emphasise on the reforms, the Government had entered into a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank to invest in all technical and vocational education and training (Tvet) colleges. “What we are trying to do is elevate the level of colleges so that they meet the standard in terms of quality,” he said.
“We want colleges to be on-par with digital technology transformation.
“We will lay more information and communication technology infrastructure. We will also elevate academic qualification by having master degree holders to teach.
“We also need to give good incentives to the academics such as increasing their salaries.
“That way, we attract more grade 12 students because many, these days, do not see Tvets as priority.”