Rate still low for formal education

THE country’s population is growing at an alarming rate (2.7% per annum) while the school-aged attending formal education is at a very steady rate, creating an uneven balance where not many children are in school.
This was revealed in a labour demand survey by the government which also indicated a big gap between the number of students who are educated at the university level and those educated at the technical colleges and teachers colleges.
The study, which was presented during the 2050 consultative meeting of senior technical officers on Monday, said of the 2.6 million who were school-aged for the tertiary level, only 20,000 were enrolled in colleges.
The presentation by pillar one of the Vision 2050 which talks about human capital development, gender, youth and people empowerment, was to show the problems and how the pillar drivers could address them by implementing the Vision 2050 through the development strategic plan (DSP) 2010-30 and the medium term development plan (MTDP) 2011-15, including the sectoral plans 2010-20.
The study found that more than 10,000 young people were educated at the university level while only 3,000 out of the total workforce were educated at technical colleges while another 3,000 attended teachers’ colleges.
The study also showed that  out of 28,844 vacancies that existed in the public sector, a massive 11,726 vacancies was found to be within the Education Department while the Health Department had only 1,366 vacancies.
The other government departments accounted for the remaining 12,905 vacancies in the public service.
The highest vacancy in the Education Department has resulted due to the mass resignation of 2,000 to 3,000 teachers every year from the teaching service.