LECTURE 14

INADEQUATE PHYSICAL RESOURCES

Inadequate is another challenge that the institution of TVET is facing. This lecture focuses on the resources
in terms of funding, human and infrastructure. The goal is to help you think and propose ways TVET can
transform itself and become self-sufficient in tis resources.

14.0 Learning Objectives

At the end of this lecture you should be able to:

 Examine the Effects of inadequate funding in TVET programmes

 Explain the effects of inadequate TVET institutions on Youth training in Tanzania

 Examine the effects of inadequate facilities and equipment.

14.1 Inadequate Funding and Poor Administration

Funding and poor administration have always been a challenge in education sector, more so in TVET
institution. Technical schools, vocation institutions and centres, and the faculties of engineering at
universities in Africa are poorly equipped to deliver quality teaching and learning. Lack of adequate funding
and poor administration of those funds lead to shortage of state of the arts equipment and facilities,
workshops, training materials and time to time maintenance, the production of quality workforce remain a
mirage.

Technical schools and vocational institutions, in Tanzania and elsewhere are poorly equipped to deliver
quality teaching and learning. Although there has been a drive to increase students’ intake, without a
commensurate increase in quality of learning, these students will come out with no tangible skills to do what
is expected of them. As a result, we continue to confirm that TVET is a poor sister of general education,
whose graduates are not considered to be proficient in specific skills.

14.2 Inadequate TVET institutions

Majority of people with aims of receiving technical and vocational education are expected to join the
institutions that were established in the 1960s and 1970s. These institutions are very few in consideration
to such a huge population, and thus, cannot be said to be adequate. Further, many of those TVET
institutions have inadequate teachers and this is because many TVET graduates prefer to work in
industries than teaching where they can access better salaries and other influential gains. Besides,
sufficient respect is not accorded to teachers in the society. Consequently such institutions are deprived of
competent and skillful teachers.

Further, the TVET institution, there are inequalities based on geographical and economic inequalities as the
good VET institutions are located in towns and cities. For example, the leading VET institutions under
VETA are found in Dar es salaam, Morogoro, Tanga, Dodoma and Mwanza which are by Tanzanian
standards the best urban centers, leaving the rest of the country struggling to get trained. As Nyankov,
(1996) observed somewhere else, TVET is not suited to actual socio economic conditions because it
disregards the informal sector, women and the poor.

14.3 Inadequate of Facilities and Equipment

Facilities and equipment are necessary physical resources for effective teaching and learning in TVET and
lack of machinery has been reported in many countries. UNESCO (2004) has pointed out that lack of
resources have led to cuts in the volume of training provided in many TVET institutions in SSA. These cuts
are a hindrance to pursuing the critical objectives of providing training and raising production in many
countries. Considering the expensive nature of TVET as a form of education, it is imperative that an
expanded system with necessary and adequate facilities and equipment will lead to the effectiveness of the
system. TVET institution is capital intensive and hence if its benefits to the learners and the nation are to be
attained, then adequate facilities and equipment must be made available for its execution.