Up to 88.27 per cent of candidates who sat last year’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training exams passed, results released yesterday show.

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is fast increasing the scope of skills and courses offered and examined with 139 subjects being examined last year, up from 114 in 2013 and 108 in 2012.

The results were released by the State Minister for TVET, Albert Nsengiyumva, at the Ministry of Education headquarters in Kacyiru.

A total of 21,368 candidates sat the examinations last year, which was a slight decline from the previous year’s 21,818.

Of the 365 TVET schools countrywide, 151 presented their candidates for examinations with the majority – 104 – being private institutions.

Fifty-three per cent of the candidates were male.

Critical role of TVET

Out of those who sat the exams, 18,708 (88.27 per cent) were considered to have passed compared to 91.01 per cent who passed in 2013.

Speaking after the results release, Irene Nsengiyumva, the deputy director in charge of training at the Workforce Development Authority (WDA), said TVET was registering growth, both in the number of courses offered as well as levels of skills.

"The government has been giving attention to this sector and has facilitated the revision of the curriculum and improved learning infrastructure in schools,” Nsengiyumva said.

He added that through standards inspection mechanisms, there was evaluation of the level of skills being taught in both private and public institutions.

Minister Nsengiyumva said skills offered through TVET were hands-on and responsive to labour market needs urging more youth to take the path.

TVET is expected to contribute towards creating 200,000 off-farm jobs annually by 2018 as envisaged in the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy.

The national target is to have 60 per cent of students graduating from nine-year basic education enrolled into TVET schools by 2017, up from the current 40 per cent level of enrolment.

WDA started conducting TVET exams in 2011.

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