Gov’t sinks Rwf 6bn in TVET

The government of Rwanda and the Singapore Cooperation Enterprises (SCE), Wednesday signed an agreement that will see the latter boost the country’s Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) system.

Under the latest agreement, Singapore will help build Rwanda’s TVET system by facilitating the management and development of a viable TVET system and its processes, as well as training-of-trainers and managers who will in turn spearhead TVET implementation.

Speaking shortly before the signing, the Minister of Education, Dr Charles Murigande, hailed the two countries’ achievements in the recently released Doing Business Report which, he observed, legitimizes the intent for further collaboration.

"In our country for over a decade, technical and vocational training has gone from one crisis to another as it changed from different ministries with no success,” Murigande said.

"Today, this agreement presents a new leaf under which the country embarks on building a skilled workforce that will fit the labour market requirements”.

The government this fiscal year sank in Rwf 6bn in the development of TVET.

Murigande further emphasized the need for Rwandans to embrace the TVET system as a practical educational path that is as good as formal education.

"Rwandans still posses the mindset that vocational and technical institutions are not good enough, this has contributed to polytechnics pushing to become universities instead of continuing with technical and vocational training that they were formed to deliver,” Murigande noted.

According to WDA Director General, Jean Gatabazi, the government has injected Rwf 6bn to facilitate the integration and implementation of TVET in the country.

"We want to learn from the successful Singapore TVET system. When they began to implement it, their GDP per capita was around US$ 450, today its well over US$ 37,000,” Gatabazi noted.

Low Wong, a Singaporean technical resource person, observed that his country was once faced with labour market challenges similar to those in Rwanda now.

"Singapore has no natural resources so our government decided to embark on an industrialization programme for economic development. To do this, we needed a pool of technically competent skilled manpower, that’s how we started to build our TVET system,” Wong noted.

Wong added that workforce development is the base capital to spearhead the development of any country.

The signing ceremony also saw the awarding of certificates to 100 WDA instructors after a two-month training in various technical fields and vocational educational skills in Singapore and Philippines.

Rwanda’s intent to emulate the Singapore TVET system comes at a time when China has already benefited from the incorporation of the same system with successful results.

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