Northern Province, WDA officials discuss technical education improvement

Local government officials from the Northern Province convened Wednesday in Musanze district to lay strategies of improving technical and vocational educational training programmes in the area.During the meeting, the officials noted that there should be coordination between districts and the Workforce Development Authority (WDA) to facilitate implementation of what districts have prioritised in their projects.“We have only two vocational training centres which are not enough. We tried to build some schools but we don’t have teachers and materials. We want to move from VTC to Technical and Vocation Education and Training but still lack materials and teachers,” said Deogratias Nzabamwita, the mayor of Gakenke district.He said the district has a big number of youth that need technical skills in order to meet labour market at national level. Other district officials urged WDA to intervene in teachers’ recruitment and providing materials.Didier Munezero, the director in charge of partnerships in WDA, said they are ready to provide training equpiment as well as teachers to the districts that are ready to receive them. He said, however, that more focus should be put on the already existing TVET schools.“TVET schools aim at solving unemployment problems; districts know what skills are needed to tackle that problem. Districts should help build schools and the Ministry of Education, through WDA, distributes materials but boosting TVETs should be a crosscutting issue, districts should also be willing,” said Munezero.The Northern Province Governor Aime Bosenibamwe urged both the districts and WDA to improve communication for better results.

National

Northern Province, WDA officials discuss technical education improvement