Education Matters: TVET and the alignment of objectives

Nov 19, 2017 News

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By Olato Sam

The appeal for greater alignment between the educational offerings and the developmental needs of Guyana has been made ad nauseam. Curriculum reform and structural changes aimed at attaining this end were made in earnest at different intervals in our short history.
Sadly, all suffered a similar faith, leaving us repeating this most fundamental call as we are now on the cusp of another curriculum revision exercise. Clearly, it is not enough to simply develop the programmes, as well meaning as they might be, without consideration for the cultural and other contextual realities that have such significant impact on their practical implementation.
As an example, Community High Schools were a highly relevant, well-conceived addition to the education system in the 1980’s. Enough consideration had not been given to the highly elitist secondary placement system and the traditional mindsetregarding technical pursuits.
Nowhere in the concept paper for Community High Schools was it stated that the lowest performing students were to be placed there, yet in practice this occurred; sealing the fate of the institutions. This and other similar experiences highlight the need for and examination of the approachesadopted towards sustainable education reform initiatives.
The need for reform is pressing since much of contextual justification and philosophical underpinning of the existing curriculum has been lost for decades. Basically, we must ask ourselves who are the individuals we are seeking to produce at the various exit points of the education system and what roles should these individuals adopt in society.
This is not to de-emphasize the autonomy that education facilitates and argue for an education of utility instead; both are important. The latter dimension seems to have been taken off of the radar of late however. As such, the need and relevance of alignment of our developmental objectives with our curriculum must be reinserted into the national discourse and Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) forms the ideal example to emphasize same.
An evaluation of the developmental needs of Guyana must result in the recognition of the key role Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has been and must play in this regard. Yet, the backward, traditional mindset that has steered so many competent young people away from the technical pursuits still remains, undermining our growth potential.
Too little emphasis is being placed on the tremendous prospects that exist in TVET. References to these pursuits as the ‘Alternative Pathway’ of our education system continue to relegate it to the lower tiers in the priority structures despite its primary importance.
The misguided mindset that TVET is for the least academically able among us continues to guide the actions and decisions in schools daily, despite policies to the contrary. The Secondary Competence Certificate Programme (SCCP), our secondary TVET certification programme, is widely regarded as the avenue for underperforming students.
The associated stigma has resulted in the underemphasized and weak articulation of the TVET career pathways within the education system. Few students are given adequate exposure to the range of TVET career options and their respective earning potential. As such, viable opportunities to pursue same are bypassed for more traditional endeavors.
Although significant sums have been expended to expand the scope of Technical Institutes and Technical Training Centres, they are woefully underutilized. Strategies must be devised to attract and retain greater numbers of our youth in these programmes—both male and female in non-traditional areas of specialization.
The offerings must accommodate the required flexibility that many of the targeted cohort so greatly require. In addition, psychosocial support and stipends to offset the cost of transportation have been proven to be key requirements for the retention of students. The long-standing prerequisites need to be removed and emphasis placed on desired exit behaviours and competencies, as has been recognized regionally and internationally.
The TVET career pathways must be clearly defined and a national qualifications framework developed to provide an understanding of the vertical and horizontal interrelation of areas of pursuit. A highly significant TVET accomplishment, Guyana’s recognition by the Caribbean Association of National Training Agencies (CANTA) to offer the Caribbean Vocational Qualifications (CVQs), went widely unnoticed and uncelebrated.
This gives local TVET certification regional and international recognition and currency. More importantly, it makes accommodation for Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition centres that will enable our vast numbers of skilled but uncertified technicians and artisans to be evaluated and awarded credits or certificates/degrees where applicable.
Likewise, secondary schools should be resourced and streamlined to offer the lower levels of the CVQ as our sister nations within the Caribbeanhave been doing. This would further solidify the existing pathways and facilitate more seamless transitions between and across levels.Greater numbers of individuals must also be encouraged and supported through to the highest levels of technical pursuits with structured scholarship and research grant programmes.
Well-established relationships with industry exist and should be expanded to facilitate the necessary alignment to ensure that the education system is responsive to the existing and changing needs. That information needs to be filtered throughout the system to enable student to make informed career choices.
An examination of the numbers graduating from the various Faculties at the University of Guyana recently reinforces this need. Our overpopulated Social Science Faculty makes the Faculties of Technology and Agriculture pale by comparison.
The degree of frustration already experienced by many of these young social scientists in finding employment compared to their counterparts from aforementioned faculties who, for the most part, seamlessly transition into industry underscores the dilemma facing our nation. Many of our youth are not guided by a clear sense of the areas of need within the current and future institutional structures and continue to replicate outdated tendencies.
TVET needs a champion at the highest levels within the political structures to place its agenda at the forefront of our developmental thrust. History has taught us that it is not enough to simply create the programmes, a great degree of reorientation and reengineering is necessary.
Our national developmental goals need to be clearly defined and articulated throughout the system, especially in education. A collective consciousness regarding our short and long-term national strategic objectives is a crucial pre-requisite to the united effort to attain same.
With these fully articulated, justification would be provided for the support of key subsets such as TVET that require extensive funding and broad-based support. As such, the impending curriculum revision exercise would be shaped and defined by these over-arching national developmental objectives.

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