CHAPTER TWO:

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Overview

Literature review is about survey and analysis of the scholarly works of other people. This chapter presents the theoretical review, actual literature review.

2.1 Related literature

Psacharopoulos, (1997) noted that vocational education solves multiple and conflicting objectives, among these are: (a) Youth unemployment. Vocational education and training take the youth off the streets, and at the same time equip them with skills that could be used later in the labor market. The reason is not all young people find immediate employment as soon as they graduate from school or a training program. (b) Instilling technological knowledge. Based on the British Industrial Revolution, followed up by Germany and Japan in this century, it is a common belief that economic progress heavily depends on technological knowhow. (c)Academically less able students. The provision of vocational education and training enable considerable number of students who „are not able‟ to advance through the school system, especially the academic stream of secondary education. Hence, the provision of vocational education to them would allegedly equip them with something useful to do later in life. (d) Lack of middle level technicians. Vocational education and training provides skills in short supply (especially middle level technicians).

Psacharopoulos (1997) noted that, there is no country in the world where a number of specialties are not in „scarce‟ supply (e.g. plumbers and nurses). (e) Poverty among urban dwellers. The provision of vocational education and training would give useful skills to the unemployed and make them find productive employment and thus raise their income. (f) Economic globalization. The development of economic globalization also has implications on the nature of vocational education received by the labor force (Morey, 2004).

Stromquist, N. P., & Monkman, K. (2014) states that government constituted an Education policy review commission that produced its report in 1989. The report translated into a government white paper in 1992. In this paper, Technical Education was made the central focus. The emphasis was placed on Vocationalisation of Education and promoting lifelong learning to empower individuals more actively in the development, provision and utilization of Technical Education.

Technical Education system was traditionally fragmented and of un-even quality coordination and harmonization of operating procedures was accomplished and virtually non-existent. Consequently, Technical Education programmes degenerated to satisfying limited employment requirements and became non responsive to the technological requirements of many sectors and improvement (Torres, 2002)

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However according to (Psacharopoulos, 1997) urges that here have been significant advances in the general recovery and rehabilitation of structures and restoration of provision of facilities in Technical institutions. However, there has existed a general situation of lack systematic planning and disparities and urban areas, regional imbalances in the provision of Technical Education in Technical Education facilities, inefficiency in management and the cost of Education and training have increased considerably. Much of the Technical and Vocational Education is still in a sorry state and the quality of Education is highly eroded in many professions. The present curricular doesn’t adequately cater for the social and economic needs of the country. They don’t adequately equip the individuals to become reproductive and self-reliant.

The inter-relationships between different Technical levels and qualifications awarded within the country are not well known. Furthermore there is no clear system for determining the chronological segments of qualifications from the different institutions within and outside the country Psacharopoulos, 1997).

The attitude towards Vocational Education has generally and historically been very poor. Education is associated with white-collar jobs and everyone who goes to school aims at these jobs, which unfortunately are not there to match the number of graduates turned out each year. It is estimated that about 8 million out of the 23 million Ugandans are unemployed and this figure was even made worse by the retrenchment program that saw 17,000 civil servants out of jobs in recent years as a result of the civil service reform program. In addition, 50,000 soldiers were also demobilized and all these have added to the pool of job seekers (UBOS, 2007). Education faces a big challenge of training youth who will appreciate labor and value it as a method for exploiting their environment and a means to their survival (Jenkins, 2009)

The education sector has been increasing over the past years eg from UGX1, 4163.3bn in FY2011/2012 to UGX 1,624.6bn in FY2012/2013. However, the funding allocation for the BVET sub sector has henceforth been approximately 4%of the sector budget-lowest sub-sector allocation. The low of funding for the BTVET sector has stigmatized it leading to low infrastructure, poor salaries for teachers’ inadequate teaching learning materials. The table blow MoES allocation by Sub sector

2.2 Challenges faced by technical education

According to Nkirina, (2010), government white paper that is Kajjubi report of 1989 on Education put Vocationalisation of Education at the forefront of the Education system in Uganda. It emphasized the need for all policy makers in Uganda and other sectors to promote the skill acquisition and the development of attitudes for empowerment of individuals with entrepreneurial skills. To attain this worthy while goal the ministry of Education needs a compressive policy frame work to guide all the activists at the Vocationalisation of Education.

2.3 Improving image of technical education

Penny, (2008), states that currently attitudes towards this kind of Education are still negative in Uganda. It’s perceived as supplementary rather than complementary to other Education programmes. It’s always regarded as regarded as meant for those who can’t cope with the rigors of the academic route study and the people who have dropped out of formal Education for whatever reason. Kajjubi’s commission goes on to report that Technical Education programme should take into cognizance the need to change the negative attitude towards this type of Education and strive for attracting the best students with aptitudes for such Education. Technical Education should cease to be at early stage. Continuity and proper alignment with general academic Education will be ensured throughout the various levels of Education.

The report goes on and says that government will initiate the process of sensitizing certain target social groups that is government employees, parents, teachers, students, curriculum developers, employers in public sectors, local communities and many other groups developing in them positive attitudes towards Technical Education. The wrong perception towards Technical Education has contributed to the neglect of financing by the government to figures of enrollment in Technical institutions due to poor infrastructure (Ssewamala, 2011).

The challenge of infrastructure is to streamline and restructure the Technical Education curriculum to make this type of Education intellectually stimulating and for the Technical growth of participants to enable them meet the new development and the demands of the national economy. The coordination of programme development efforts, the standization of qualifications with clear parameters and broad avenues for progression and the development of a strong accreditation system will not eliminate the stigma associated with Technical Education and attract with expressed interest and aptitudes but will also enable the evaluation of certificates by both employers and further training institutions (Nkirina, 2010).

A good quality of Technical Education will ensure mounding of reproductive members for the economy who appreciate, respect and cause dignity to their profession. The profession of Technical Education is very expensive; the challenge is to come up with a policy for broadening the funding bases. There is also need to satisfy the requirements of all potential financing agents, generating additional resources and providing sufficient incentives to stake holders to fund Technical and Vocational Education (Aguti, 2002).