Malawi’s Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (Teveta) has bemoaned low funding in the 2012/13 financial year which, it says, will compromise its service delivery.
Teveta planned to get about K500 million (about $2m) from government, but instead the budget has allocated the institution K300 million (about $1.2m).
Teveta executive director Dr. Yusuf Alide said Monday that the institution also planned to select 1 500 students into public technical colleges this year, but said with low funding, Teveta will only select less than 1 000 students out of over 16 000 applicants.
Said Alide: “In order to break-even, Teveta will have to reduce the number of student intake from 1 500 to below 1 000, thereby denying well deserving youths to access training programmes. The implications of this could be far reaching.”
He also said with the reduction in the funding, the institution will likely cut some of its programmes which, he said, will adversely affect the quality of technical, entrepreneurial and vocational education and training in the country.
Teveta is also responsible for the provision of startup tools to its graduates, but Alide lamented that with the recent devaluation of the kwacha, it means that the institution will have to revisit such a provision or even curtail the programme.
According to Alide, such a reduction in funding means Teveta will reduce its monitoring exercises in both public and private institutions which, he said, will affect the quality of training.
“Already, with the ever-increasing number of students coming out of secondary schools, the current number of seven public technical colleges cannot suffice. Teveta would have loved if more technical colleges were constructed,” he said.
Teveta thrives on levy from private and public sector and government subvention.
But Alide was pessimistic over the collection of its revenue from the private sector, saying most businesses were negatively affected by the shortage of foreign currency and fuel last year which, he said, will result into less revenue collection from the private sector.
Teveta is a regulatory body established in 1999 by an Act of Parliament and is mandated to direct sustainable acquisition of internationally competitive and recognisable technical, entrepreneurial and vocational skills by the Malawian workforce.
