Of the 10,548 graduates of various Technical Educational and Vocational Education and Training Institutions (TEVET), only just over 11 per cent passed the national competence exam, Capital has learnt.
Offered by the Ministry of Education (MoE), the national competence exam was introduced last year after being designed for Ethiopian industries to enjoy qualified graduates with a National Competence Certificate. Only 1, 203 students (11.4 per cent) qualified for the certificate, official data has revealed.
The certificate does not only certify TEVET graduates, but is also offered to certify professionals with years of practice, who have been educated informally. MoE also put passing the exam as one criterion for TEVET students to join academic studies.
Additionally, the story of the teachers at TEVET is not that far from their students, a nine month performance report of the Ministry of Capacity Building, revealed last week.
The ministry’s report to parliament’s standing committee, explained that TEVET reform is a component of the Engineering Capacity Building Program (ecbp) – an Ethiopian program established under the Ministry of Capacity Building with the support of the German government. There has also been under qualification of TEVE instructors – only 161 of 4067 teachers who sat for the assessment were found to be qualified.
Yilma Tibebu, from the Ministry’s Public Relation Office, said the latest number are enouraging: “It does not mean that once the candidates didn’t qualify they will be fired, rather works to build their capacity will follow.
“The latest numbers from the Education Ministry show that TEVET instructors qualification percentage rose to 48 per cent following extensive efforts.!
TEVET reform is striving to achieve an efficient, competent and demand-oriented middle-level qualified and semi-skilled labour force.
The Goverment is looking into other options such as hiring Filipino and Germans professionals to make up for the lack of qualified instructors.

By Kirubel Tadesse | (Capital)

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