Part of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Madaraka Day speech in 2022 focused on the progress his administration has made in the education sector. Besides the transition from 8-4-4 to the Competence-Based Curriculum, he also presented statistics on burgeoning Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions (TVET).
“To ensure that even those that are not admitted in Universities get an equal chance, we have transformed our Technical and Vocational Education Training. Where there stood only 52 institutions in 2013, today we are home to 238 institutes, representing a 435% growth,” the president noted.
TVET institutions are widely regarded as a critical part of the solution in the war against youth unemployment in the country. The establishment of the TVET Act 2013 solidified the government’s efforts toward bolstering the technical education sector in Kenya.
President Kenyatta’s claim that there are 52 public TVET institutions in Kenya in 2013 is consistent with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey (KNBS) 2016. According to the survey, Kenya had 49 public technical and vocational colleges, the Kenya Technical training college and 2 national polytechnics, bringing the total of public vocational training institutes to 52. See screen grab below.
The President’s claim agrees with statistics given by Education Principal Secretary Dr. Margaret Mwakima in a KTN report dated October 27, 2021. Dr. Margaret Mwakima suggested similar figures in a tweet on her official page.
However, the KNBS Economic Survey 2022 that was released on May 5 notes the existence of 255 public TVET institutions in the country. A difference of 17 more TVET institutions than the 238 announced by the president.
See the screen grab of the KNBS Economic Survey 2022 below.
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