The Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) is happy about the progress made in the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector. The TVET sector has recorded an impressive enrollment of 44,000 students representing almost 100% increase compared to the previous 2021 admission. This performance is the highest recorded in the sector since its introduction.
Nevertheless, Ghana’s Education Strategic Plan 2018-2030 identifies low public perception as a constraining factor in the efforts to improve access to the TVET sector and make it attractive. In a bid to change this narrative Government has cumulatively invested nearly $1 billion in the last 4 years with the support of Development Partners.
Given that the TVET sector holds a transformative effect in terms of its ability to employ youth into the labour market and contribute to national development, more investment in the sector is the surest way to make this attainable. This means that the sector must be the target of consistent investment in the medium to long term perspective to realize the transformative benefits.
This notwithstanding, the share of domestic funding to support TVET must also be given high priority. The ECOWAS TVET strategy has noted that member States investment to TVET is less than 5%. In Ghana, domestic financing of TVET averages 2.86% of the share of the education sector spending based on data from the medium-term expenditure framework. More needs to be done under this funding stream as it will contribute to the sustainability of the sector. In the midst of dwindling donor funds and shifting priorities, domestic financing of TVET is a more secure measure to ensuring the sustainability of the progress in the TVET sector.
Based on this premise FOSDA is calling on government to consider its proposal on developing a TVET Financing Policy made at the National Forum on TVET and Youth Employment in 2021.
We urge government to explore sourcing funds from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) to support TVET. In 2021 FOSDA proposed 5% from the ABFA for developmental capital expenditure in the TVET sector.
The long-term investment in the TVET sector is best for Ghana’s transformative education as it can also contributing to reducing youth unemployment and help meet the security needs of the target beneficiaries.