By Clive M. Siachiyako
Zambia’s population is very youthful. Statistically, about 65 percent of the 13.3 million Zambians are below 35 years of age. The country is thus driven by youth power in various sectors of the economy. But there is a part of the Zambian population that craves for skills and empowerment i.e. rural youths. It is this population that requires a lot of focus on education and vocational training. The rural youth invariably migrates to urban areas due to lack of education and employment opportunities. Since most of them are school drop outs, the pure academic qualification provides limited opportunities for them. Thus, they have been at the mess of poverty.
Rural areas need skills that spine crop productivity, speedy production in animal husbandry, preservation of agro-products and processing, etc. Skills that make rural residents’ convert opportunities around them into viable financial spinners are very important in wealth creation and improving standards of living, poverty reduction, rural development as well as empowerment of the rural poor. Quality skills improve livelihoods of households that attain them. They can lead to quality life. Quality rural life is key in addressing some of the challenges that has had paralysed rural development for years, thus making rural people destitute.
Imparting rural youths with skills has unique challenges which are not familiar for training providers based in urban areas. These challenges include: attitude towards skills training/education, lack of qualified trainers, lack of infrastructure and training equipment, lack of money to pay for training, extra house chores (especially for girls), pressure to do common community activities (e.g. fishing, marriage, agrarian activities, etc.), among others.
Albert Schweitzer once said “the greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by changing their attitudes.” Faced with negative attitude and a myriad of pressures and discouragements by life itself in rural area, rural youths have lost out in terms of skills training. Some youths simply shuns training. According to Zambezi Youth Resource Centre Instructor, Hastings Mundendemi Manga, “youths in the area prefer going to do some piece work than training. Some of them ask how much the institution will pay them for attending the training. Once there’s no immediately monetary value involved, they will refuse to enroll with the institution.”
Mr. Manga added “there’s a culture of youths staying alone once they reach puberty. They have a belief that anyone in their fifteens should be independent and support the extended family. Most of them thus get married as early as 15 years. The general trend among youths in Zambezi is fishing, hunting, alcohol drinking and other surviving means. School is not a factor to most of them. The younger ones model after them and the chain goes on.”
This shows that an attitude of society builds or breaks the future. The case in Zambezi gives us a tip of the situation. The rural life is crippled by complex attitudes. Children have no role models who can inspire them treasure to skills training. Those around them are ‘inspiring’ them to marry, be content with the status quo of rural poverty and destitution. Education can change such a situation. Education can create a new breed of rural inhabitants who will aspire to work towards good life; a life characterised with food security, clean water, decent houses and sanitation facilities. Abandoning education is killing society.
A negative attitude kills. The youths in Zambezi are disadvantaging themselves by shunning skills training. For instance, Oxfam Zambia had partnered with Zambezi Youth Resource Centre to train youths in general construction. To this idea, Mr. Manga said targeted youths started demanding for sitting allowances and abandoned the programme when they were not paid the allowances. Oxfam intended to engage graduates from the programme in its WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) projects through which they would construct water points and sanitation supporting projects in rural area in the province.
The initiative would have provided youths with sustainable capital during the lifespan of project. It would have improved their lives, the livelihoods of their families and would have exposed them to another window of life. Their children would have been inspired to aim for better life. The action of the youths in Zambezi towards the Oxfam project shuts doors for a number of generations to come. This shows how a negative attitude towards things cripples one’s mind, leads them to make negative decisions that affect their lives in negative ways.
The negativity towards skills training is also rife in Lukulu. Lukulu Training Centre Instructor in Auto Mechanics, Silas Limwanya stated that the institution discontinued training in Carpentry and Joinery; Pottery and Ceramic; and Cutting, Tailoring and Designing programmes due to lack of students. “We dropped the three programmes because students stopped before completing the programmes whenever they felt they acquired the skill…once they knew how to make a table; cut a cloth, design and tailor a something etc. they don’t see the need to complete their study and get a certificate. Most of them are thus not certified,” Mr. Limwanya noted.
Rural based training institutions are also faced with under qualified trainers, lack of training equipment and lack of resources to pay for training. Deplorable conditions of life in rural areas rarely attract well qualified trainers. Lack of clean drinking water, electricity, basic facilities and poor infrastructure discourage trainers to work in such areas. This costs rural areas a lot in terms of quality skills and economic development in the short and long term. If nothing is done to address the situation, they will remain the poor and isolated from skills development benefits of the 21st century.
In the case of Kaoma Youth Resource Centre, limited staff and student accommodation, poor water supply and inadequate infrastructure for library and other teaching facilities are some of the challenges it was faced with. Centre Manager Reuben Kaumba said some students were renting small (cheap) huts in compounds due to lack of accommodation at the Centre to absorb all of them. Mr. Kaumba added that the Centre’s potential was not utilised due to a number of obstacles.
When it comes to Mufumbwe, Manyinga Youth Resource Centres and Senanga Trades, inadequate and low qualifications of trainers, lack of sustainable funding, lack of workshops and equipment were some of the challenges they face. Roger Mweemba, Mufumbwe Youth Resource Centre Manager said beside general problems of funding, under qualification of trainers, lack of training facilities and workshops; school was not a priority in the area. Mr. Mweemba further said the Centre tried to sensitise the public in the villages through churches, headmen, chiefs and house to house visitations; but it seemed that people do not value school.
Manyinga Youth Resource Centre Manager Mulayamba Bwalya resonated Mr. Mweemba observation that most households never valued school. “People’s attitude towards school is so negative. They feel the certificates given to graduates won’t take them anywhere. Lack of role models has worsened the situation. Further, being that education was free at one time in the country; some people don’t see paying for training as a government policy. They think it’s our way of siphoning money from them. Worse some female students are often pulled-out of school and taken into marriage. There’s simple apathy among youths towards school,” Mr. Bwalya noted.
He further said “youths are behind in education in the area. Enrollments are very low, e.g. 5 per intake. Such figures aren’t sustainable. As a result, youths who should be NATIONAL ASSETS are liabilities today (and for I don’t know how long). Our training centres are not attractive. We need to upgrade them to meet modern skills development requirements and labour market needs. We need retraining of trainers for them to be up-to-date with sectoral happenings because lack of retraining trickles down the burden of poorly trained human resource to graduates. Training students on ancient equipment/materials disadvantage them.”
Senanga Trades’ training blues are not different from other rural based institutions. With the death of the institution Principal Frank Kasabi (MHRIP) in February 2012, the institution has been almost grounded. Mr. Kasabi who was also a trainer in Power Electrical and Computer Studies left the institution on a stand-still due to lack of enough trainers. Senanga Trades Church Consistory, Imbunda Sefulo Kakoma said the inadequacy of trainers was very critical at the institution than it was thought.
Senanga Trades’ training blues are not different from other rural based institutions. With the death of the institution Principal Frank Kasabi (MHRIP) in February 2012, the institution has been almost grounded. Mr. Kasabi who was also a trainer in Power Electrical and Computer Studies left the institution on a stand-still due to lack of enough trainers. Senanga Trades Church Consistory, Imbunda Sefulo Kakoma said the inadequacy of trainers was very critical at the institution than it was thought.
“Currently we can’t train since our principal died. It shows how serious the problem of lack of lecturers is in rural areas. It’s unsustainable. Senanga is a growing town, its growth is stimulating growth in sectors such a construction. But there’s no skill to provide quality services in where they are needed,” Mr. Kakoma noted.
Sentiments from the above institutions are an ice berg of the huge problem TEVET skills development is faced with, especially in rural areas.
What can be done?
AttitudeAn attitude kills or builds a person’s aspirations. Parents, teachers in schools, churches and communities have a lot to do in changing the attitude of youths towards skills training in rural areas and the whole country. Parents, teachers, churches and society must learn to speak to youths in a different way compared to the olden says. They must instill in them values of work, hard work, ingenuity, self-reliance and enterprising. Youths should learn to identity their talent, pursue their passion realistically and learn the value of work and money while they are still teenagers. The moment children turn into teenagers, parents must provide them with opportunities to teach them about life realistically, to teach them hard work, and teach them to identify their talents, passion and possibly academic strength.
The country needs a crop of youths who do not only aspire for good life, but live and conduct themselves as goal getters. The 21st century requires an attitude that leaves myths, legends and ordinary reasoning behind. Attitude change is the beginning of achieving great things in life. We can all build a character of youths into the young men and women we want to see build our country in their different localities.
Financing
Financing vocational education and training is very costly not only for government, but also for training providers of such training. It requires multifaceted approach; with various stakeholders engineering skills development in their areas of specialty. Lack of skills in a given sector affects that sector’s productivity. It is thus necessary to broaden the funding base in order to generate more resources for such training. The guiding principles for financing should include participation in financing of training by all stakeholders (cost sharing) cost - recovery methods of training cost effectiveness in training combination of training with income generation. That is, production should be going on during the training. The Learnership Scheme fits well in this case.
Financing vocational education and training is very costly not only for government, but also for training providers of such training. It requires multifaceted approach; with various stakeholders engineering skills development in their areas of specialty. Lack of skills in a given sector affects that sector’s productivity. It is thus necessary to broaden the funding base in order to generate more resources for such training. The guiding principles for financing should include participation in financing of training by all stakeholders (cost sharing) cost - recovery methods of training cost effectiveness in training combination of training with income generation. That is, production should be going on during the training. The Learnership Scheme fits well in this case.
Qualified staff can be certified as instructors by TEVETA, who will conduct assessments, administer examinations and then the learners are certified by TEVETA for their qualification to be nationally recognised. A syllabus is often provided by TEVETA for the instructors to follow. Investors in various sectors of the economy can utilise this window to help reduce financing gaps to skills training in the country.
Other stakeholders, such NGOs, churches and private entities can join hands in strategic training of rural youths. Some training initiatives can be rural initiative projects, business linkage training, rural outreach learning or community capacity building initiatives, project based learning, etc. Skills training involves the whole society. Each one of us can add their bit to have a fully-fledged skilled young generation that can be entrusted with managing the economy. We need youths that can run modern business, who can convert the country’s natural endowments into manufacturable products to earn sustainable income and create an environment for others to prosper.
Bad attitude among youths towards skills training, work and life had slowed most of the country’s plans to create an empowered society, a society that’s self-dependent and inspiring to new generations. This has been worsened by lack of sustainable financing to skills development, infrastructure development for skills development and bridging several skills gaps emerging in the current jet-age economy; which is shedding-off unskilled human capital that cannot fit anywhere in the labour market. The class of heaved-out youths out of the labour market due to lack of employable skills needs to tapped and re-engineered into the economy through TEVET Learning Pathways at different levels. TOGETHER WE CAN DO IT!!!!
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