According to President Museveni, technical, vocational education and training is the only solution to the issue of youth unemployment in the country.
Justine Kasule Lumumba delivered Museveni’s remarks, the minister of General Duties as Uganda Business and Technical examinations (UBTEB) marked ten years of monumental strides since inception in 2011.
To focus on the regional and continental market, president Museveni stated that the country should first address the issue of quality and said that the aim should always be to produce good quality and efficient products for the international market.
“I urged all Ugandans to go for vocational education and mobilise other people who are in doubt about it. They should also send their children to get productive skills regardless of their level of education and status. This generation needs to obtain skills because this is the era,” he said.
The president commended UBTEB upon reaching this critical milestone and its contribution to the education sector through skills assessment, noting that there had been increased access to education at all levels when NRM came to power.
He further stated that the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education resulted in high enrollment rates at both primary and secondary levels. He noted this accounts for the adult literacy rate in Uganda from 43 percent in 1986 to 76.5 percent today.
He also stated that Uganda is better in education today; however, despite the increase in the number of people who can read and write, the country is still wrestling with the skills gap.
Furthermore, he added that the skills gap was conscious of the colonial education system we inherited as a country. It was seemingly designed to produce clerks and administrators to support the colonial government. This kind of education creates people who only want white-collar jobs with zero skills in order to enable them to produce goods and services for the market either as employers or as workers.
The executive secretary at UBTEB, Onesmus Oyesigye, said that they continued to stick to the core values of integrity and professionalism, enabling the country to conduct all examinations series without any examinations leakages.
He added that we had made stronger synergies with the industry and their employees to make sure that they get involved in the assessment of TVET candidates. This has more than years guaranteed the quality of our graduates.
