TVETs to mobilise extra sources to boost budget

As the government goes back to the drawing board to reorganise the funding for the 2024/25 financial year budget after dropping the controversial finance bill, the technical and vocational training sector will lose close to Sh1 billion it was to receive from the exchequer.

Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) in its 2023/27 strategic plan had indicated that it requires Sh3.2 billion to fund its operations but the National Treasury allocated it Sh2.5 billion, creating a deficit of Sh823 million.

 To raise the over Sh800 million deficit, TVETA said that additional resources must be mobilised through other sources including support from development partners and improved collection of revenues for services rendered.

The Authority emphasised that 90 per cent of its recurrent and development activities rely on the government’s exchequer while only 10 per cent comes from Appropriation in Aid (A-i-A).

Development partners

“The revenue projection from service fees (A-i-A) is based on the Gazetted fees and support from development partners. The main variable affecting the A-i-A collection will be Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) trainee enrolment, which is projected to be about 500,000 trainees per year during the period 2023- 2027.

"Furthermore, it is assumed that at least 75 per cent of the payable Gazetted fees shall be collected by the Authority. In order to ensure the realisation of all the planned activities,” TVETA proposed. It added: “Cognisant of the scarcity of resources, it is imperative that proper planning is undertaken to identify priorities that are impactful to TVET stakeholders. This shall be achieved through business process re-engineering and leveraging technology.”

In what points to a possible hike of tuition fees in tertiary institutions in the coming days, the Authority has enumerated cost sharing for services offered as one of the ways to optimise its revenue streams.

 Additionally, TVETA intends to raise A-i-A through the enhanced collection of all gazetted fees including accreditation fees, quality assurance, and sale of standards of tertiary institutions even as it advocates for exchequer allocation.

 The TVET institutions are likely to revise their fees structures upward to accommodate the enhanced money-raising proposals by the Authority.

The state corporation which is mandated to regulate and coordinate training in Kenya said that based on lessons learnt during the last strategic plan period, the government grants and collected A-i-A were not able to fully capacitate the Authority to perform its functions.

 “During this plan period, strategy should be put in place to intensify resource mobilisation and expand the resource base to bridge shortfalls in the budgetary allocation,” TVETA noted.

Coordinate training

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u in a letter to Parliament two weeks ago had detailed budget cut implications, after the government scrapped off some new tax measures contained in the 2024 finance bill due to mounting pressure from the public who felt overtaxed.

“If the revenue raising measures contained in the Finance Bill 2024 are not approved by the National Assembly, there will be a likely revenue shortfall of approximately Sh200 billion,” Ndung’u said.

Two key institutions in the provision of tertiary education in Kenya have been worst hit by the budget cuts, a move that may cripple the equipping of the youth with the necessary skills required in the job market.