Nacte bars 163 centres

Dar es Salaam. The National Council for Technical Education (Nacte) has barred 163 vocational training institutions from admitting students in the 2018/19 academic year.

The council’s Monitoring and Evaluation head, Dr Anastela Sigwejo, told journalists here yesterday that the training centres had been barred from admitting students following a recent Nacte audit.

According to her, the audit established that most of the centres had a number of irregularities – including offering unregistered courses, lack of competent teachers and a generally “poor learning environment.”

Also, some of the institutes were barred from registering new students because their provisional operating licences had long expired.

All in all, the training centres wouldn’t be allowed to continue admitting ‘fresh’ students until they fully address the irregularities unearthed in the audit.

Dr Sigwejo explained that 459 out of the 580 vocational training centres in Tanzania were audited – and out of which only 256 met the required standards for vocational training.

However, the audit didn’t cover medical training institutions, which are owned by the government.

In a related development, the Nacte director of Admissions, Mr Twaha Twaha stated that persons who want to apply for vocational training should visit the Nacte website, where the list of vocational training centres which meet the requirements is posted.

“We have posted a list of vocational training centres on our website so that anyone who wants to apply for admission can do so to accredited institutions,” said Mr Twaha.

According to him, the training institutes which have been barred from admitting students have been given three months in which to address the shortcomings. Otherwise Nacte will de-register them.

Noting that Nacte had already communicated this requirement to the owners of the training centres involved, Mr Twaha said that the three months’ deadline expires at the end of March this year.

However, Mr Twaha didn’t reveal the names of the vocational training centres which have been barred from registering new students.