Transforming the Training of Technical and Vocational Education Instructors Through Open, Distance and Flexible Learning: The Case of Malawi
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Abstract
The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy 11, the blueprint that maps out the national development agenda from 2011 – 2016, recognises technical and vocational education and training (tevet) as a tool for propelling Malawi into a producing and exporting nation rather than the current predominantly consuming and importing one. However, the technical and education sector in Malawi is plagued by an acute shortage of well-trained instructors. According to the Department of Technical and Vocational Education (2013), about 50% of the established posts in public technical colleges are vacant. Most instructors in technical colleges in Malawi do not possess teaching qualifications and mainly uses peer support and on-the-job experience to execute their responsibilities. Additionally, there is currently no single teacher training college in the country with a strong bias towards technical courses (NESP 2007 – 2017: 21). This paper explores how open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) could transform the landscape in facilitating training for technical and vocational education instructors to meet demand. It discusses how new instructors could be trained and the current teaching staff could be upgraded to attain the relevant teaching qualifications with little disruption to their workload. Currently, there are also plans to construct 5 technical and vocational wings in the existing teacher training colleges and reduce the instructor-student ratio from 1:67 to 1:20 by 2017/18. // Paper ID: 42
Country
Malawi
Region
Africa
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Date
2013-11