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EDUCATION for university education has been the relatively poor enrolments at TVET colleges (which until recently were referred to as Further Education and Training (FET) colleges). Enrolment at TVET colleges has lagged significantly behind that at universities. For example, enrolment at TVET colleges in 2006 was 361,186 and it was estimated to be 538,000 in 2014. The growth rate over this period was low. In contrast, enrolment at universities in 2006 was 741,383, and in 2014, estimated to be 1,000,328. According to the National Development Plan,“Public colleges enrol an equivalent of one-third (roughly 300,000) of learners enrolled in higher education, when ideally the situation should be the other way round”. For example, unlike South Africa, Seychelles, Botswana and Mauritius have higher percentage gross enrolments in TVET institutions in relation to university enrolments. Most, if not all first world countries, invest more in further education and training than developing countries. The UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) states that the greater a country’s Gross Domestic Product per capita, the greater its percentage of technical/vocational student enrolment.

In a country that is faced with a crippling skills shortage, considered to be of crisis proportions by many observers, this phenomenon constitutes a compelling case for further probing into the underlying reasons behind the attitudes and choices made by students as evidenced by the inordinate preference for a university instead of a TVET qualification. This oddity invites further reflection.