Under the patronage of His Excellency, Hussen Abdelbagi Akol, Vice President and Chairperson of the Services Delivery Cluster in the Revitalized Government of National Unity, UNESCO and the Ministry of General Education and Instruction organized a 2-day TVET Sub-Sector Annual Review meeting to discuss challenges and recommendations in the areas of Technical Vocational Educational Training (TVET) coordination, policies, skills development, curriculum development, and teacher training.
Participants included over 118 delegates drawn from both the national level and the 10 States, the 3 administrative areas, labour market representatives, members of the diplomatic community, NGOs, and line ministries.
In his remarks, Mr. Julius Banda, UNESCO Country Representative, said that “investing in human capital is a key part of the long-term strategy for developing South Sudan’s capacity to secure economic prosperity, promoting peace and stability by improving the capacity of the population – particularly the youth – to fulfil their aspirations and empowering women and girls, enhancing access to skills development and promote sustainable development, and harness opportunities to reap “quick-wins” and catalyze growth.”
Mr. Hilding Lundkvist, Head of Cooperation Swedish Embassy in Juba said that TVET falls within the Swedish Government’s Strategy of supporting improving livelihoods and stressed that in the current context, it is important to ensure that TVET is demand-driven, relevant, provides response to climate change, and inclusive with respect to gender, internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Hon. Awut Deng Acuil, Minister of General Education and Instructions declared 2024 as a year of TVET and applauded all the partners for supporting the efforts of the ministry towards skills development. She stressed the importance the Government attaches to TVET and called for adequate domestic resources to be allocated to all line Ministries working on TVET.
His Excellency Hussen Abdelbagi Akol, Vice President and Chairperson of the Service Cluster in the Revitalized Government of National Unity said “while we are emphasizing reforms in the TVET sub-sector today, we should not forget the situation of teachers. We are still far from having the quality of teachers in sufficient quantity that this country needs to provide equitable and quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
The TVET Sub-Sector Annual review was made possible with support from the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) funded project “Strengthening TVET in South Sudan” managed by UNESCO.
