Revitalising Jiri Technical School in a Dramatically Changed Context: Governance, Management and Employability

Abstract

This paper examines two assumption: First, whether inadequate practical training, including much shortened apprenticeship training, has negatively affected the employability and incomes of graduates of TVET institutions in Nepal, and the second, whether it is good institutional management and governance that provide the systems for quality training and positive labour market outcomes. Tracer studies and an institutional assessment of Jiri Technical School (JTS) confirm the first assumption. The review of select literature on institution building and the benchmarking of JTS’ operative practices against those of high performing educational institutions (in India) confirm the second assumption. It is argued that poor management and governance of TVET institutions drifts the mission of Technical Schools away from their initial socio-economic mandate: the provision of skilled human resource and access to qualification opportunities to the youth having the aptitudes for such an education. Social rather than labour market demand with corresponding politics is one major force for such deviation. To revitalise the JTS, it is proposed to bank on the federalisation of the TVET governance system to professionalise Board, Management and teachers for enhanced labour market outcomes in closer cooperation between actors from the education and employment systems.