By Sulaiman Jalloh
The National Council for Technical, Vocational and other Academic Awards (NCTVA), has, on Friday, July 26, 2024, completed a two-day workshop on the National Qualification Framework (NQF) with the aim to review and validate the national qualification framework document.
The two-day workshop, which started on Thursday, July 25, 2024 and ended on Friday, July 26, 2024, attracted different groups across the Education Sector in the country.
On the first day of the workshop, the Vice Chairperson of NCTVA, Mrs. Alice Onamake, welcomed attendees and stated that they have done consultations with the provenances and that they were there to obtain the thought of attendees in line with the policy framework, noting the thought of expertise was paramount in reviewing the document which has bearing to every sector and the job market worth to make it a reality to the development of the country. “I welcome you and wish you good luck as you contribute to make Mama Salone better,” she stated.
Making statement on behalf of development partners, Senior TVET Adviser of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Fred Joe Feika, noted that the NQF process reflects a history, stressing that it has been a long journey. He disclosed that his organisation, in 2020, started the development of the National Qualification Framework document operation under the Ministry of Education. “We have to ensure that it is standardized and able to meet international best practices,” he said, adding that the TVET has made strides in harmonizing and transforming it into a national qualification for the country.
Principal of the Women’s Vocational Training Center (WVTC), Abdulai D. Bangura, expressed thanks and appreciation to the organizers of the workshop for what he considered as a step in the right direction. He stated that need to have a particular system that is in tandem with international best practices cannot be overemphasised. He further disclosed that there are young talented people who do not have the opportunity to go to higher institution but with the current document under review that will be a thing of the past. Mr Bangura however noted that going forward the document should talk about the welfare of teachers.
In a snap interview with The Expo Times, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of NCTVA, Oladapo Coulson Olowu, said the framework is a system that unifies learners’ achievement into the central register and that it ensures credit transfer systems are in place and a recognition to a prior early learning arm to be certified, adding it also promotes life-long learning something, he said, remains key to the development of the country. “The framework focuses on resolving the educational lacuna in the country, for instance the issue of curricula not been harmonized, a diploma in institution A maybe different from diploma in institution B,” the PRO noted. He furthered that the document is also looking at the issue of credit transfer and adding values to certificates and diplomas awarded to students to match international standards.
He added that a god number of Sierra Leoneans are constrained because some of the university qualifications are limited and cannot even be used in other parts of the world and therefore the framework document aims to address that. “The NQF will ensure that our qualifications will be able to be referenced because our qualifications will be in alignment with other African Countries and international benchmarks,” Mr Olowu concluded.
