KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31 — Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar rues the delay in the set-up of a central authority to manage Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) in the country.
She said the management of TVET is currently in disarray as some 556 public institutions dedicated to it were being overseen by seven different ministries and 17 agencies.
The former chairman of the TVET empowerment committee established under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in June 2018 said she had submitted a proposed Bill for the formation of a commission back then, but none of the governments that came after had acted on it.
“So you don’t have a centralised point of authority,” she said during the “Merdeka Talk: Reimagining Malaysia's Future” held at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre here last night.
“Although you do have one single accreditation body, the Skills Development Department... which is under the Human Resources Ministry.
“You’re telling me that an agency under one ministry is able to tell the Defence Ministry: ‘You must close down your institution’?” she asked.
Nurul Izzah said that the “asymmetrical” power dynamics between ministries makes it difficult to manage or close down underperforming government-run TVET institutions.
She added that the proposed Bill had been drafted while PH was in power, but control of the government had switched hands before it could be tabled.
She also said that she had last submitted the proposed Bill to Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan. "Merdeka Talk: Reimagining Malaysia's Future" is part of a series of talks organised by PH as part of its Ayuh Malaysia campaign pushing for reforms in the run-up to national elections.
