ASSESSING GREEN ENGINEERING COMPLIANCE IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERINGCURRICULUM IN TECHNICAL TRAINING INSTITUTES IN WESTERN KENYA

Abstract

United Nations’ instituted the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] in 1992.Since then, governments across the globe have been under intense pressure to promote the advancement of a green economic regime in their various countries. Green engineering is a key component of thegreen economy initiative. To institute a green economic regime, technicians and engineers must be taught the principles of green engineering. Most of the technical manpower involved in green engineering projects is graduates of the TVET institutions. Any initiative to promote the advancement of green engineering in Kenya must therefore put the TVET sector at its core. The purpose of this study was to assess if mechanical engineering courses as taught in TVET institutes inWestern Kenya were green engineering compliant. The study restricted itself to the evaluation of mechanical engineering programs in the TVET institutes based in the four counties of former Western Province, namely; Bungoma, Kakamega, Busia and Vihiga. Objectives of the study included; to determine how green mechanical engineering departments in TVET institutes are ; to determine what the Kenya Government policy on the greening of TVET institutes is; to determine how green mechanical engineering research in TVET institutes is and to determine how green the mechanical engineering course curricula are. The study was anchored on Edwin Locke’s goal settingtheory of motivation. It was hypothesized that since college principals and trainers were not involvedin the formulation of the greening policy, actual implementation greening initiative would stagnate on the ground. The target population comprised all the 25 TVET institutes in the study area; the2500 mechanical engineering students; the 144 mechanical engineering trainers and the 25 college principals. Sampling was done by the method of multistage random sampling. The sample comprised 13 principals, 75 trainers and 952 students. Sample size tables of Krejcie and Morgan were used to determine the number of students for the study. The number of 13 principals and 75 trainers in the 13th sampled colleges was small and it was not found appropriate to reduce the number further by sampling. The research instrument was a questionnaire. The instrument was validated and subjected to reliability tests before administration. Data was analyzed using descriptivestatistics and further, put into a linear multivariate regression model run on SPSS. The results demonstrated that implementation of greening of TVET initiatives by the government was stagnating on the ground, despite availability of policy and implementation guidelines in colleges. There was a general agreement among respondents that government policy on greening of TVETs in Kenya as a step towards ensuring the advancement of green engineering was available. Respondents generally felt that departmental /college compliance with greening principals was the lowest. According to the respondents, performance in green research and green curriculum was moderately good. It is recommended that the government provides targeted incentives, including letters of commendation, job group promotions and in-service training opportunities to encourage both principals and trainers to put emphasis on the greening initiative. It is further recommended that resources be availed to college heads to enable them put in place and implement strategic plans for the greening of TVET institutes.