Primary School Leavers Research Articles

Migration and development in Western Kenya, 1971–82: a retrospective analysis of primary school leavers

Development in Kenya in the 1970s: Issues and Some TrendsThe early years of the 1970s saw two important milestones for the political economy and historiography of Kenya. The ILO report of 1972 was a major critique of Kenya's development efforts since independence that identified growing problems of poverty and inequality which were the result of policies that in many other respects achieved desirable objectives (International Labour Office, 1972). The ILO diagnosis and proposals had some direct influence on government policies, notably in the Third and Fourth Development Plans, for 1974–78 and 1979–83 respectively, and several but by no means all or even the majority of the proposals were acted upon, e.g. in policies towards agriculture (Clayton, 1978). Equally important, however, was its indirect effect on creating a climate of opinion that emphasized a ‘basic needs’ approach (Ghaiet al., 1979) and ‘redistribution through growth’ (Cheneryet al., 1974) and brought the attention of the public, the government and of scholars to the problems of rural and urban poverty in Kenya at a time when they seemed to be growing alarmingly.

Migration to the capital: Primary school leavers in Botswala

Migration to the capital: Primary school leavers in Botswala

Self-Allocation in the Planning of Vocational Education in Nigeria

Much discussion in the developing countries today surrounds the relationship between that section of the society concerned with the supply of manpower-the educational system-and the world of work. The discussion has tended to focus on such issues as (1) the increase in unemployment of primary and secondary school leavers, and (2) a general lack of fit between what goes on in the schools and the reality of life and work that awaits those who emerge from them. These problematic 'issues are often blamed on the so-called academic system of education inherited or copied from other (mainly Western) cultures. To correct the situation, planners in the developing countries are concerned with the need to restructure the educational and training curriculum to provide the right types of skilled manpower considered to be essential for economic and social transformation. Accordingly, greater emphasis is being given to vocational education and training, particularly at the secondary level. In Ethiopia, Republic of Benin, and Burundi, for example, enrollment in vocational schools has risen tremendously and the trend toward greater emphasis on vocationalization is apparent. 1 In Nigeria, the planning of vocational education is one of the most troublesome educational issues facing planners and educational administrators. Not only is it very complex and costly but there is also a general antipathy to this type of education by the

Productive Labour and the School System: Contradictions in the Training of Artisans in Kenya

The issue of productive labour in African school systems raises very different questions from the experience of this in either Russia or China [1]. At first sight, such work seems now to be conspicuously absent from the primary and secondary schools of most countries except Tanzania. Nevertheless, it has begun to be the subject of some considerable debate even in those countries where it does not apparently figure at all in the ordinary school curriculum [2]. The reasons have to do with the wider political economy of many African states in the 1970s, and not least with the widespread phenomenon of educated, unskilled unemployment. It may perhaps therefore be useful to sketch out the major lines of this recent concern, illustrating the argument primarily with data from Kenya. The central focus of this current speculation are the tens of thousands who in a number of countries have espoused some form of self-employment during the last decade. They may be viewed as in some sense the product of the massive and continuing school boom on the one hand and the extremely sluggish growth of wage and salary jobs on the other. As it became clear during the 1960s that African economies were simply not going to be able to offer a form of regular paid employment to the majority of primary and junior secondary school leavers, the social and political consequences of large-scale open unemployment were frequently alluded to as Africa's likeliest long-term disease. Empirical work, however, began to uncover that the school leaver group, which had been feared as the aspiring and potentially disruptive element in African society, had embraced forms of self-employment on a scale unprecedented during the colonial period. While this was considered a favourable omen by agencies and funds intimately concerned with employment creation-notably ILO and the World Bank-this phenomenon of what people began to call 'informal sector' employment raised a set of new questions, many of them bearing directly on the relationship between self-employment and the conventional academic school system. The one which concerns productive labour most closely was that very considerable numbers of young people had gained an artisan skill, even though their seven to eleven years of schooling had been completely devoid of prevocational bias, let alone any practical work experience. There seems something of a paradox in this; for on the one hand planners wished to justify the ever increasing costs of primary schooling (during 1974 alone two of the most education-conscious states-Kenya and Nigeria-are pledged to make their primary expenditures still higher, by

Personality in primary school children. 2. Teachers' ratings.

Summary. Teachers' ratings of emotional stability, perseverance, sociability and impulsiveness were compared with ability and achievement scores, as well as with scores on the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory. Analysis of variance and factor analyses were performed on some 4,000 male and female primary school leavers. The results show complex interrelations between ability and achievement variables, inventory variables, and parental status and other family variables. Teachers' ratings on extraverted behaviour patterns correlated well with inventory responses on the children; teachers' ratings of emotional stability did not correlate well with children's self‐ratings, possibly because of concentration of teachers on matters of school discipline and moral behaviour. Grammar school entrance was determined both by ability/achievement and by social status. For both boys and girls the pattern of inter‐relations was very similar.

Irrigation in the Rhodesian Lowveld

Despite the political problems of the last six years with the break up of fede? ration, the unila er declaration independence, and the application of sanctions, Rhodesia's economy has shown a remarkable resilience and has not suffered as badly as many economists had predicted. This is due in part to the country's diversified economic basis and help received from South Africa, Portugal and elsewhere. Rhodesia is comparatively well endowed with a large variety of minerals, whose export value in 1964 was nearly ?27 million, consisting of gold worth ?7-2 million, asbestos ?6*8 million, copper ?4-1 million, coal ?3-4 million, chromite ?2-2 million, tin ? -65 million, iron ore ? -58 million, and other minerals. Reserves of coal and iron ore are large with a production of over 3 million tons of coal and a million tons of iron ore in 1964. Hydroelectricity generated from Kariba will be able to supply all of Rhodesia's power needs for years to come. Industrial development has been rapid since 1938 when net output was worth ?2*3 million, compared to a net output worth ?22 million in 1963, while numbers employed have also increased from 17,500 to 82,400 during the period 1938-63. Manufacturing is now the largest single sector in the Rhodesian economy with 18 per cent of the gross domestic product, compared to commercial agriculture with 15 per cent of the G.D.P. However, commercial agriculture was the largest employer of African labour with 44 per cent of a total African labour force of 622,000. Rhodesian agriculture is divided into two distinct sectors, the cash and the subsis? tence sectors. The commercial sector is market-orientated and consists largely of Euro? pean farmers operating on a large scale, while the subsistence sector consists almost entirely of African peasant cultivators operating on a small scale and with little (market emphasis. Over 90 per cent of the African working population are engaged in farm? ing, and there are nearly half a million African subsistence farmers compared to only 6200 farms in the commercial sector, most of them owned by Europeans, but includ? ing an increasing number of Africans. Agriculture is, therefore, of paramount importance to the Rhodesian economy and will continue to play a major role for many years to come. However, despite the apparent vigour of the economy there are some disquieting features. The contribution of subsistence agriculture to the national economy is small as yet, with only 67 per cent of the G.D.P. in 1964, and most African farmers are inefficient with a low standard of living. Determined efforts are being made by the Rhodesian government to improve agricultural productivity by such means as cooperative marketing schemes, the African Master Farmers' Scheme, soil conservation programme, pasture management, the upgrading of cattle and the introduction of new and better varieties of crops. The African population is expanding at a rate of 3 xz per cent per annum, having in? creased from about half a million in 1901 to 3 lz million in 1961. Increasing numbers of Africans are migrating to Bulawayo and Salisbury, and the latter city, which had only 33,000 people in 1933, increased rapidly to over 300,000 by 1966. A major reason for this urban drift is the effect of the widening gap between urban and rural earnings. According to Professor Arthur Lewis another important reason is the in? fluence of accelerated schooling causing African primary school leavers to flock to the towns to seek work, as suitable employment is not available in the country (Lewis,

The Ghana Workers Brigade: A Project for Unemployed Youth

matter of urgency for many governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America during recent years. The high proportion of young people under the age of 15 in the population, estimated to be 41 per cent in Africa and 40 per cent in Latin America and Asia in 1960, is one of the contributory factors. Another is the innocent aggravation of the problem by the programmes of accelerated expansion of primary and middle-school education in the new independent states, such as Ghana and Nigeria, which flood the labour market with armies of school-leavers each year. In Ghana, between 1957 and 1963, just over ioo,ooo extra employment places became available, whereas in the same period over 16o,ooo left elementary schools.x In Western Nigeria the output of successful primary school leavers rose from 54,000 in 1958 to 129,000 in 1960. During the period of the current Nigerian development plan, 1962-8, Eastern Nigeria estimates that nearly 80o,ooo primary school leavers will be looking for employment, 2 and Western Nigeria estimates that 420,000 primary and secondary-modern school leavers will enter the labour market.3 The current Ghana SevenYear Development Plan aims to expand the economy quickly enough to absorb 70,000 additional workers per annum in contrast to the Ioo,ooo jobs provided in the 1957-63 period. School-leavers from primary schools have no skills but literacy. Their expectations were once high when they set out for the urban areas in search of work. However, there is now some evidence to suggest that the seeds of disillusionment have taken root in their minds.4 For the vast majority of them there is no hope of secondary education but this does not dampen their enthusiasm for education; many pursue private study through correspondence courses or attend private commercial and technical schools of doubtful quality. Jobs in the towns, except for seasonal work of an unskilled and menial nature, are unobtainable, but young people prefer to remain in the towns as the restrictions of traditional family life in the villages hold no attractions I13

Unemployment Among African School Leavers

Throughout West, East, and Central Africa today—at a time when all these countries want to quicken the pace of development—masses of young people drift from rural areas to the cities in search of work. Mainly primary school leavers with an aversion to traditional farming, they set out hopefully to become first-generation wage-earners. But neither the jobs nor the vocational training exists that could meet their demands. And, as each year passes, the numbers of unemployed in the cities swell.

Primary School Leavers in Uganda

Primary School Leavers in Uganda

Secondary School Entrance Examinations: Second Interim Report on the Allocation of Primary School Leavers to Courses of Secondary Education

Secondary School Entrance Examinations: Second Interim Report on the Allocation of Primary School Leavers to Courses of Secondary Education

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:The Allocation of Primary School Leavers to Courses of Secondary Education—First Interim Report: Watts, A. F., and SlaterEighty Thousand Adolescents: Westhill Training College … directed and described by Bryan H. Reed.A List of Researches in Education and Educational Psychology: A. M. BlackwellReport on Conference on Speech Therapy: