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Formal Education Systems and Poverty-Focused Planning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Christopher Colclough
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Extract

Over the first U.N. development decade the Third World has made rather faster progress, as measured by the growth in national incomes, than had been expected. Nevertheless, though the average income per capita has risen by about 50 per cent since 1960 (with total income having almost doubled), these increases have been very unequally distributed both between and within countries. This has led to the conclusion, now widely held, that growth-oriented development strataegies are alone unlidely to solve the problem of poverty. Similarly, there has been a move away from the confidence placed upon the growth of national income per capita as an effective index of social welfare. There has therefore been a quickening interest, particularly on the part of multilateral and bilataeral donor agencies – notably the World Bank, I.L.O., O.D.M., and S.I.D.A. – in promoting changes in domestic policies within the Third World which would focus more upon increasing the welfare of the poorest groups.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 1977 , pp. 569 - 589
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

page 569 note 1 Cf. Employment, Incomes and Equality: a strategy for increasing productive employment in Kenya (Geneva, 1972).

page 570 note 1 A rigorous statement and analysis of this formulation is given in Chenery et al. op. cit.

page 572 note 1 See Jolly, Richard and Colclough, Christopher, ‘African Manpower Plans: an evaluation’ in International Labour Review (Geneva), 106, 2–3, 1972.Google Scholar

page 573 note 1 Zambian Government, Office of National Development and Planning, Manpower Report (Lusaka, 1966)Google Scholar, and Botswana Government, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Manpower and Employment in Botswana (Gaborone, 1973).Google Scholar

page 573 note 2 Blaug, Mark, Layard, Richard, and Woodhall, Maureen, The Causes of Graduate Unemployment in India (Harmondsworth, 1969).Google Scholar

page 573 note 3 Psacharopoulos, G., Return to Education (Amsterdam, 1972).Google Scholar

page 576 note 1 Studies that demonstrate the importance attached by students and/or their parents to economic motives include Dubbledam, C. F. B., ‘The Primary School and the Community in Mwanza District, Tanzania’, Centrefor the Study of Education in Changing Societies, Groningen, 1970Google Scholar.

page 576 note 2 The ways in which student pressures prevent subjects that are not to be examined from being taught effectively, or even at all, are described in Dore, R. P., ‘Pre-Vocational Studies: a comment on recent development in Ceylonese education’, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, Discussion Paper No. 13, 1973Google Scholar, and King, Kenneth, ‘Primary Schools in Kenya: some critical constraints on their effectiveness’, Institute for Development Studies, Nairobi, Discussion Paper No. 130, 1973.Google Scholar One of the most powerful analyses of the deleterious consequences of the ‘backwash’ effect of examinations on the content of the years of schooling that lead up to them is given in Dore, R. P., ‘Deschool? Try Using Schools for Education First’, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, Discussion Paper No. 6, 1972.Google Scholar

page 577 note 1 In India, a university degree is ‘required’ for the job of a commercial bank teller. It ha recently been reported that tribal dancers employed by the Government of Kenya now have to have ‘O’-level certificates; their older colleagues are no doubt puzzled that they them! selves, while having no formal schooling, are nevertheless able to dance perfectly well.

page 577 note 2 A series of studies for the United States have suggested that the relationships between cognitive achievement and life-time earnings are minimal; see Jencks, et al. , Inequality (New York, 1972).Google Scholar Comparisons between India and the U.K. can be found in Blaug, Mark, An Introduction to the Economics of Education (Harmondsworth, 1970)Google Scholar; data for Botswana and Zambia are given in Colclough, Christopher, ‘Educational Expansion or Change? — Some Choices for Central and Southern Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XII, 3, 09 1974, pp. 459–70.Google Scholar

page 577 note 3 See Turner, H. A., Wage Trends, Wage Policies, and Collective Bargaining: the problems for underdeveloped countries (Cambridge, 1965).Google Scholar

page 578 note 1 Cf. Watts, Ronald E., ‘The Educational Needs of Farmers in Developing Countries’, in Foster, Philip and Sheffield, James R. (eds.), World Yearbook of Education, 1974 (London, 1975)Google Scholar; and Patrick, George and Kehrbert, Earl W., ‘Costs and Returns of Education in Five Agricultural Areas of Eastern Brazil’, in American Journal of Agricultural Economics (Urbana), 55, 2, 1973.Google Scholar

page 579 note 1 The lessons from programmes that have been introduced in Volta, Upper, Botswana, , Madagascar, , and Benin, are discussed in Colclough, Christopher, ‘Basic Education – Samson or Delilah?’, in Convergence (Toronto), IX, 2, 1976.Google Scholar

page 580 note 1 Cf. Dore, R. P., The Diploma Disease: education, qualification and development (London, 1976).Google Scholar

page 580 note 2 ‘Tanzania UNICEF/UNESCO Primary Education Reform Project. Evaluation Report’, University of Dar es Salaam, 1973.

page 580 note 3 Zambian Government, Ministry of Education, Education for Development (Lusaka, 1976).Google Scholar

page 581 note 1 Source; World Bank, Education. Sector Working Paper (Washington, 1974),Google Scholar Annex 9 and Table 2.

page 581 note 2 Data for selected countries are given in Simmons, John, ‘Education, Poverty and Development’, in I.B.R.D. Working Paper No. 196, Washington, 1973.Google Scholar

page 582 note 1 Jencks et al. op. cit.

page 583 note 1 See University of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland, Further Devolution. Report of the Development Team to the University Council (Roma, 1974), mimeographed. The following year saw the creation of the National University of Lesotho and the University of Botswana and Swaziland.

page 585 note 1 Data for India are given by Dasgupta, Asim, Education, Income Distribution and Capital Accumulation (Washington, D.C., 1973),Google Scholar and for Tunisia by Simmons, op. cit.

page 587 note 1 The effects upon poverty and income distribution are based upon the findings and interpretation of recent research, and the model of the working of formal schooling implicit in the analysis of this article. Education and labour market conditions typical of most African countries are assumed, as explained in the text.