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VOCATIONALIZING THE SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM: THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE

Cultural and Historical Background

I. Vocational Education in Traditional African Societies

Vocational education as a process of instruction that prepares young people to work in specific vocations is not new in Africa. In traditional African societies, a generally recognized cardinal aim of education has been to prepare each generation for a pro- ductive working life. Young men and women were trained in traditional vocations such as weaving, carving, pottery, matmaking, blacksmithing, goldsmithing, bronze casting, traditional medicine and numerous other skills (Fafunwa, 1980). Guilds of craftsmen had a vast apprenticeship training system, in which vocational skills were learnt in less formal ways. It began as a part of a wider education process in which indigenous African societies passed on their cultural heritage from one generation to the next. Usually young people were trained by their parents, but often by relatives or friends who were master-craftsmen in particular fields, in order to ensure discipline and concentration. The vocational skills 'owned' by a family were highly valued and in some vocations such as traditional medicine, secrets were zealously guarded, as they are indeed today. Evidence of the passing on of vocational skills within families is still strong. The apprenticeship system thus provided an avenue for vocational education before the colonial period.

2. Colonial Vocational Education

During the colonial period, the concept of vocational education received a different orientation, especially in its application to the formal school system. Vocational education was seen as one of the ways to 'adapt ' colonial education to the African environment.

In his study of Ghana, for example, Foster (1965) shows how the adaptation con- cept was given official approval in the 1925 memorandum, Educational Policy in British Tropical Africa, and he reveals the extent to which adaptationist ideas ex- erted considerable influence on education not only in Ghana, but also in most other British African Colonies. The concept of adaptation led to an emphasis on educa- tion being 'practical' and ' functional ' and therefore closely related to life in the rural areas where the great majority of Africans lived. Vocational education was regarded as being of paramount importance, with considerable emphasis being placed on elementary trade training (Foster, 1965; Abernethy, 1969).

The educational commissions sent to Africa by the Phelps-Stokes fund of New York also exerted a strong influence on vocational education, especially in the British colonial territories (Berman, 1971, 1972). The fund's director had been im- pressed by the work of Samuel Chapman Armstrong and Booker T. Washington on Black education in the Southern United States, and as Foster pointed out, 'so com- pletely were the principles underlying the Phelps-Stokes report accepted by the British colonial authorities that the policy statement of the Advisory Committee parallelled in large degree the conclusion of the American organization' (Foster, 1965, p. 156).

But colonial vocational education lost momentum (or even failed) for two

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reasons: Firstly, vocational education tended to be detached from African cultural and economic realities other than a vague colonial, secularized ideology of develop- ment. This ideology existed in the minds of well-educated policy-makers and ad- ministrators, who thought that vocational education alone could work magic. It was forgotten that in a situation where the economy of an African country was unable to create new jobs, social and economic problems could not be easily solved through vocational education (Foster, 1965).

Secondly, for many years, the supply of academically trained personnel had been insufficient for government service and other sectors of the economy. People deliberately rejected vocational education since they were aware that the only path to 'real' jobs was through an academic career (Bray, 198'1, p. 10). In some cases vocational training was seen not only as irrelevant but also as deliberate attempt to give Africans a second-class education and thus maintain European domination.

The puzzle of vocational education in Africa (since colonial times) has thus been: how vocational education should best be provided and who should be vocationally trained.

The Upsurge in 'School-based' Vocational Education

Ironically, just as the earlier colonial attempt to make education 'practical' and 'functional ' was losing momentum in the mid-1950s, 'school-based' vocational education got a new boost in the newly independent African countries. At the sec- ondary level, school-based vocational education took two forms: introducing pre- vocational subjects in an otherwise academic curriculum, or offering purely voca- tional subjects in separate institutions dedicated to technical/vocational studies. Some African countries have one or both forms of vocational education; however many have opted for vocational education programmes which emphasize the 'mix' of traditional academic coursework with more vocational subjects. These countries include Lesotho, Botswana, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Cameroon, Gabon, Nige- ria, Swaziland, Tunisia, Morocco and Tanzania.

In 1961, when African ministers first took stock of educational development pros- pects at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the impression created was that school-based vocational and technical education would lead to the economic in- dependence of African countries. It also focused more attention on secondary schools than primary schools. Many African countries turned to the vocationaliza- tion of secondary school curricula as a prelude to industrialization. The influence of the Addis Ababa conference report was also strengthened by educational thought at the time. For example, considering the use of education for economic advance- ment, Balogh (1962) posed the question, 'how are these needs to be met?' and answered as follows: 'on the one hand, the schools may be used as the training agents for the production process, gearing their curricula and teaching to produce skilled people . . . on the other hand, the schools may be used as indirect producers of human resources to meet the production needs of the economy, placing more em- phasis on basic skills' (p. 241).

Two decades later, in 1982, the conference of ministers of education in Africa held in Harare, Zimbabwe, again addressed itself mainly to the urgent need for member states to draw up and implement vocational and technical education programmes (Unesco, 1982). In order to lend support to the concept of vocational and technical education, the Harare conference urged African member states not only to define

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their basic educational policies but also ' to make education more relevant to daily life, and particularly to the world of work, by the introduction of productive work into the educational process' (p. 41).

The spirit of encouraging the growth of vocational and technical schools in Africa is spreading fast after the fashion of Japan, whose ancient culture in its early days of modernization showed itself ingeniously capable of preserving old traditions and at the same time of adapting rapidly to industrial development. Given their large public sectors and strong manpower planning tradition, many African countries have opted for a vocationalization of secondary school curricula which emphasizes the combination of general education with vocational subject matter.

The current faith in 'school-based' vocational/technical education has been founded on two related assumptions (Gardiner, 197t, p. 22). Firstly it is assumed that education, through its vocational training aspect, provides specific skills to the forces which are needed for the proper performance of a number of jobs. Many educational policy-makers argue that investment in education, training and research (which is undertaken by educated and trained personnel in schools and universities) through vocational programmes, enables men and women to acquire knowledge and techniques by which they can produce more and earn more.

Secondly, it is assumed that the vocationalization of the secondary school cur- riculum increases social and occupational mobility by providing access to education and training and thereby the acquisition of new skills and possibilities of higher in- come to classes in society which were previously disadvantaged. Thus, it was thought that the dilemma of the educational planners, politicians, and consumers of educa- tion and training in Africa was now to be resolved by the general acceptance of a new conceptual framework for education, namely vocational education.

The Turn Of Events in the 1970s

The assumptions about 'school-based' vocational education outlined above have been very strong in Africa ever since the mid-1960s when most African countries became politically independent. In the early stages after national independence, there were more jobs available than qualified persons to fill them. The expansion of the central administration soon after independence and the need for ever larger numbers of technical, medical, educational, and other qualified personnel had meant continued shortages of adequately trained manpower, frequent dependence on expatriate cadres and the rapid growth of the educated elite (Blakemore and Cooksey, 1981, p. 51).

However, an abrupt turn of events in the early 1970s shattered the earlier op- timistic assumption that the growing economies of Africa could indefinitely absorb all the manpower their expanding educational systems could provide. As the na- tional budget of most African countries became too strained to permit continued personnel expansion, the demand for new graduates slumped sharply. The world recession and inflation made matters worse. The phenomenon of the educated unemployed - a term first coined in India some years earlier - now began to spread across African countries (Coombs, 1985, p. 179). The growing spectre of unemploy- ment among secondary school and post-secondary graduates, plus the tightening budgets for educational spending, fuelled criticism of schools' producing graduates lacking employable skills. It was thought that if students had been taught vocational skills they could find jobs. But just how effective have vocational school curricula been compared with general academic curricula?

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Immediate Questions

It is useful at this stage to take stock of the African experience in vocational educa- tion. The situation in African countries today raises questions which need to be answered (based on Psacharopoulos 1986). Has vocational education created employment in Africa? Are vocationally trained graduates in Africa employed in the sector for which they are trained? Has vocational education improved students' at- titudes towards manual labour? How should vocational education be provided and financed in Africa? What are the comparative costs of providing vocational and general secondary education? What are the social rates of return to investment in vocational and general secondary education? Who should be vocationally trained and what should be the pay-scales for vocationally trained graduates?

At present we lack an understanding of the content and form of vocational educa- tion to be adopted in schools. Such lack of understanding was described twenty years ago by Foster (1965) as 'the vocational school fallacy in development planning', bas- ed on his evaluation of such schools in Ghana. Foster dwelt on the fact that mass unemployment among school leavers in many African countries was due to the dys- functions that existed between the gross rate of school output and the slow expan- sion of occupational opportunities of all within the exchange sector. Foster's conclu- sions are worth quoting here:

' . . . the vocational aspirations of children and the occupations which they enter are almost exclusively determined by factors which lie outside the schools. In- deed, in terms of the actual opportunities open to them, the students' percep- tions are remarkably realistic. It follows, therefore, that no amount of formal technical, vocational or agricultural instruction alone is going to check the movement from the rural areas, reduce the volume of unemployment, or indeed necessarily have any effect on the rate of economic development. Those factors which really give the impetus to early economic growth are far more subtle than the proponents of vocational education suppose. We would suggest that the crucial variables lie, instead, in the structure of incentives within the economic system and in the degree to which the institutional milieu is supportive o f en- trepreneurial activity. Without such a milieu no amount of vocational instruc- tion can be effective since the skills acquired will not be utilized. To put the issue more colloquially, in the initial stages technical and vocational instruction is the cart rather than the horse in economic growth, and its development depends upon real and perceived opportunities in the economy. The provision of voca- tional education must be directly related to those points at which some develop- ment is already apparent and where demand for skills is beginning to manifest itself . . . ' (Foster, 1965, p. 134)

With these important remarks in mind, we now turn to a closer examination of some concrete examples of the African experience in vocational education, and especially the results of a recent large scale evaluation of attempts to vocationalize secondary school curricula.

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Examples of the African Experience

The discussion so far has focused on the historical background and conceptual issues pertinent to vocational/technical education. Concrete examples of the African ex- perience that have or are likely to have a major policy and planning impact. Two countries, however, will be used here to illustrate the African experience: Tanzania and Nigeria. Tanzania has gone a long way in instituting a vocational school cur- riculum with a commercial, agricultural and technical bias alongside the academic content. Nigeria has also restructured the formal school system nationally into a 6:3:3:4 pattern, as part of the general attempt to vocationalize the secondary school curriculum.

Now let us examine them in turn.

1. Tanzania

Since 1967, Tanzania's national policies have been based on the philosophy of 'Socialism and Self Reliance' as outlined ioin the Arusha Declaration. Tanzania was the first country in Africa to link schooling with productive work and to articulate a programme of diversified secondary education. 'Education for self-reliance', as it was popularly known, formed the philosophical basis for education in the country (Nyerere, 1985).

The initial content of 'Education for Self-Reliance' was slightly revised by the Musoma Declaration of 1974, which adopted the slogan 'Elimu ni Kazi' (Education is Work) as the country's educational philosophy. The government of Tanzania has taken steps, since Musoma, to ensure the implementation of the following educa- tional guidelines of the ruling party: placing greater emphasis on technical and voca- tional education; consolidation of productive activities in schools, with each school meeting at least 25 per cent of its running costs.

According to Psacharopoulos and Loxley, Tanzania did not vocationalize secon- dary school curricula merely as a means to match middle level skills with manpower requirements. Rather the main impetus for vocationalization stemmed from a strong commitment to the idea of work education similar to that found in the Chinese, Cuban and Soviet vocational educational system. Psacharopoulos and Loxley point out that, because of Tanzania's philosophy of self-reliance and self-sufficiency in skilled manpower, students were required to gain experience in practical subjects in addition to academic pursuits by specialising in a vocational subject of their choice while in secondary school. Very few students continued their formal education after secondary form IV. The inclusion of practical experience in the world of work was intended to orientate all secondary school students towards careers in such voca- tional subjects as commerce, agriculture, domestic science and technical fields. Those who were selected to continue their studies in upper secondary school and eventually at university were thereafter to be exposed to a purely academic cur- riculum, yet each would have acquired some vocational training in the lower secon- dary cycle (Psacharopoulos and Loxley, 1985).

The total enrolment in government secondary schools in 1983 was 39,737 ( 27,040 boys and 12,697 girls). Most of these schools have a special bias towards a particular type of instructional activity. Five out of the 85 government secondary schools have a technical bias, 41 an agricultural bias, and 33 a commercial bias. The result is, for example, that at the end of form IV, those who enter a school that has a technical

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bias leave as qualified craftsmen in the field of mechanical, electrical or civil engi- neering. The amount of time they devote to all vocational and academic subjects is prescribed by the National Ministry of Education, and anywhere from 25 per cent to 40 per cent of course work periods per week is spent on the subject bias during the fourth year alone (Nyerere, 1985, p. 46).

In addition to government secondary schools, non-profit private fee-paying sec- ondary schools are permitted. By 1983, 31,500 children were attending such private schools. Whether in government or private schools, all secondary school students attend school for four years.

The vocationalization of school curricula has also led to the designing of new cur- ricula and syllabuses. New school texts also had to be written and re-written. However, these nationwide innovations in the vocationalization of school curricula have met with relative successes and failures. The word 'relative' refers to the im- plementation of the country's policies, to the effects of ambition clashing with the limits of resources, and to impatience clashing with the need to get the people's full understanding and involvement before introducing innovations (Ergas, 1985, pp. 571-594).

In practical terms, the vocationalization of school curricula, whereby each secon- dary school is expected to have a particular bias - technical, agricultural, commer- cial or domestic science - was less than successful. The data of the large scale research on the vocationalization of secondary education in Tanzania carried out by Psacharopoulos and Loxley (1985) showed that vocationalization of secondary school curricula: (a) has not led to a reduced private demand for post-secondary schooling, (b) has not led to a greater preponderance of commercial bias students taking commercial training or agricultural training, (c) has not resulted in more students obtaining work in their field of prevocational specialization, (d) has not led to shorter periods of unemployment (job search) for students taking pre-vocational studies in agriculture and commerce although technical students do find employ- ment earlier than all others, and (e) has not led to those students taking pre- vocational studies having higher initial earnings. Psacharopoulos and Loxley pointed out that the initial earnings of students taking pre-vocational studies could change once they had entered the labour force. (Psacharopoulos and Loxley, 1985).

However a major factor underlying secondary school curricula in Tanzania (as in other African countries) is the political considerations upon which the innovation was predicated. The decision to vocationalize secondary school curricula in Tan- zania was linked to the socialist ideology of Education for Self Reliance. Although this innovation may not have been cost-effective, its success could be judged by the extent to which it has enabled the nation to achieve the objectives of socialism and self-reliance, and individuals to become mentally liberated (Psacharopoulos, 1986).

2. Nigeria

In Nigeria, the problem of revising the educational system to make it more efficient and relevant to the needs of the country is a current one, and vocationalizing the educational system (combining pre-vocational courses with academic secondary school curricula) is considered to be the appropriate way to make school more rele- vant to work and national development.

Nigeria has instituted the 6:3:3:4 educational pattern. This means that the educa- tional system is now divided into six years of primary school, three years in a junior

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secondary school; three years in either a senior secondary school, a technical or a teacher training college; and four years in a university.

The National Policy on Education (NPE) published in 1977, included a specific statement that the new system would be introduced to coincide with the first output of universal primary education. The initial content of the NPE was slightly revised in 1981, and the pre-vocational subjects now consist of Introductory Technology, Agriculture, Home Economics and Business Studies. The federal government has also taken steps to ensure the implementation of the NPE through the massive im- portation of machines and workshop tools from European countries, notably Bulgaria. The machines and workshop equipment so far imported have been distrib- uted to some schools in both urban and rural areas. Unfortunately, most rural schools are handicapped because of the lack of an electricity supply to operate the machines and of trained teachers to man the workshops. In some cases, teachers are unable to install these imported machines because of lack of training and inability to read the machine manuals written in a foreign language (not English).

However, attempts are currently being made to equip as many schools as possible and to produce necessary facilities, as well as to train more vocational and technical teachers for the 6:3:3:4 system.

What the effects and the economics of these new attempts will be for the country and for its youth are not yet known, and the vocationalization of the school system is still being debated nationwide. The debate on the academic/vocational mix is by no means new. As pointed out earlier, the Phelps-Stokes enquiry into education in Africa in the 1920s was a good example of a colonial attempt to vocationalize educa- tion, and of local resistance to this form of education. To a large extent, the voca- tional element in the school curriculum has historically been associated with less in- tellectually able pupils in primary and secondary schools (Urevbu, 1984).

However~ it is now Nigerians rather than Europeans who decry the lack of voca- tional subjects. Yet up till today, the 'best' employment is obtainable only through academic learning, and when the elite, the top federal government officials, ad- vocate vocational expansion it is often for other peoples' children rather than for their own. The attitudes of those actively seeking academic education will only change when the rewards from vocational training improve relative to those from academic education. It is ironic that, despite its remarks, one result of the Udoji Report was a civil service salary upgrading which increased the rewards for academic schooling, and thus increased differentials between academic 'general' secondary education and vocational education (Federal Government of Nigeria, 1974). Various antidotes have been suggested to correct this seeming paradox.

These range from the setting up of comprehensive schools through the introduc- tion of a vocational element in the academic senior secondary school to the extreme proposal to do away with schooling as it is now known. This situation has been fur- ther criticized on the grounds that much currently accepted theory of vocational problems in secondary schools is fallacious. However, such conditions should stimu- late thought about the school and its socio-economic functions and, in particular, raise the questions of how schools can be used as agents of change instead of as mere mirrors of the socio-economic relations in society (Green, 1973, p. 158).

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Employment-based Vocational Education

There are a few examples of employment-based vocational programmes in Africa, however, in which effective use is being made of on-the-job training. Some govern- ments have taken steps to stimulate, assist and harmonize employment-based voca- tional education.

1. Nigeria

The Nigerian government has begun a National Open Apprenticeship Scheme. This Scheme, which is one of the major programmes of the national Directorate of Employment is designed to provide youth with the skills to become self-employed. It is projected that about 500,000 candidates nation-wide will be trained as motor mechanics, printers, carpenters, welders, caterers, and in general, manual work. In addition, there are a few isolated cases of on-the-job vocational training program- rues. The Delta Steel Company at Ovwian-Aladja, for example, trains young school leavers on the job in various occupations such a steel fabrication, automobile repair work and the skills needed in the steel company. The Petroleum Training Institute at Warri trains young men and women who are already in a job (in-service training) or sponsored by firms with a view of employing them at the end of their training. The courses offered include welding, instrumentation and design, electrical engineering and petroleum-related fields. There are also Farm Institutes in various parts of the country, and some state governments have embarked on farm pro- grammes (e.g. Bendel Communal Farms located at Obayantor, Deghele, Ogwashu- ku, Usugbenu, Sabongida Ora, Anegbete, Ikira-lle and one other in the Isoko local government area), lkorodu Agricultural Institute in Lagos and the school-to-land programmes of Rivers State teach modern techniques of farming to young persons who, after training, are helped financially to settle as 'corps of progressive farmers' in rural areas.

2. Republic o f Benin

The Republic of Benin provides another isolated example of out-of-school or employment-based vocational education. In Benin, the CPEP1P (Centre Populaire d 'Educat ion de Perfectionnement et d ' Ini t iat ion h la Production) is an institution which caters solely for persons not in the formal school system. Hovefo and Hovefo (1978) have reported on the Beninese experiment: the most important finding of their survey seems to be the positive financial gains made by students.

3. Botswana

The Botswana Brigades were started in Bamangwoto in Serowe by Patrick Van Ren- sourg in 1965 with the aim of teaching practical skills on the job. The Brigades are engaged in the following vocations: building, carpentry, plumbing, vehicle maintenance, light engineering, textiles and agriculture. It is therefore usual in Botswana of the 1980s to talk of the Builders' Brigades, Carpenters' Brigades, Planters' Brigades and so on. The fundamental aim is to provide vocational educa-

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tion out~ide the formal school system. Young people who have mastered vocational skills are assisted to create employment by BEDU (the Botswana Enterprises Devel- opment Unit), which provides workshops and stalls for a variety of vocations. Ac- cording to a 1978-79 report (Federal Republic of Botswana) there were 66 BEDU- assisted entrepreneurs in Botswana, comprising the following sectors: garment sec- tor, leatherwork and tannery, woodworking, metal work, building, jewelry and art- work, upholstery, and printing and engraving. BEDU indicates that ' the construc- tion sector remains the most successful of all the programmes in terms of viability and numbers of jobs created, which by 1978-79 stood at more than five hundred. '

4. Zambia

The Luashya Youth Self-help Project teaches a variety of skills to unemployed school leavers, who are helped to get jobs, to create jobs themselves or to form co- operatives. Isolated cases of out-of-school vocational programmes in Zambia teach trades, farming ~kills, health, nutrition and agriculture.

5. Tanzania

Some of Tanzania 's out-of-school vocational projects train village leaders from the famous 'Ujamaa ' settlements. The Lushoto Integrated Development Project, for example, teaches farming techniques and other vocational skills. Others such as the Cottage Training Centres, the Simbazi Study Group and the projects of the National Industrial Training Council cater for various strata of the population in rural areas in order to train them in useable skills.

6. COte d'lvoire

Two of the projects in the C6te d ' Ivoire are concerned with the retraining and im- provement of the practical skills of persons already in employment. The 'Centre de Poids Lourds ' , for example, retrains persons who have passed through technical col- leges and who are employed as maintenance staff. The 'Centre de Perfectionnement Audio-Visuel' caters for secretaries already employed. These are taught advanced secretarial skills, accountancy and languages to make them better functionaries.

The C6te d 'Ivoire has two Education for Work projects that cater for co- operatives. The Centre National de Promotion des Enterprises Co-op6ratives (CENAPEC) caters for government officials, co-operative directors, illiterates and new literates. Its major aims are to 'promote co-operatives and train co-operative leaders and agents' . The four Community Workshops in the C6te d ' Ivoire cater for villagers who want to repair and operate machinery, and graduates also work for co-operatives.

However, it is important to guard against an exaggerated impression of progress. Compared to the situation before 1970, significant progress has been made in most countries in on-the-job or employment-based vocational education. Yet most pro- grammes are small; they operate in a limited geographical area, serve a limited clientele and have at best taken only a small step towards meeting the total needs. Well over half of rural youth lack locally relevant occupational training. This re- quires, among other things, large doses of on-the-job vocational education.

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Conclusion

In vocational education, African countries have moved into each new day and year with no notion of what it may hold. The treatment of the African experience provid- ed in this paper shows that in vocationalizing secondary school curricula, it is not enough to acquire school buildings and workshops, to provide adequate teachers and to have qualitative teaching materials in right numbers. In order that secondary level vocational education become effective in Africa, we must consider, in Philip Coombs' words 'the living forces all around us today' (Coombs, 1985, p. 201). Some of these forces are shaping the supply side of vocational education, others, the de- mand side. There is also a third side, the macro-socio-economic element. (Psacharo- poulos, 1986). We shalI explore these three sides separately.

1. The Supply Side

On the supply side, the question is how vocational education should best be provid- ed. One reason why vocationalization of secondary curricula has been less than suc- cessful in Africa, as in Asia and Latin America, is due perhaps to the continued resistance by policy-makers and school administrators to understand the notion that the provision of skills in a given economy does not have to be school-based and does not have to take place in the mainstream educational system. For centuries, the ap- prentice system of employment-based training has been the mode by which skills have been acquired in traditional African societies.

However, it has been argued by some authorities that most African countries lack the industrial base for apprenticeship or on-the-job training in advanced or highly specialized vocations. In such an instance such vocational courses should not be of- fered in the first place, since there would be no employment opportunity for the graduates. But if, as in Nigeria, the Federal Government decides to open a multi- national petro-chemical company, steel company or car assembly plant, then the trades needed in such companies could be provided in a special institution dedicated to vocational studies completely separate from the mainstream and preferably run and financed by the company itself. Thus perhaps a more viable option in the provi- sion of vocational education in Africa is employment-based, out-of-school voca- tional training. Employment-based training in factories and industries makes such training more relevant to the content of the vocation in the sense that these institu- tions are closer to technological development in their fields. Furthermore, the beneficiaries of such education, i.e. the student or the employer, bear the cost of financing vocational education, which can usually be offset by the trainee's working part-time. This might be the future direction in the vocationalization of school cur- ricula. (Psacharopoulos, 1986, p. 28).

2. The Demand Side

On the demand side, the question is who should be vocationally trained. A major reason why the vocationalization of school curricula has failed in Africa is because there is currently a lack of real demand for vocational courses. As Psacharopoulos points out, this type of demand is quite different from the actual observed enrolment in schools of various types. Students are often forced to follow a vocational track

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becausethe academic track is constrained. In such an instance (which is typical of a country like Nigeria), school-based vocational education is not likely to be suc- cessful because of the inherent contradiction between the student preferences and the type of schooling offered. After graduation, those coming from the vocational schools will take the GCE 'O ' level or WASC examination in order to acquire the relevant papers to compete with those from the traditional academic schools on entering the university or, if tertiary places are also constrained, in competing for white collar, clerical jobs. Thus the answer to the demand side will depend on the structure of incentives (or in some cases, pay-scales) for vocationally trained graduates, and whether the economies of the respective African countries will be able to provide enough jobs for all those vocationally trained. In particular, the modern sector of the economy should provide enough openings of the right kind to match the qualifications and expectations of those emerging from the vocational schools. Moreover, future job opportunities should be distributed among various occupations and parts of the economy, and newly available manpower channelled into these occupations.

3. The Macro-Socio-Economic Elements

The third element is closely related to the supply and demand sides. The question to be dealt with here is the available job opportunity structure in the economy. The answer to this question in each African country will depend on several variables. As Coombs points out, these variables include: (I) the rate of growth of the overall economy and its modern sector, (2) changes in the structure, technologies, and prod- uct mix of the economy, (3) changes in the larger world economy beyond the control of any individual country, (4) the vocational or academic choices of students and the quality and relevance of the education they bring to the market place and (5) the structure of incentives and disincentives that influence the allocation of available specialized manpower (Coombs, 1985, p. 203). Unfortunately, African countries have not been able to bring these variables into focus.

There is a clear need for African countries to give the vocationalization of their secondary school curricula more scrutiny. Decisions by African educational policy- makers on vocational education must he based on readiness to accept empirical evidence. At least some efficiency or equity criteria should be observed in view of the financial crises plaguing the economy of most African countries. Africa cannot afford to ignore the large scale research evidence on vocational education if the repetition of past mishaps is to be avoided in the future.

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THE VOCATIONAL EDUCATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The Scope of Vocational Education

This paper is a short account of the vocational aspect of schooling in China since 1949, and concentrates on its principal occurrence at the educational level equivalent to that of general senior middle (i.e. secondary) schools. The vocational education of adults, a far more complicated picture, is not generally discussed here.

Forms of education, vocational or general, vary with historical conditions. Education through schooling in formal schools, classes and courses, is today the modern convention, but in-service training as part of adult education also exists by its side. Vocational education in China, a place of rapid economic and social change, has a rather complicated structure. An outline is attempted in figure 1.

Under the heading of Schools there is a wide range of vocational programmes established in various schools, both vocational and general. Those classified as voca- tional have widely differing functions, but parallel educational levels. From the top are, first, Secondary Professional Schools (SPS), including Secondary Technical