Employment, TVET and Social Protection

1
Employment, TVET and Social Protection

• The Place of TVET in the Curriculum, or, the
  Vocational School Fallacy re-visited.

Michael Brophy
2

• We should not determine the type of things
  children are taught in primary schools by the
  things a doctor, engineer, teacher, economist or
  administrator needs to know. Most of our pupils
  will never be any of these things.
• 
  (Julius Nyerere 1969)
• He proposed instead that they should be taught
  the skills and values they needed to live happily
  and well in a predominantly rural society.

3

• Increasingly it is possible for governments to
  choose only between evils. A pretence of
  universal educationis itself evil is it any
  better than finding some way of giving a modern
  education to a few through some form of selection
  ?
• (Julius
  Nyerere 2003)

4

• a pretence of education.
• the lucky few who had been chosen by some form
  of selection to follow almost always a good
  secondary academic programme. Parents and young
  people are fully aware of this.

5

• Education For All
• The British Governments 1963 Newsom Report

6

• The practical subjects have special value for
  less able pupils also because it is often easier
  to make the bridge between school and non-school
  in these subjects than in others. The table made
  at school can lead naturally to the table in the
  department store window tables (and for that
  matter furniture in general) will be looked at
  with a knowledgeable and appraising eye if the
  woodwork master teaches his boys to see and to
  think as well as to make. (Newsom Report 1963)
• VET is conceived as a system of education for
  the poor, and for educationally backward sections
  that are not eligible for admission into higher
  education. (Jandhyala B G Tilak Vocational
  Education and Training in Asia 2002).

7
Parents in Gambia and Curriculum Planners

• Where do you live?
• in the Capital.
• What type of school do your children go to?
• Secondary academic.
• Well we want the same thing for our children as
  you want for yours, secondary academic schools.

8

• that pupils are very realistic and able to work
  out what is in their best career interests and
  that schools had been very shrewdly used by
  pupils as a gate way to the modern sector of
  the economy and as an escape from poor prospects
  in rural areas.

9
AET Voucher Scheme in SomaliaStudents Choices

• Vouchers which offer young people a free choice
  of education or skills training choices
• Literacy, numeracy and basic education
• English Language
• Computing
• Health care
• Tailoring

10
Ministries Skills Training Priorities in
Southern Sudan (Four Ministries)

• English Language
• Computing
• Office skills / filing and report writing
• Animal Health Assistance ( MARF)
• Games and Sports Trainers (MOEST)

11

• Many of the jobs and even self employment
  opportunities that vocational and technical
  schools promise dont exist in rural areas.
• Staff of Ministries of Education and
  unfortunately many external consultants and
  advisers, even in conflict and post conflict
  situations, still see vocational and technical
  curriculum in terms of man power planning and
  in terms of two or three year full-time courses
  to train mechanics, electricians and carpenters.

12
Ministry of Education Somaliland

• Objectives of Technical and Vocational Education
  Training (6)
• Cultivate a firm link with the industrial sector
  and world of work.
• Provide technical knowledge and vocational
  skills that will stimulate the economic growth of
  Somaliland.

13
Commitments For TVET

• To enrich the quality of TVET, the Government
  will put in place, though the MOE, opportunities
  for hands-on industrial experience as part of the
  curriculum of technical and vocational programme.
  
• The Government will put in place measures
  designed to improve the relevance of TVET. Such
  measures include
• Forging industrial links for attachment of
  trainees to prepare them for typical work
  situation after training
• Developing a joint TVET curriculum with the
  industrial sector, professional bodies and higher
  institutions of learning.

14

• Some schools especially in Urban areas do have
  the possibility of supporting technical and
  vocational classes.

15

• In many rural areas schools will not have the
  facilities or utilities for technical or
  vocational education.

16
In countries such as Somalia and Southern Sudan

• 80 of the population is illiterate.
• Around 70 of school aged children do not go to
  school
• Of the 30 which do enrol in schools the majority
  ( up to 80 ) will complete four years or less of
  schooling.
• The majority of people live in rural areas.

17

• How many paid jobs are there for plumbers in
  Somaliland when even in the cities most people
  get their water by donkey cart ?

18

• In 1969 Julius Nyerere told us that the majority
  of children will never become a doctor, an
  engineer, a teacher, an economist or an
  administrator. We need to add that the majority
  of children in either urban or rural areas will
  never become carpenters, electricians, mechanics
  or plumbers.

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We need a curriculum or education system which

• Allows some people to go on to higher education
  without labeling the others, the majority, as
  failures.
• Meets the economic, social and culture needs of
  both the individual and the state.
• Is relevant to people living in urban and rural
  areas.
• Helps to prepare people for employment where
  there is employment but is also relevant and
  useful for people where there are limited
  opportunities for paid employment.