DOCUMENT RESUME ED 104 753 SO 008 222 AUTHOR Sheffield; James R.; And Others TITLE Road to the Village., Case Studies in African Community Development. INSTITUTION African-American Inst., New York, N.Y. PUB DATE Sep 74 NOTE 152p.; For a related document see SO 008 221 AVAILABLE FROMAfrican American Institute, 833 United Nations Plaza, New York, New York 10017 ($1.50) EDRS PRICE 'MF-$0.76 HC-$8.24 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS Adult Vocational Education; Community Attitudes; *Community Development; Community Role; Developing Nations; Economic Development; *Educational Opportunities;Job Skills; *Manpower Development; *Nonforaal Education; Rural Development; *Rural Urban Differences; Self Help.Programs; Urban Areas; Vocational Education IDENTIFIERS *Africa ABSTRACT The five articles in this report explore issues of rural and urban development, formal and nonforaal education, and local and national needs in Africa. "Partnership for Productivity" (PFP) and "Brigades in Botswana: Their National Impact" focus on the development of managerial and nonagricultural vocational skills in rural areas. In the case of PFP the target group is adult business men in Kenya's Western Province who receive advisory and training services. The Brigades are self-sustaining skill training programs for primary school leavers in Botswana. The programs cover operation costs through their own labor. "Tutume Community College" describes the efforts of a formal institution to develop nonforaal edication programs for rural development and community service. "The Development Orientation in Rural Ethiopia" summarizes a study that investigates the wants of local communities. "Educational Opportunities for Rural and Urban Communities in Kenya" demonstrates the effect of financing, staffing, and equipping inequities on the school examination results. Each of the articles attends to the relationships between local, grass roots, self-help efforts and national interventionist efforts and; after analyzing a situation or program, makes suggestions or draws conclusions about the future in relation to the analysis. (Author/JH) OF HEALTH. U.S. OEPARTMENT EOUCATION A WELFARE OF , NATIONAL INSTITUTE EOUCAT ION HAS BEENREPRO THIS DOCUMENTAS RECEIVEDFROM OUCEO EXACTLYORGANIZATION ORIGIN THE PERSON OROF VIEW OROPINIONS ATING IT POINTSNECESSARILY REPRE STATED DO NOTAATIONAL:MSTTUTE OF SENT OFFICIAL OR POLICY EDUCATION POSITION Road to the Village Case Studies in African Community Development James R. Sheffield, Research Director Contributors James R. Sheffield Albe-rt H. Barclay, Jr. Kabiru Kinyanjui Gardiner P. Pearson African-American Institute 833 United Nations Plaza New York, New York 10017 September 1974 "While other countries aim to reach the moon, we muss. aim. to reach the village." Julius Nyerere President Tanzania TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION p. 1 PARTNERSHIP FOR PRODUCTIVITY p. 5 by Albert H. Barclay, Jr. A detailing of the complex web of interpersonal ties affecting the success of development programs. Focuses on Partnership for Productivity, a Kenyan pilot program sponsored by the East African Yearly Meeting of Friends. Encourages increased awareness of methods and concepts of social anthropology to enhance PFP effectiveness. TUTUME COMMUNITY COLLEGE p. 52 by James R. Sheffield . DiscusseS a rural school in Botswana and its role in community development. Suggests a variety of extension programs that could help Tutume school further involve itself in its surrounding community. BRIGADES IN BOTSWANA: THEIR NATIONAL IMPACT p. 62 by Gardiner P. Pearson Examines links between brigades and the national govern- ment, looks at each brigade in Botswana, and its relation to the community it services, and draws conclusions and offers tentative suggestions for increasing brigade effectiveness. So long as demand for technical skills remains strong, brigades will continue as a viable alternative for those who cannot-continue secondary schooling. THE DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION IN RURAL ETHIOPIA p 93 by James R. Sheffield Attempts to determine how rural people feel about devel- opment programs and what factors shape their attitudes. Data suggest that education, like other vehicles of modernization, is often utilized most effectively by the most progressive elements in a population. People's development orientation is apparently determined by their occupation and social standing. EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR RURAL AND URBAN COMMUNITIES IN KENYA p. 114 by Kabiru Kinyanjui Gauges the progress of Kenya in achieving the goal of equal distribution of educational opportunity throughout Kenyan society. Examines disparities between urban and rural areas. Concludes that Kenya's present primary-school education is not catering to the majority of its clients, namely rural children who terminate their education in the seventh year. INTRODUCTION Despite- the dramatic growth of industrialization and urbanization in Africa, the majority of Africans will continue to live in rural areas far many years. The improvement of agricultural productivity and other aspects of rural development have increasingly absorbed the attention of Governments and Aid Agencies as the gap between the modern wage sector and rural environ- ment in which most Africans live has become larger. Many countries have discovered that rapid rates of economic growth do not necessarily increase the wage labor force, and that with the exponential growth Of formal schooling, aspirations grow much faster than economic opportunities. It was out of a growing concern that formal schooling was not effectively meeting the needs of the majority of the people in Africa that the African- American Institute conducted the survey that was published in 1972, Non-Formal Education in African Development. That study drew attention to the wide range of education and training opportunities which lie outside of the formal schools and direct their focus on the. nearly 90 per cent of the population who receive little or no formal schooling in most African countries. Among the report's findings were that, despite the existence of some effective, low-cost alternatives to formal schooling, most non-formal education programs were merely "micro-solutions to macro-problems"...drops in the bucket. While the survey drew attention to the extent to which the training needs of adults and out-of-school youth have generally been neglected in favor of the fortunate minority who complete secondary school, we did not find any support for "deschooling" as some critics of formal schools have advocated. Despite their problems, formal schools are not only seen as the primary instru- ment of economic and social progress in Africa, but they are often the only "modern" institution in remote rural, areas. Thus to ignore formal schools or to view them simply in terms of their orientation towards urban "elite" occu- pations would be foolish. With some notable exceptions, formal schools tend to be standardized on a national scale by a system of syllabi, examinations, teacher training, etc., and non-formal education tends to be geared to local ecological and labor market factors. Neither system by itself can cope with the enormous problems of upgrading the knowledge, skills and.attitudes of the entire population, but non-formal education must be planned as a supplement to formal schooling in an integrated program of human resource development. In rural areas of Africa, these problems are often most acute as the incentive structure draws people towards greater opportunities in towns and cities. For this reason, training programs which ignore the questions of demand for the skills they are producing and the opportunities to apply these skills are doomed to failure. Formal schools have traditionally concentrated on supplying manpower with the assumption that demand exists or will be created. Non-formal education usually operating at the local level, must be more sensi- tive to the local demand. The five articles which follow explore the issues of rural and urban development, formal and non-formal education, and local and national needs. They were not intendea to be a representative sample of issues, projects or regions in Africa, but were selected primarily on pragmatic. grounds. Partnership for Productivity (PFP) in Kenya and the Brigades in Botswana were identified in AAI's recently published Non-Formal Education Survey as having great potential for the development of managerial and vocational skills respectively. Both case stuoies focus on the development of non- agricultural skills in rural areas; in the case of PFP the target group is adult businessmen while the Brigades provide training for primary school leavers. Tutume Community College was chosen because, as the only modern institution in a remote area of Botswana, it is an interesting case of a formal school trying to develop non-formal education programs, for rural development and extensive community services. The African-American Institute has had a particular interest in Tutume since it interested the Neil A. McConnell Foundation in assisting the government of Botswana to take over the school and to develop its special orientation towards the rural com- munity in-which it is located. The study of the orientation of some 1,200 rural people in Ethiopia towards development issues was undertaken in consultation with officials in the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts in an effort to find out what local communities wanted. By shifting our focus from institutions to the people they are intended to serve, we hoped to provide