The primary school leavers problem in Zambia : official policies and attempted solutions since independence
Date
2011-04-11
Authors
Banda, Chikomeni Japhet
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Abstract
This study attempts to critically examine the governments policies towards the primary school leavers problem in Gambia
since independence* The primary school leavers problem is a result of the policy of education expansion adopted at
independence* This policy was a response to both manpower needs of a newly independent state and the demand for education
by the people* The successful implementation of this policy has led to the primary school leavers problem* There has been a mismatch between the expansion of the primary sector and the
secondary sector of the school system* This has led to a situation where many thousands of primary school leavers are
unable to enter secondary schools every year* These school leavers have very few chances to either continue with their
education or to be productively absorbed in the economy .The Government has attempted several policies to try to arrest the situation. In Chapter Three, we examine those policies which have attempted to solve the problem within the absorb as many school leavers as possible, or by reforming the school curriculum, to produce school leavers who are equipped with relevant skills for employment or self-employment. There is very little evidence to show that these efforts have made any significant contribution to mitigate the plight of the primary school leavers.
The introduction of mass solution outside the school system also had negligible impact on the primary school leavers
problem in Zambia, in Chapter Four, we show that organisations like the Zambia Youth Service, Zambia National Service and
the Kural leconstruction Centres, have proved to be inefficient in their training programmes and unjustifiably expensivt,
Such programmes just frustrate the Youths.
The training of school leavers by the small scale community based training schemes has proved to be more successful than these other training schemes* However, these
schemes only affect a very small proportion of school leavers due to lack of means to expand their services* Government
policy towards these community based training schemes has not been very clear for a long time and only a few schemes have
benefited from the help which is offered by the government.
This study concludes that the ultimate solution to the primary school leavers problem lies in the solving of the
economic problems, which are the root cause of the school leavers problem. However, since this is a long term thing,the study recommends that as a short term measure, the government,particularly the Ministry of Youth and Sports, should do everything possible to help improve the running of those training schemes that have proved successful in training primary school leavers in skills which enable them to play
a useful role in the economy
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Keywords
Youth -- Employment -- Zambia , Education, Primary -- Zambia , School leaver problems -- Zambia