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The use of higher education institutions for training and research in education
lnr. J. Educnrmnol Developmenf. Vol. 3. No. 3. pp. 313-323.1983 Prtnrcd I” Crcar Briraln
0738-OJ93/83 13.00 + 0.03 Pcrgamon Press Ltd
THE USE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AND RESEARCH IN EDUCATION
FOR TRAINING
N. A. KUHANGA University
of Dar es Salaam.
Tanzania
(2) A broadly
based primary and secondary education does also prepare the people to respond favourably to the introduction of scientific and technological innovations. education to a large percentage (3) Providing of the population at the secondary level ensures that there is always an adequate supply of candidates for intitutions of while higher education and training, leaving adequate numbers to be absorbed into vocational training centres where they can obtain skills necessary for carrying out small scale activities, e.g. construction of houses, carpentry, automobile repairs and so on.
INTRODUCTION The current thinking is that a country cannot and social have meaningful economic without including plans development educational planning as a necessary component of such plans. This is so because researches conducted in a number of countries have shown that the traditional belief that economic growth depends solely on two factors, namely, capital and labour, is no longer true. In fact some economists have gone so far as to suggest that quantitative increase of capital and labour account for only a third of total economic growth of a country. The rest is a consequence of quantitative improvements, the efficiency of human beings through health measures, education, and the provision of new resources in knowledge and technology - which, to a are also the work of an large extent, educational system. Thus, some economists are now advocating that education and training should be given a greater consideration than has hitherto been the practice, when deciding on the distribution of the national financial and other material resources. So far there seems to be no total agreement as to which level of education should be placed highest on the priority list; however, from the available literature it can be surmised that many education experts advocate the provision of broadly based primary and secondary education, for several reasons:
In a way this concept of educational development seems to be in agreement with political decisions in many developing countries of Africa. The trend in these countries is to expand primary and secondary education, partly because governments share in the belief that education has an impact on economic productivity, but mainly due to social pressure exerted by parents who are convinced that education is the key to economic and social status. The World Bank (World Bank Report, 1981) is indeed urging African governments to speed up expansion of education at the secondary level to maximize the use of university places. However, implementation of such policy-decisions towards achieving the stated goals differs greatly from one country to another. In this paper, however, the discussion will be confined to the contribution made by institutions of higher education in training and research activities, though from time to time
(1) It is important
to have an educated population which understands national problems and participates fully in the process of solving them.
313
reference will be made to education at the lower level as a basis for developing the high levels. Furthermore it would be too presumptious to try and cover a large geographical area in making a survey of the performance of institutions of higher education in the area of training and research and expect to treat the subject adequately. Therefore to avoid being too general, the discussion concentrates on Eastern Africa, including Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, with examples drawn from the experiences of other African countries. It will be noted that the countries involved are all esBritish colonies. DEFINITION Higher ehucation institutions in this discussion will have the meaning of post-secondary institutions which offer courses of two or more years as their major programmes but which may have other short programmes lasting up to a year. These could include technical colleges, nursing schools, medical schools for medical assistants, institutes for management and administration courses and universities. This grouping is deliberately done because of the important role the middle level institutions play in supplying needed manpower in Africa. HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
Apart from North Africa (and perhaps South Africa) where institutions of higher education and training have a long history, for example, the University of Quaraonyine in Morocco, established in 1859, the University of Cairo (1908) and the University of Omdurman (a Univesity of Islam) in Khartoum (1912), and in West Africa, Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, established in 1827 and Carrington College to offer university degrees was established are new establishments, having come into being between 1940 and 1975. In Nigeria the first college to offer university degrees was established in 1948 at Ibadan (Association of Commonwealth Universities, 1973). It was called the University College Ibadan. In Ghana also the first college was established in 1948, called the University College of the Gold Coast (Association of Commonwealth Universities, 1973). In East Africa, the history of higher education is
associated with Makerere College having been established in 1922, originally as a Uganda Government Technical School (Maxwell, 1980). The College served East African countries as well as some of the Central African countries especially Malawi. Makerere College became a University College of East Africa in 1950, providing courses in agriculture, medicine, fine art and education at a diploma level, and arts and science at a degree level. Kenya established the University College, Nairobi in 1954 as an offshoot of the Royal Technical College after it had been incorporated with Gandhi Memorial Tanzania founded the Academy. Finally, University College, Dar es Salaam, in 1961. There is something common to all colleges, in the history of their early period of existence; and that is that they were affiliated to some university in the United Kingdom. For example, the earliest College, Fourah Bay, was affiliated to Durham University, while University Colleges of Gold Coast, Ibadan, Makerere, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, were all affiliated to the University of London. This arrangement was deemed necessary in order to make sure that the respective Colleges started on the right footing and, as they grew up, to ensure the maintenance of standards. The implication of such links was that students should sit for examinations and obtain qualifications of the parent university. But as each of the colleges grew up into a full university this kind of link was severed. Yet the impact of the relationship between the colleges and the universities with which they were affiliated had a long-lasting effect. This has led some scholars to remark that institutions established in Africa were not very different from those in Britain, and that there was ‘a colonial legacy which weighed upon the political, economic and social machinery and even upon the ideas and goals of newly independent countries. . .’ (Meena and Mmari, 1978). The above account clearly shows that during the colonial period very little deliberate effort was made to develop higher education institutions in Africa. This seems to have been in keeping with the British policy of assigning nationals (colonial subjects) to low positions in the civil service and big enterprises. It is of little wonder then, that the British Government has
THE
USE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
been strongly criticized for following an education policy in its colonies which deprived the nationals of higher education in order to ensure that they could not be placed in posts higher than that of a clerk and minor functionaries. Lord Hailey observed: . . .
British policy as yet exhibits no clear view of the future of the educated Africa. [Indeed] there are few instances in British colonial history when the future of the educated native has been consciously determined, or the educational system deliberately adjusted to fit him for it. . (Association of Commonwealth Universities, 1973, p. 1614)
Kariuki suggests that even when Africans had received higher education and training (most probably in institutions abroad) they were not given a chance to put into practice what they had learned. He observes thus: The colonial situation did not give much, if any, opportunity to Africans to learn to exercise management functions at any senior level. They were hardly ever called upon to make any decisions that would affect the running of the organization in which they found themselves. It is not surprising, then, that ahen many of them found themselves suddenly having to make important decisions, having to supervise the activities of others and generally to practice leadership qualities, they were on the whole unprepared and consequently hesitant in the use of their newly acquired authorities. (Kariuki. 1975)
Thus, this is the situation in which many African countries found themselves at independence time. They had won political independence but they had not inherited adequate African trained personnel to control the government machinery and to run the economic enterprises and social services. THE
ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Training role In Africa, institutions of higher education, and especially universities, are established for the purpose of producing the middle-level and high-level manpower needed to man different sectors of the economy and social services. This role is taking the largest share of university and college programmes because, as it was noted earlier above, newly independent countries had to double their efforts in training manpower to rectify the deplorable conditions in which they
INSTITUTIONS
315
found themselves. There were great shortages of well trained personnel in every field health, administration, agriculture, science, management, accountancy, and so on. So national governments in some countries, e.g. Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi, initiated the idea of founding local institutions which could operate within the framework of national policies and which would relate their education and training programmes to the aspirations, needs and ideals of the people and conditions of the environment in which the manpower produced would work. In some countries, for example in West nationalists had started exerting Africa, on the colonial government to pressure establish local universities even long before independence was achieved. Famous names like those of Dr Edward Wilmont Blyden and Dr James Africanus Horton, both of Sierra Leone, Casely Hayford of Ghana (Gold Coast) and Herbert Macaulay of Nigeria bear an important history in this respect. They all fought for the establishment of universities on the African soil (Association of Commonwealth Universities, 1973, p. 1616). In the later years Dr Nnandi Azikiwe joined in the struggle. In all these cases one notes two major reasons were advanced in their demands for local universities: The first was both political and nationalistic, namely, the ‘desire to counter the denigration of the Negro race’ (Okafor, 197 1). The second reason was to increase manpower in order to reduce dependency on expatriates when Independence came. This has been amply stated by Julius K. Nyerere when he says: ‘An independent country depending on charity for all higher educational opportunities is in a great psychological danger’ (quoted in Meena and Mmari, 1978). With practically no exception, every independent country has an institution of higher education and/or training. There are countries with several universities and a number of tertiary institutions. Ghana has three universities, Nigeria has 17 universities in operation today, while others are in the making. The current policy envisages 23 universities, at least one for each State, In East Africa there is one university in each country and in some cases several other institutions. In Kenya, for example, in addition to the University of Nairobi, there is the
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N. A. KUHANGA
Kenyatta University College of Nairobi, Egarton College of Agriculture, and the Institute of Public Administration. In Tanzania, in addition to the University of Tanzania there are nine other institutions which provide training of manpower at middle and higher level. These are: the Institute of Development Management (IDM); Ardhi Institute; the Co-operative College, Moshi; the Institute of Finance Management, (IFM); Dar es Salaam Technical College; Arusha Technical College; the College of Business Education; Institute of Social Welfare; and the National Institute of Transport (NIT). Uganda is planning on a second University of Technology in the foreseeable future, in addition to several lowerlevel training institutions. In addition, all countries have institutions for training paraprofessionals in health and agriculture. Each of these institutions has an important role to play in national development efforts in the developing countries. The development problems of Africa are complex and multifaceted. They comprise problems of raising living standards of the people through improved health amenities, nutrition and the provision of basic education; the provision of elementary knowledge and skills to the millions who live in the rural areas in order to improve agricultural production as well as to the urban workers to enable them to increase productivity. In addition, there is the problem of building the infrastructure needed to speed up delivery of goods and services throughout the country. To be able to remove these bottlenecks adequate manpower of all types and levels is needed. It is imperative, therefore, that plans for manpower development should take into account the proper mix in the training of personnel; not only in terms of distribution of disciplines of study at the same level, but also in terms of ratios between the various categories needed. For instance, there should be appropriate ratios between engineers and technicians, and between technicians and craftsmen; or between doctors and paraprofessionals, and between the latter and auxiliaries; and so on. Yet this is an area where African countries have laid less emphasis in their plans for human resource development. In fact in certain fields the
situation is so bad that observe that:
it has led Kisseih
to
in the absence of any scientific basis for the staffing of hospitals in some countries of the region. junior staff. particularly staff nurses, are assigned to hospitals where their functions include the collection of laundry, laboratory specimens and other duties which could be performed equally by unskilled personnel. (Kisseih, 1978)
This is clearly a case where one should make use of auxiliary staff in order to avoid underemployment. This situation may be a result of one or all of the following reasons: Lack of scientific knowledge and foresight in manpower planning as pointed out by Kisseih above; so that people are (2) Lack of job description, placed in positions without taking into consideration their training and skills; Shortage of output from secondary schools (3) because of a narrow education base at this level of the educational system. (I)
Each of these reasons is important and needs to be considered seriously. But as pointed out earlier in the introductory remarks of this discussion the last one needs even a great attention if we have to train enough people at all levels of manpower needs of the country. That is what Japan did in order to achieve modernization. The first task was to popularize secondary education until a stage was reached when about 80% of those who finished primary schools (nine years) entered secondary school. This step was taken because Japan realized that: a qualitative deficiency of manpower age of investment in the education of no less an obstacle to economic growth material shortage. (Aso
- that is, a shorthuman capital was than a shortage of and Amano,
1972)
The move helped Japan to diversify training at the tertiary level of education in order to cater for the needs of the economy - industry and agriculture - as well as for those of the social services sector. A developing country may not, perhaps, move as fast as Japan did because of financial constraints but at least there should be deliberate efforts made to move towards this
THE USE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
goal. Some countries have now embarked on the expansion of secondary education. Tanzania, for example, considers the expansion at this level very important, after the introduction of universal primary education in 1975. The plan is to raise the enrolment in secondary schools from the present 40,000 to 100,000 by 1986 while the output will have risen from 200,000 to about 1,000,OOO a year in the same period. The present enrolment figures in the primary and secondary education are given in Table 1 below. Table
Year
1978 Total I979 Total I980 Total Source:
Male
Female
I ,582,873
1.330.
Female
Male
29,128
12,664
14,441
41,192 I .484,292
26,758
3.361.228 Ministry
of National
9.903 28,003
12,072 38.830
7,959
18.100
40,298 1,582.l I3
Female
22,400 12,634
27,664
3.197.395 1.779,115
Secondary (private)
Male
2,912,984 1,713,103
1978-1980
Secondary (public)
III
317
the tertiary level will necessitate an increase in output from secondary schools; hence the need to expand secondary education. So far we seem to have painted a very bleak picture with regard to government investment in institutions at the tertiary level. We seem to suggest that little has been done to close the gap between highly trained manpower and the middle level manpower. The situation is not all that bad. As mentioned earlier, each country has at least one institution for this purpose, and the performance has been encouraging. In fact in several countries such institutions were the
I. Pupil population
Primary
INSTITUTIONS
18,171
10,295 28,466
Education.
The present output from secondary schools at Form IV is about 12,000 a year. This is small compared to that of Kenya which is claimed to be about 60,000 a year. Thus, in summary, we can say that it is absolutely necessary to strike a balance in the training of the different categories of manpower a country needs. This in turn requires a substantial investment in the development of more tertiary institutions to carry out the task of training, because university colleges and universities cannot do everything. Nor is it desirable that they should do so, because for middle and lower level categories the task can be performed by institutions which are specifically geared to the training of personnel at these levels. However, expanding training at
genesis of the present universities or part of them. This is true of the University of Dar es Salaam which absorbed the former Muhimbili Medical School run by the Ministry of Health and the College of Agriculture. The Institute of Public Administration in Malawi became the nucleus of the University of Malawi; the Royal Technical College, Nairobi was transformed into the University College, Nairobi and in Zambia the School of Social Work was absorbed by the newly founded University of Zambia in 1966. Until the change took place each of the institutions had played an important role in manpower development in their respective countries. A short account of the institutions in Tanzania could well be representative of the others.
The case of Tanzania (mainland). As it will not be possible to discuss all institutions only three areas have been selected for this purpose, namely agriculture, health, and co-operatives as an illustration of what has been achieved so far in terms of manpower production. From the early days of Independence Party and government policies emphasized the importance of community participation in development programmes at all levels villages, ward, district, regional and national. It vvas realized that unless the people were made to understand their role in the development process and were helped to develop their potentials in identifying problems, analysing them and then working out alternative solutions, it would not be possible for them to participate fully in the implementation of development plans even if these were aimed at improving thier own living standards. The best way to bring about this awareness and understanding vvas to bring trained personnel from all fields of specialization - agriculture, health, nutrition, education, management, etc., closer to the people. The task of this personnel was to give leadership and guidance through educational programmes, discussions and participation in the economic and social activities carried out by the communities in which they lived. The consequence of this was the establishment of different training institutions and programmes or expanding those that were already in existence. Thus, today we have an appreciable number of institutions which train manpower for the middle and lower categories. In health there are 40 institutions: 5 of these train medical assistants, 24 train nurses and midwives, and 11 rural medical aids (United Republic of Tanzania, 1977). The output from these institutions has enabled the country to extend health services to rural areas much faster than ever before. For example in 1971 there were 90 health centres as against 22 at Independence in 1961; 1400 rural dispensaries as against 975 in 1961. In addition there are 122 hospitals as against 98 at the time of Independence (Nyerere, 1971). The task of these centres is twofold, to cure and more important to impart education to the communities they serve on: health and child care and preventive measures the people should take in order to
protect themselves against diseases. This is all done in the belief that ‘it is cheaper, as well as better, to prevent illnesses than to cure them and this can often be done by greater emphasis on health education, by better hygiene, and sensible prophylactic medicine for people at special risk’ (Nyerere, 1971). In agriculture and natural resources a similar move was taken by the government so as to ensure that in the long run there would be enough field staff to work closely with the community, and 15 agricultural training institutes have been established. They train field assistants and assistant field officers in various areas of specialization - horticulture, crop production, animal production, ranch management, poultry husbandry; and several others. The result has been an increase in the output of field workers who have direct contact with the farmers. As those in health their task is twofold, namely, to educate and to impart skills which farmers need in order to improve their agricultural practices. The work of both health workers and agricultural field workers has been made even easier now because most rural people live in planned villages. They can work with larger travelling long communities instead of distances in order to contact only one farming family. In the area of agriculture and co-operatives the Co-operative College, Moshi had done a tremendous job in advancing the idea of cooperative activities in the country. Its role had been to train leaders and workers of cooperative societies at all levels. The trainees inclerks, book-keepers, account cluded secretaries, chairmen, and co-operative inspectors. The content of the courses for chairmen and secretaries focused on the organization and management of co-operative societies. The impact of this effort had been quite big. Cooperatives became a driving force in mobilizing farmers in the production of crops and in marketing them. They facilitated the distribution of agricultural inputs: fertilizer, iminsecticides etc., and helped in plements, educating farmers on various aspects of modern agriculture. The result was a steady increase in production, especially in cash crops. co-operatives were Unfortunately, the abolished in 1976 and since it has now been
THE
USE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
decided to re-establish them the effort will have to start all over again’. But the College has continued to train accountants and managers at the middle level. There are numerous other institutions which could be termed higher institutions of education so it is possible to give an account of the role of each one of them in national development, but what has been said above indicates the efforts of Tanzania to bring about economic and social progress. Perhaps it is time now to turn to the role of the university in developing human resources. In doing so we shall make reference to other universities within the region whenever it is appropriate to do so. Generally speaking African universities are small in population and size. Student enrolment averages between 1000 and 8000 (Nyerere, 1980). In the eastern region the University of Nairobi tops the list with an enrolment of 8000, Makerere follows with about 6000, University of Zambia has 5000 and Dar es Salaam 3400. With these capacities we cannot expect universities to do miracles. That is why some countries have decided either to increase the number of universities or to expand the existing ones so as to increase intake of students, or to do both - to increase their number and to effect expansion of the existing ones. Mention has already been made on the progress made by Nigeria in this regard. Tanzania has decided to establish three new universities by the turn of the century, and Kenya intends to add one, while Uganda plans to have one new University of Technology. The one major reason for this expansion is the need to increase the output of trained manpower at this level in order to meet the ever increasing demands in all sectors of development. No doubt the existing institutions have made invaluable contributions in supplying their countries with the needed manpower but it is a fact that needs have always outweighed the supply. Table 2 gives an illustration of the demand of a country with only one university - Tanzania. From the table it will be seen that the University of Dar es Salaam would be required to produce an average of 2260 graduates per year. It is practically impossible because the total output of the University is only 1000 graduates a year. So the rest would have to be met by training people abroad.
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319
Yet, despite this deficiency the University of Dar es Salaam has made remarkable contributions both in terms of the number of graduates produced and the variety of fields of specialization. It started with only one faculty in 1961, that is the Faculty of Law. It now has 7 other faculties: Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Science, Commerce and Management, Engineering, Science, and the Faculty of Medicine. In addition the University has three institutes and two research bureaux. In ten years, the University has produced about 8000 graduates, and about half as many people with diplomas and certificates. The establishment of any faculty or institute has entirely been based on needs as stipulated in development plans, and after long discussions and consultations with the government. For example, the current policy is to increase places in the science, and science-based courses, so there is a reduction in the admission of arts students in favour of science, agriculture, engineering and commerce and management. Sometimes the University itself initiates training programmes after identifying the needs for such programmes. Thus, it has started training programmes for science laboratory technicians as well as courses in law leading to the award of a Certificate in Law. The output in some faculties is very low compared to the total requirements. For instance the Faculty of Medicine produces an average of 40 doctors and 20 pharmacists a year. However, if we consider the various constraints the University has in terms of teaching staff, teaching facilities and financial resources, the University can be commended for what it has done so far. The success of the University of Dar es Salaam and indeed of the other universities in the region could also be judged from another point of view: how they have been responding to the question of relevance. While the question is still being discussed extensively at intersome national conferences and seminars, universities have already begun to integrate theory with practice. Field experience has become incorporated into the curricula. For example at the University of Dar es Salaam a fourth term has been established during which time students go to work in fields relevant to
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N. A. KUHANG.A
Category
Table 2. Projections
of manpower
A
No. of places filled in 1980 Total
Citizens
requirements
for the period
1981-1986
Unfilled
increase total
req places in requirements 1981-1986
Foreign
Science
6849
6212
637
2904
395 I
6855
Arts
6910
6543
367
2050
2407
4457
Total
13759
I2755
I004
4953
6358
Source: Adapted from preliminary Ministry of Manpower Development
4th Manpower Development and Administration.
their training industries, business enterprises, construction firms and so on. By the time a student graduates he will have an equivalent of one year of working experience. This is in addition to what has already been said above regarding the establishing of courses according to national priorities. Perhaps President Nyerere summarizes well the achievements of the University of Dar es Salaam when he says : In 1970, at the Inauguration Ceremony, I called upon our University 10 aim at service 10 Tanzania, at relevance to Tanzania, and in particular at relevance and service 10 a developing socialist Tanzania. The record shows that the University of Dar es Salaam has tried 10 take rhose illjunctions seriously. It has tried 10 be relevant, both in Ihe sense of concerning itself with our national manpower needs and in the sense of giving greater emphasis 10 a study of Tanzanian conditions, ideas, and resources. There is room for further improvement in some areas, but the achievement is considerable. At the same time the University is now less worried, in its own work and in relation to the development of Tanzania as a whole, with obtaining what I called ‘certificates of respectability’ from Eastern or Western Blocks. (Nyerere, 1980, p. 2)
So while the University can justifiably feel proud of its achievement to-date, it should at the same time take cognisance of an even greater task lying ahead. Research and consultancy activities Research is always considered as a priority in universities although the emphasis and the type of research carried out varies from one university to another. Some universities lean heavily on the side of fundamental or pure research
for
Plan,
II312
July 1981-July
1986:
while others, and especially those in developing countries place a greater emphasis on applied research. Research is important because of its role in the creation of new knowledge; but it is also important because it helps communities in identifying problems, possible causes of such problems and may present alternative answers with which to solve them. African countries have realized the importance of research and its potentials as a tool for development. Accordingly they have assisted universities to establish research institutes in addition to their own institutions. In terms of determining research priorities universities in Eastern Africa have usually followed national priorities as presented to them from time to time by their respective governments. In general, universities have responded well within the limits of their financial manpower and capacities of resources. At the University of Dar es Salaam the focus has been on applied research bureaux, institutes and faculties have been concerned with the current problems and their consequences for the future in fields of their specialization. For example, the Economic Research Bureau has been conducting researches in the production and marketing of cash crops in the country with the view to analysing problems which hinder increased productivity. Many of their recommendations emanating from such researches have already been incorporated in government policies concerning agricultural development.
THEUSEOFHIGHEREDUCATlONlNSTlTUTIONS
The Bureau of Resource Assessment and Land Use Planning has been studying problems relating to resource utilization, including land, water and forests with the view to mapping out areas of economic importance. The Bureau has just finished one major study which covers a whole region in Southwestern Tanzania Rukwa Region. It has produced a map which shows areas suitable for cultivation, areas for pastures and catchment areas which should be reserved for afforestation. The map is already in full use by the regional authorities. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences has also carried out extensive researches in the fields of education, economics and political science. The latter has just finished a study on decentralization policy and is tabulating the results. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of regional governments in order to identify areas which may need rectification in an effort to improve implementation of the policy. All faculties and institutes are engaged in research of one kind or another, and therefore it is not possible to discuss the work of each of them separately. But suffice it to say that the University of Dar es Salaam is deeply engaged in research activities, mainly of the applied It is also involved in consultancy type. activities. This is particularly true of the Faculties of Commerce and Management, Science and Engineering. The latter has concluded two major consultancy projects: one was concerned with the resurfacing of the Dar es Salaam Tunduma Road which had been constructed by an American Construction Company some seven years ago, and the other was on resiting of the present railway station in the new capital, Dodoma. The recommendations of both studies are already being implemented. In brief, one can say that the University tried its best to answer national needs in terms of research and consultancy with a remarkable success. The extent to which it can involve itself more in these activities will depend, to a large extent, on the strength of its staff and the availability of funds, on the one hand, and on the other on the determination of the consumer to use the available services. Currently, the tendency is to favour foreign firms more than local ones. Maybe it is high time the University
321
of Dar es Salaam should be more aggressive in offering its expertise. It should not wait for the customers to come to it, rather it should go out to them. In this way the consumers around it will come to know the capabilities of the University and perhaps begin to make a greater use of it. PROPOSALS
FOR THE FUTURE
It is appropriate to end our discussion on the use of higher education institutions for training and research in education by advancing two proposals for consideration by developing countries. In the earlier part of this paper we discussed the need to expand secondary education as a prerequisitie to the expansion of higher education and diversification of training. As a follow-up on this it may now be appropriate to suggest to governments that it is high time that they paid greater attention to the development of science and technology at both secondary and tertiary levels. These two fields of study are lagging too far behind in our educational systems, despite the fact that we have accepted them as basic to the development of industries and agriculture. This is particularly important because a country without indigenous scientific and technological capacities does not have the means to become aware of its needs, the opportunities existing elsewhere in science and technology, the suitability of what is available for its needs. We should therefore consider science and technology education as building blocks in the acquisition of technological skills needed for the development of the economy. It is of little use to talk about appropriate technology when we do not have the base for it. Japan may be too advanced to learn from, but it might be advisable to consider seriously their approach to advancement. Apart from expanding general education Japan has paid great attention to the development of science and technology. the main contention has been that ‘investment in the training of scientists and engineers as well as technicians was of paramount importance if the industries were to keep pace with the science and technological advances of other countries’ (Aso and Amano, 1972). We are not competing with any advanced
322
N. A. KUHANGA
country, but since our desire and objective is to develop then we have no alternative but to rectify the imbalance existing in our educational system between arts and social sciences, on the one hand, and science and technology on the other. The second recommendation is a simple one but one which needs serious consideration. It concerns the question of expanding university education. As countries have, in principal decided to expand capacities of universities either by adding facilities to the existing premises or building completely new ones it would be advisable to consdier also the question as to whether or not there is need to continue with the practice of creating completely residential institutions. Experience has shown that residential institutions are extremely expensive to run and cannot easily be expanded. As an example, Marien Ngouabi University has twice the enrolment of the University of Dar es Salaam, i.e. 7500 as compared to the 3400 of Dar es Salaam, when in terms of physical size the latter is much larger. The secret is that only about 2000 students live on campus; the rest have to support themselves fully with the stipend they get from the government. In Europe and elsewhere most universities have only small residential facilities for those who may need them but the majority of students live outside campuses, commuting to the University every day fvt classes. This system has the double advanrage of reducing costs and increasing the possibility of expanding the intake faster than in the residential one. CONCLUSION In this discussion we have looked at the origin, growth and activities of institutions of higher education including universities in the eastern region of Africa, with some reference to universities in West Africa, particularly Ghana and Nigeria. We have noted that invariably these institutions were established in order to play a unique role of producing manpower to run the economic and social development programmes. So far many of them have done well both in terms of producing well trained manpower and in reorganizing their curricula so as to make their training more relevant to the needs of their respective countries.
The governments, on the other hand, have played an important part in deciding what type of institutions should be started and what courses they should teach. Generally, the governments have done well, so far, in establishing institutions which cater for social sciences.‘management and administration, and to an appreciable degree, medicine, agriculture and natural sciences. However, science and technology have not received due emphasis; there is therefore need to reassess our educational systems with the view to giving this area its rightful position in the curricula. Finally, if these institutions are to succeed in their mission, they must receive all the support they need, financial and otherwise; and should be guided clearly by the decision-makers. Politicians and policy makers have confidence in their institutions and would like to give them more challenges. In this they are well represented by President Nyerere when he says: We need the high-level and Tanzanian-oriented professional and qualified personnel that the Univcrsiry ha\ been turning out. We have been well-served by rhe great majority of Dar es Salaam Universiry graduates. We have every reason 10 expect 10 be well-served in Ihe furure il academic standards and the struggle agains elilism are maintained. But we have 10 work 0111 whar wc can do 10 bring this Universiry into better relation to the econom) of our country. and rhe future development of our society. We have 10 rhink in terms of national planning, but also in lerms of what staff and students can do themselves - for themselves, for the University of which [hey arc members, and thus for the larger society. I am conlident that we will all work together in the search for answers 10 at least some fo the questions I have been raising today. (Nycrcre, 1980. p. IO) It is to be hoped that higher education institutions will endeavour to measure up to the challenge.
NOTE I_ These were costs and losses. abolishing them thought. So they
abolished supposedly 10 avoid overhead But il has been found thar the loss of is greater 10 the farmer Ihan originally are being re-established.
REFERENCES Aso, bl.
and Amano, I. (1972) .E~~o/ion a& Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo. of Commonwealth Universities (1973) Association 1614. Cot~~t~~onwealth Unirersiries Yearbook, p.
Modernization.
London.
THE
USE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
Kariuki, J. E. (1975) Improving effectiveness through training. In A Decade of Public Adminisrrarion in Africa (edited by Rweyemamu. A. H. and Hyden, G.) East African Literature Bureau, p. 109. Nairobi Kisseih. D. A. N. (1978) Development of human resources. In Health for the People by (he People, p. 60. World Health Organization, Brazzavile. Maxwell, I. C. M. (1980) Universities in Parinership, p. 13-I. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh. Meena, A. S. and Mmari, G. R. V. (1978) Post secondary national and development. In The training Edtrcarional Process (edited by Ishumi, A. G. M. and Mmari, G. R. V.) p. 129. Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam.
Nyerere,
INSTITUTIONS J.
E.
Independence.
(1971) p. 28.
323
Tanzania, Government
Ten
Years After
Printer,
Dar es Salaam. Nyerere, J. K. (1980) Address at the 10th Anniversary Celebrations, University of Dar es Salaam, p. 2. Government Printer, Dar es Salaam. Okafor, N. (1971) The Reveloptnenr of Universities in Nigeria, p. 118. Longman, London. United Republic of Tanzania (1977) Directory of Training Insfituiions. Government Printer, Dar es Salaam. World Bank Report (I 98 I) Accelerated Development in Sub-Sahara Africa, p. 81. World Bank, VVashington D.C.
0738-OJ93/83 13.00 + 0.03 Pcrgamon Press Ltd
THE USE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AND RESEARCH IN EDUCATION
FOR TRAINING
N. A. KUHANGA University
of Dar es Salaam.
Tanzania
(2) A broadly
based primary and secondary education does also prepare the people to respond favourably to the introduction of scientific and technological innovations. education to a large percentage (3) Providing of the population at the secondary level ensures that there is always an adequate supply of candidates for intitutions of while higher education and training, leaving adequate numbers to be absorbed into vocational training centres where they can obtain skills necessary for carrying out small scale activities, e.g. construction of houses, carpentry, automobile repairs and so on.
INTRODUCTION The current thinking is that a country cannot and social have meaningful economic without including plans development educational planning as a necessary component of such plans. This is so because researches conducted in a number of countries have shown that the traditional belief that economic growth depends solely on two factors, namely, capital and labour, is no longer true. In fact some economists have gone so far as to suggest that quantitative increase of capital and labour account for only a third of total economic growth of a country. The rest is a consequence of quantitative improvements, the efficiency of human beings through health measures, education, and the provision of new resources in knowledge and technology - which, to a are also the work of an large extent, educational system. Thus, some economists are now advocating that education and training should be given a greater consideration than has hitherto been the practice, when deciding on the distribution of the national financial and other material resources. So far there seems to be no total agreement as to which level of education should be placed highest on the priority list; however, from the available literature it can be surmised that many education experts advocate the provision of broadly based primary and secondary education, for several reasons:
In a way this concept of educational development seems to be in agreement with political decisions in many developing countries of Africa. The trend in these countries is to expand primary and secondary education, partly because governments share in the belief that education has an impact on economic productivity, but mainly due to social pressure exerted by parents who are convinced that education is the key to economic and social status. The World Bank (World Bank Report, 1981) is indeed urging African governments to speed up expansion of education at the secondary level to maximize the use of university places. However, implementation of such policy-decisions towards achieving the stated goals differs greatly from one country to another. In this paper, however, the discussion will be confined to the contribution made by institutions of higher education in training and research activities, though from time to time
(1) It is important
to have an educated population which understands national problems and participates fully in the process of solving them.
313
reference will be made to education at the lower level as a basis for developing the high levels. Furthermore it would be too presumptious to try and cover a large geographical area in making a survey of the performance of institutions of higher education in the area of training and research and expect to treat the subject adequately. Therefore to avoid being too general, the discussion concentrates on Eastern Africa, including Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, with examples drawn from the experiences of other African countries. It will be noted that the countries involved are all esBritish colonies. DEFINITION Higher ehucation institutions in this discussion will have the meaning of post-secondary institutions which offer courses of two or more years as their major programmes but which may have other short programmes lasting up to a year. These could include technical colleges, nursing schools, medical schools for medical assistants, institutes for management and administration courses and universities. This grouping is deliberately done because of the important role the middle level institutions play in supplying needed manpower in Africa. HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
Apart from North Africa (and perhaps South Africa) where institutions of higher education and training have a long history, for example, the University of Quaraonyine in Morocco, established in 1859, the University of Cairo (1908) and the University of Omdurman (a Univesity of Islam) in Khartoum (1912), and in West Africa, Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, established in 1827 and Carrington College to offer university degrees was established are new establishments, having come into being between 1940 and 1975. In Nigeria the first college to offer university degrees was established in 1948 at Ibadan (Association of Commonwealth Universities, 1973). It was called the University College Ibadan. In Ghana also the first college was established in 1948, called the University College of the Gold Coast (Association of Commonwealth Universities, 1973). In East Africa, the history of higher education is
associated with Makerere College having been established in 1922, originally as a Uganda Government Technical School (Maxwell, 1980). The College served East African countries as well as some of the Central African countries especially Malawi. Makerere College became a University College of East Africa in 1950, providing courses in agriculture, medicine, fine art and education at a diploma level, and arts and science at a degree level. Kenya established the University College, Nairobi in 1954 as an offshoot of the Royal Technical College after it had been incorporated with Gandhi Memorial Tanzania founded the Academy. Finally, University College, Dar es Salaam, in 1961. There is something common to all colleges, in the history of their early period of existence; and that is that they were affiliated to some university in the United Kingdom. For example, the earliest College, Fourah Bay, was affiliated to Durham University, while University Colleges of Gold Coast, Ibadan, Makerere, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, were all affiliated to the University of London. This arrangement was deemed necessary in order to make sure that the respective Colleges started on the right footing and, as they grew up, to ensure the maintenance of standards. The implication of such links was that students should sit for examinations and obtain qualifications of the parent university. But as each of the colleges grew up into a full university this kind of link was severed. Yet the impact of the relationship between the colleges and the universities with which they were affiliated had a long-lasting effect. This has led some scholars to remark that institutions established in Africa were not very different from those in Britain, and that there was ‘a colonial legacy which weighed upon the political, economic and social machinery and even upon the ideas and goals of newly independent countries. . .’ (Meena and Mmari, 1978). The above account clearly shows that during the colonial period very little deliberate effort was made to develop higher education institutions in Africa. This seems to have been in keeping with the British policy of assigning nationals (colonial subjects) to low positions in the civil service and big enterprises. It is of little wonder then, that the British Government has
THE
USE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
been strongly criticized for following an education policy in its colonies which deprived the nationals of higher education in order to ensure that they could not be placed in posts higher than that of a clerk and minor functionaries. Lord Hailey observed: . . .
British policy as yet exhibits no clear view of the future of the educated Africa. [Indeed] there are few instances in British colonial history when the future of the educated native has been consciously determined, or the educational system deliberately adjusted to fit him for it. . (Association of Commonwealth Universities, 1973, p. 1614)
Kariuki suggests that even when Africans had received higher education and training (most probably in institutions abroad) they were not given a chance to put into practice what they had learned. He observes thus: The colonial situation did not give much, if any, opportunity to Africans to learn to exercise management functions at any senior level. They were hardly ever called upon to make any decisions that would affect the running of the organization in which they found themselves. It is not surprising, then, that ahen many of them found themselves suddenly having to make important decisions, having to supervise the activities of others and generally to practice leadership qualities, they were on the whole unprepared and consequently hesitant in the use of their newly acquired authorities. (Kariuki. 1975)
Thus, this is the situation in which many African countries found themselves at independence time. They had won political independence but they had not inherited adequate African trained personnel to control the government machinery and to run the economic enterprises and social services. THE
ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Training role In Africa, institutions of higher education, and especially universities, are established for the purpose of producing the middle-level and high-level manpower needed to man different sectors of the economy and social services. This role is taking the largest share of university and college programmes because, as it was noted earlier above, newly independent countries had to double their efforts in training manpower to rectify the deplorable conditions in which they
INSTITUTIONS
315
found themselves. There were great shortages of well trained personnel in every field health, administration, agriculture, science, management, accountancy, and so on. So national governments in some countries, e.g. Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi, initiated the idea of founding local institutions which could operate within the framework of national policies and which would relate their education and training programmes to the aspirations, needs and ideals of the people and conditions of the environment in which the manpower produced would work. In some countries, for example in West nationalists had started exerting Africa, on the colonial government to pressure establish local universities even long before independence was achieved. Famous names like those of Dr Edward Wilmont Blyden and Dr James Africanus Horton, both of Sierra Leone, Casely Hayford of Ghana (Gold Coast) and Herbert Macaulay of Nigeria bear an important history in this respect. They all fought for the establishment of universities on the African soil (Association of Commonwealth Universities, 1973, p. 1616). In the later years Dr Nnandi Azikiwe joined in the struggle. In all these cases one notes two major reasons were advanced in their demands for local universities: The first was both political and nationalistic, namely, the ‘desire to counter the denigration of the Negro race’ (Okafor, 197 1). The second reason was to increase manpower in order to reduce dependency on expatriates when Independence came. This has been amply stated by Julius K. Nyerere when he says: ‘An independent country depending on charity for all higher educational opportunities is in a great psychological danger’ (quoted in Meena and Mmari, 1978). With practically no exception, every independent country has an institution of higher education and/or training. There are countries with several universities and a number of tertiary institutions. Ghana has three universities, Nigeria has 17 universities in operation today, while others are in the making. The current policy envisages 23 universities, at least one for each State, In East Africa there is one university in each country and in some cases several other institutions. In Kenya, for example, in addition to the University of Nairobi, there is the
316
N. A. KUHANGA
Kenyatta University College of Nairobi, Egarton College of Agriculture, and the Institute of Public Administration. In Tanzania, in addition to the University of Tanzania there are nine other institutions which provide training of manpower at middle and higher level. These are: the Institute of Development Management (IDM); Ardhi Institute; the Co-operative College, Moshi; the Institute of Finance Management, (IFM); Dar es Salaam Technical College; Arusha Technical College; the College of Business Education; Institute of Social Welfare; and the National Institute of Transport (NIT). Uganda is planning on a second University of Technology in the foreseeable future, in addition to several lowerlevel training institutions. In addition, all countries have institutions for training paraprofessionals in health and agriculture. Each of these institutions has an important role to play in national development efforts in the developing countries. The development problems of Africa are complex and multifaceted. They comprise problems of raising living standards of the people through improved health amenities, nutrition and the provision of basic education; the provision of elementary knowledge and skills to the millions who live in the rural areas in order to improve agricultural production as well as to the urban workers to enable them to increase productivity. In addition, there is the problem of building the infrastructure needed to speed up delivery of goods and services throughout the country. To be able to remove these bottlenecks adequate manpower of all types and levels is needed. It is imperative, therefore, that plans for manpower development should take into account the proper mix in the training of personnel; not only in terms of distribution of disciplines of study at the same level, but also in terms of ratios between the various categories needed. For instance, there should be appropriate ratios between engineers and technicians, and between technicians and craftsmen; or between doctors and paraprofessionals, and between the latter and auxiliaries; and so on. Yet this is an area where African countries have laid less emphasis in their plans for human resource development. In fact in certain fields the
situation is so bad that observe that:
it has led Kisseih
to
in the absence of any scientific basis for the staffing of hospitals in some countries of the region. junior staff. particularly staff nurses, are assigned to hospitals where their functions include the collection of laundry, laboratory specimens and other duties which could be performed equally by unskilled personnel. (Kisseih, 1978)
This is clearly a case where one should make use of auxiliary staff in order to avoid underemployment. This situation may be a result of one or all of the following reasons: Lack of scientific knowledge and foresight in manpower planning as pointed out by Kisseih above; so that people are (2) Lack of job description, placed in positions without taking into consideration their training and skills; Shortage of output from secondary schools (3) because of a narrow education base at this level of the educational system. (I)
Each of these reasons is important and needs to be considered seriously. But as pointed out earlier in the introductory remarks of this discussion the last one needs even a great attention if we have to train enough people at all levels of manpower needs of the country. That is what Japan did in order to achieve modernization. The first task was to popularize secondary education until a stage was reached when about 80% of those who finished primary schools (nine years) entered secondary school. This step was taken because Japan realized that: a qualitative deficiency of manpower age of investment in the education of no less an obstacle to economic growth material shortage. (Aso
- that is, a shorthuman capital was than a shortage of and Amano,
1972)
The move helped Japan to diversify training at the tertiary level of education in order to cater for the needs of the economy - industry and agriculture - as well as for those of the social services sector. A developing country may not, perhaps, move as fast as Japan did because of financial constraints but at least there should be deliberate efforts made to move towards this
THE USE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
goal. Some countries have now embarked on the expansion of secondary education. Tanzania, for example, considers the expansion at this level very important, after the introduction of universal primary education in 1975. The plan is to raise the enrolment in secondary schools from the present 40,000 to 100,000 by 1986 while the output will have risen from 200,000 to about 1,000,OOO a year in the same period. The present enrolment figures in the primary and secondary education are given in Table 1 below. Table
Year
1978 Total I979 Total I980 Total Source:
Male
Female
I ,582,873
1.330.
Female
Male
29,128
12,664
14,441
41,192 I .484,292
26,758
3.361.228 Ministry
of National
9.903 28,003
12,072 38.830
7,959
18.100
40,298 1,582.l I3
Female
22,400 12,634
27,664
3.197.395 1.779,115
Secondary (private)
Male
2,912,984 1,713,103
1978-1980
Secondary (public)
III
317
the tertiary level will necessitate an increase in output from secondary schools; hence the need to expand secondary education. So far we seem to have painted a very bleak picture with regard to government investment in institutions at the tertiary level. We seem to suggest that little has been done to close the gap between highly trained manpower and the middle level manpower. The situation is not all that bad. As mentioned earlier, each country has at least one institution for this purpose, and the performance has been encouraging. In fact in several countries such institutions were the
I. Pupil population
Primary
INSTITUTIONS
18,171
10,295 28,466
Education.
The present output from secondary schools at Form IV is about 12,000 a year. This is small compared to that of Kenya which is claimed to be about 60,000 a year. Thus, in summary, we can say that it is absolutely necessary to strike a balance in the training of the different categories of manpower a country needs. This in turn requires a substantial investment in the development of more tertiary institutions to carry out the task of training, because university colleges and universities cannot do everything. Nor is it desirable that they should do so, because for middle and lower level categories the task can be performed by institutions which are specifically geared to the training of personnel at these levels. However, expanding training at
genesis of the present universities or part of them. This is true of the University of Dar es Salaam which absorbed the former Muhimbili Medical School run by the Ministry of Health and the College of Agriculture. The Institute of Public Administration in Malawi became the nucleus of the University of Malawi; the Royal Technical College, Nairobi was transformed into the University College, Nairobi and in Zambia the School of Social Work was absorbed by the newly founded University of Zambia in 1966. Until the change took place each of the institutions had played an important role in manpower development in their respective countries. A short account of the institutions in Tanzania could well be representative of the others.
The case of Tanzania (mainland). As it will not be possible to discuss all institutions only three areas have been selected for this purpose, namely agriculture, health, and co-operatives as an illustration of what has been achieved so far in terms of manpower production. From the early days of Independence Party and government policies emphasized the importance of community participation in development programmes at all levels villages, ward, district, regional and national. It vvas realized that unless the people were made to understand their role in the development process and were helped to develop their potentials in identifying problems, analysing them and then working out alternative solutions, it would not be possible for them to participate fully in the implementation of development plans even if these were aimed at improving thier own living standards. The best way to bring about this awareness and understanding vvas to bring trained personnel from all fields of specialization - agriculture, health, nutrition, education, management, etc., closer to the people. The task of this personnel was to give leadership and guidance through educational programmes, discussions and participation in the economic and social activities carried out by the communities in which they lived. The consequence of this was the establishment of different training institutions and programmes or expanding those that were already in existence. Thus, today we have an appreciable number of institutions which train manpower for the middle and lower categories. In health there are 40 institutions: 5 of these train medical assistants, 24 train nurses and midwives, and 11 rural medical aids (United Republic of Tanzania, 1977). The output from these institutions has enabled the country to extend health services to rural areas much faster than ever before. For example in 1971 there were 90 health centres as against 22 at Independence in 1961; 1400 rural dispensaries as against 975 in 1961. In addition there are 122 hospitals as against 98 at the time of Independence (Nyerere, 1971). The task of these centres is twofold, to cure and more important to impart education to the communities they serve on: health and child care and preventive measures the people should take in order to
protect themselves against diseases. This is all done in the belief that ‘it is cheaper, as well as better, to prevent illnesses than to cure them and this can often be done by greater emphasis on health education, by better hygiene, and sensible prophylactic medicine for people at special risk’ (Nyerere, 1971). In agriculture and natural resources a similar move was taken by the government so as to ensure that in the long run there would be enough field staff to work closely with the community, and 15 agricultural training institutes have been established. They train field assistants and assistant field officers in various areas of specialization - horticulture, crop production, animal production, ranch management, poultry husbandry; and several others. The result has been an increase in the output of field workers who have direct contact with the farmers. As those in health their task is twofold, namely, to educate and to impart skills which farmers need in order to improve their agricultural practices. The work of both health workers and agricultural field workers has been made even easier now because most rural people live in planned villages. They can work with larger travelling long communities instead of distances in order to contact only one farming family. In the area of agriculture and co-operatives the Co-operative College, Moshi had done a tremendous job in advancing the idea of cooperative activities in the country. Its role had been to train leaders and workers of cooperative societies at all levels. The trainees inclerks, book-keepers, account cluded secretaries, chairmen, and co-operative inspectors. The content of the courses for chairmen and secretaries focused on the organization and management of co-operative societies. The impact of this effort had been quite big. Cooperatives became a driving force in mobilizing farmers in the production of crops and in marketing them. They facilitated the distribution of agricultural inputs: fertilizer, iminsecticides etc., and helped in plements, educating farmers on various aspects of modern agriculture. The result was a steady increase in production, especially in cash crops. co-operatives were Unfortunately, the abolished in 1976 and since it has now been
THE
USE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
decided to re-establish them the effort will have to start all over again’. But the College has continued to train accountants and managers at the middle level. There are numerous other institutions which could be termed higher institutions of education so it is possible to give an account of the role of each one of them in national development, but what has been said above indicates the efforts of Tanzania to bring about economic and social progress. Perhaps it is time now to turn to the role of the university in developing human resources. In doing so we shall make reference to other universities within the region whenever it is appropriate to do so. Generally speaking African universities are small in population and size. Student enrolment averages between 1000 and 8000 (Nyerere, 1980). In the eastern region the University of Nairobi tops the list with an enrolment of 8000, Makerere follows with about 6000, University of Zambia has 5000 and Dar es Salaam 3400. With these capacities we cannot expect universities to do miracles. That is why some countries have decided either to increase the number of universities or to expand the existing ones so as to increase intake of students, or to do both - to increase their number and to effect expansion of the existing ones. Mention has already been made on the progress made by Nigeria in this regard. Tanzania has decided to establish three new universities by the turn of the century, and Kenya intends to add one, while Uganda plans to have one new University of Technology. The one major reason for this expansion is the need to increase the output of trained manpower at this level in order to meet the ever increasing demands in all sectors of development. No doubt the existing institutions have made invaluable contributions in supplying their countries with the needed manpower but it is a fact that needs have always outweighed the supply. Table 2 gives an illustration of the demand of a country with only one university - Tanzania. From the table it will be seen that the University of Dar es Salaam would be required to produce an average of 2260 graduates per year. It is practically impossible because the total output of the University is only 1000 graduates a year. So the rest would have to be met by training people abroad.
INSTITUTIONS
319
Yet, despite this deficiency the University of Dar es Salaam has made remarkable contributions both in terms of the number of graduates produced and the variety of fields of specialization. It started with only one faculty in 1961, that is the Faculty of Law. It now has 7 other faculties: Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Science, Commerce and Management, Engineering, Science, and the Faculty of Medicine. In addition the University has three institutes and two research bureaux. In ten years, the University has produced about 8000 graduates, and about half as many people with diplomas and certificates. The establishment of any faculty or institute has entirely been based on needs as stipulated in development plans, and after long discussions and consultations with the government. For example, the current policy is to increase places in the science, and science-based courses, so there is a reduction in the admission of arts students in favour of science, agriculture, engineering and commerce and management. Sometimes the University itself initiates training programmes after identifying the needs for such programmes. Thus, it has started training programmes for science laboratory technicians as well as courses in law leading to the award of a Certificate in Law. The output in some faculties is very low compared to the total requirements. For instance the Faculty of Medicine produces an average of 40 doctors and 20 pharmacists a year. However, if we consider the various constraints the University has in terms of teaching staff, teaching facilities and financial resources, the University can be commended for what it has done so far. The success of the University of Dar es Salaam and indeed of the other universities in the region could also be judged from another point of view: how they have been responding to the question of relevance. While the question is still being discussed extensively at intersome national conferences and seminars, universities have already begun to integrate theory with practice. Field experience has become incorporated into the curricula. For example at the University of Dar es Salaam a fourth term has been established during which time students go to work in fields relevant to
320
N. A. KUHANG.A
Category
Table 2. Projections
of manpower
A
No. of places filled in 1980 Total
Citizens
requirements
for the period
1981-1986
Unfilled
increase total
req places in requirements 1981-1986
Foreign
Science
6849
6212
637
2904
395 I
6855
Arts
6910
6543
367
2050
2407
4457
Total
13759
I2755
I004
4953
6358
Source: Adapted from preliminary Ministry of Manpower Development
4th Manpower Development and Administration.
their training industries, business enterprises, construction firms and so on. By the time a student graduates he will have an equivalent of one year of working experience. This is in addition to what has already been said above regarding the establishing of courses according to national priorities. Perhaps President Nyerere summarizes well the achievements of the University of Dar es Salaam when he says : In 1970, at the Inauguration Ceremony, I called upon our University 10 aim at service 10 Tanzania, at relevance to Tanzania, and in particular at relevance and service 10 a developing socialist Tanzania. The record shows that the University of Dar es Salaam has tried 10 take rhose illjunctions seriously. It has tried 10 be relevant, both in Ihe sense of concerning itself with our national manpower needs and in the sense of giving greater emphasis 10 a study of Tanzanian conditions, ideas, and resources. There is room for further improvement in some areas, but the achievement is considerable. At the same time the University is now less worried, in its own work and in relation to the development of Tanzania as a whole, with obtaining what I called ‘certificates of respectability’ from Eastern or Western Blocks. (Nyerere, 1980, p. 2)
So while the University can justifiably feel proud of its achievement to-date, it should at the same time take cognisance of an even greater task lying ahead. Research and consultancy activities Research is always considered as a priority in universities although the emphasis and the type of research carried out varies from one university to another. Some universities lean heavily on the side of fundamental or pure research
for
Plan,
II312
July 1981-July
1986:
while others, and especially those in developing countries place a greater emphasis on applied research. Research is important because of its role in the creation of new knowledge; but it is also important because it helps communities in identifying problems, possible causes of such problems and may present alternative answers with which to solve them. African countries have realized the importance of research and its potentials as a tool for development. Accordingly they have assisted universities to establish research institutes in addition to their own institutions. In terms of determining research priorities universities in Eastern Africa have usually followed national priorities as presented to them from time to time by their respective governments. In general, universities have responded well within the limits of their financial manpower and capacities of resources. At the University of Dar es Salaam the focus has been on applied research bureaux, institutes and faculties have been concerned with the current problems and their consequences for the future in fields of their specialization. For example, the Economic Research Bureau has been conducting researches in the production and marketing of cash crops in the country with the view to analysing problems which hinder increased productivity. Many of their recommendations emanating from such researches have already been incorporated in government policies concerning agricultural development.
THEUSEOFHIGHEREDUCATlONlNSTlTUTIONS
The Bureau of Resource Assessment and Land Use Planning has been studying problems relating to resource utilization, including land, water and forests with the view to mapping out areas of economic importance. The Bureau has just finished one major study which covers a whole region in Southwestern Tanzania Rukwa Region. It has produced a map which shows areas suitable for cultivation, areas for pastures and catchment areas which should be reserved for afforestation. The map is already in full use by the regional authorities. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences has also carried out extensive researches in the fields of education, economics and political science. The latter has just finished a study on decentralization policy and is tabulating the results. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of regional governments in order to identify areas which may need rectification in an effort to improve implementation of the policy. All faculties and institutes are engaged in research of one kind or another, and therefore it is not possible to discuss the work of each of them separately. But suffice it to say that the University of Dar es Salaam is deeply engaged in research activities, mainly of the applied It is also involved in consultancy type. activities. This is particularly true of the Faculties of Commerce and Management, Science and Engineering. The latter has concluded two major consultancy projects: one was concerned with the resurfacing of the Dar es Salaam Tunduma Road which had been constructed by an American Construction Company some seven years ago, and the other was on resiting of the present railway station in the new capital, Dodoma. The recommendations of both studies are already being implemented. In brief, one can say that the University tried its best to answer national needs in terms of research and consultancy with a remarkable success. The extent to which it can involve itself more in these activities will depend, to a large extent, on the strength of its staff and the availability of funds, on the one hand, and on the other on the determination of the consumer to use the available services. Currently, the tendency is to favour foreign firms more than local ones. Maybe it is high time the University
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of Dar es Salaam should be more aggressive in offering its expertise. It should not wait for the customers to come to it, rather it should go out to them. In this way the consumers around it will come to know the capabilities of the University and perhaps begin to make a greater use of it. PROPOSALS
FOR THE FUTURE
It is appropriate to end our discussion on the use of higher education institutions for training and research in education by advancing two proposals for consideration by developing countries. In the earlier part of this paper we discussed the need to expand secondary education as a prerequisitie to the expansion of higher education and diversification of training. As a follow-up on this it may now be appropriate to suggest to governments that it is high time that they paid greater attention to the development of science and technology at both secondary and tertiary levels. These two fields of study are lagging too far behind in our educational systems, despite the fact that we have accepted them as basic to the development of industries and agriculture. This is particularly important because a country without indigenous scientific and technological capacities does not have the means to become aware of its needs, the opportunities existing elsewhere in science and technology, the suitability of what is available for its needs. We should therefore consider science and technology education as building blocks in the acquisition of technological skills needed for the development of the economy. It is of little use to talk about appropriate technology when we do not have the base for it. Japan may be too advanced to learn from, but it might be advisable to consider seriously their approach to advancement. Apart from expanding general education Japan has paid great attention to the development of science and technology. the main contention has been that ‘investment in the training of scientists and engineers as well as technicians was of paramount importance if the industries were to keep pace with the science and technological advances of other countries’ (Aso and Amano, 1972). We are not competing with any advanced
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country, but since our desire and objective is to develop then we have no alternative but to rectify the imbalance existing in our educational system between arts and social sciences, on the one hand, and science and technology on the other. The second recommendation is a simple one but one which needs serious consideration. It concerns the question of expanding university education. As countries have, in principal decided to expand capacities of universities either by adding facilities to the existing premises or building completely new ones it would be advisable to consdier also the question as to whether or not there is need to continue with the practice of creating completely residential institutions. Experience has shown that residential institutions are extremely expensive to run and cannot easily be expanded. As an example, Marien Ngouabi University has twice the enrolment of the University of Dar es Salaam, i.e. 7500 as compared to the 3400 of Dar es Salaam, when in terms of physical size the latter is much larger. The secret is that only about 2000 students live on campus; the rest have to support themselves fully with the stipend they get from the government. In Europe and elsewhere most universities have only small residential facilities for those who may need them but the majority of students live outside campuses, commuting to the University every day fvt classes. This system has the double advanrage of reducing costs and increasing the possibility of expanding the intake faster than in the residential one. CONCLUSION In this discussion we have looked at the origin, growth and activities of institutions of higher education including universities in the eastern region of Africa, with some reference to universities in West Africa, particularly Ghana and Nigeria. We have noted that invariably these institutions were established in order to play a unique role of producing manpower to run the economic and social development programmes. So far many of them have done well both in terms of producing well trained manpower and in reorganizing their curricula so as to make their training more relevant to the needs of their respective countries.
The governments, on the other hand, have played an important part in deciding what type of institutions should be started and what courses they should teach. Generally, the governments have done well, so far, in establishing institutions which cater for social sciences.‘management and administration, and to an appreciable degree, medicine, agriculture and natural sciences. However, science and technology have not received due emphasis; there is therefore need to reassess our educational systems with the view to giving this area its rightful position in the curricula. Finally, if these institutions are to succeed in their mission, they must receive all the support they need, financial and otherwise; and should be guided clearly by the decision-makers. Politicians and policy makers have confidence in their institutions and would like to give them more challenges. In this they are well represented by President Nyerere when he says: We need the high-level and Tanzanian-oriented professional and qualified personnel that the Univcrsiry ha\ been turning out. We have been well-served by rhe great majority of Dar es Salaam Universiry graduates. We have every reason 10 expect 10 be well-served in Ihe furure il academic standards and the struggle agains elilism are maintained. But we have 10 work 0111 whar wc can do 10 bring this Universiry into better relation to the econom) of our country. and rhe future development of our society. We have 10 rhink in terms of national planning, but also in lerms of what staff and students can do themselves - for themselves, for the University of which [hey arc members, and thus for the larger society. I am conlident that we will all work together in the search for answers 10 at least some fo the questions I have been raising today. (Nycrcre, 1980. p. IO) It is to be hoped that higher education institutions will endeavour to measure up to the challenge.
NOTE I_ These were costs and losses. abolishing them thought. So they
abolished supposedly 10 avoid overhead But il has been found thar the loss of is greater 10 the farmer Ihan originally are being re-established.
REFERENCES Aso, bl.
and Amano, I. (1972) .E~~o/ion a& Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo. of Commonwealth Universities (1973) Association 1614. Cot~~t~~onwealth Unirersiries Yearbook, p.
Modernization.
London.
THE
USE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
Kariuki, J. E. (1975) Improving effectiveness through training. In A Decade of Public Adminisrrarion in Africa (edited by Rweyemamu. A. H. and Hyden, G.) East African Literature Bureau, p. 109. Nairobi Kisseih. D. A. N. (1978) Development of human resources. In Health for the People by (he People, p. 60. World Health Organization, Brazzavile. Maxwell, I. C. M. (1980) Universities in Parinership, p. 13-I. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh. Meena, A. S. and Mmari, G. R. V. (1978) Post secondary national and development. In The training Edtrcarional Process (edited by Ishumi, A. G. M. and Mmari, G. R. V.) p. 129. Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam.
Nyerere,
INSTITUTIONS J.
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Independence.
(1971) p. 28.
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Tanzania, Government
Ten
Years After
Printer,
Dar es Salaam. Nyerere, J. K. (1980) Address at the 10th Anniversary Celebrations, University of Dar es Salaam, p. 2. Government Printer, Dar es Salaam. Okafor, N. (1971) The Reveloptnenr of Universities in Nigeria, p. 118. Longman, London. United Republic of Tanzania (1977) Directory of Training Insfituiions. Government Printer, Dar es Salaam. World Bank Report (I 98 I) Accelerated Development in Sub-Sahara Africa, p. 81. World Bank, VVashington D.C.