Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE EFA GOALSYouth and adult skills — expanding opportunities in the new global economyschool graduates, points to a mismatch betweenlearning and labour market needs.The high cost of vocational education is anotherfactor. Partly because class sizes are much smallerthan in general education and the cost of equipmentis higher, vocational education faces far higher percapita costs – about twelve times the average forprimary school and four times that for secondaryschool (Atchoarena and Delluc, 2001).Problems in vocational education are a legacyof past policy failures and a difficult environment.The quality of provision suffered enormously withdeep cuts in spending under structural adjustmentprogrammes in the 1980s and 1990s. Widerproblems have also been evident. Vocationalsystems were designed to meet the needs of formalsector employers, notably in government (Adams,2008; Africa Commission, 2008). For at least threedecades, however, formal sector job creation hasstagnated while informal sector employment hasgrown in importance. In most countries, informalemployment and self-employment dominate inboth rural and urban areas, typically accounting forover 80% of total employment. 25 Providing trainingto those employed in the informal sector involvesreaching people with lower levels of education.A survey covering Kenya, Senegal, the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwereported that half of informal sector workershad only primary education, if any (Haan, 2006;Liimatainen, 2002).The need to reduce poverty makes it vital to reachthese people, yet most vocational systems fail todeliver. Traditional apprenticeships and on-the-jobtraining are by far the most important routes toskills development for the vast majority of Africanyouth (ILO, 2007; Wachira et al., 2008). On oneestimate they account for up to 70% of overalltraining (Liimatainen, 2002). The strength oftraditional apprenticeships is that they provide youthwho have low levels of education with practical,employable skills (Monk et al., 2008). On a morenegative note, apprenticeships tend to be biasedagainst young women and the very poor. They alsoperpetuate the use of traditional methods, offeringlittle theoretical knowledge (Adams, 2008).Vocational education could help redress the equitybalance by targeting those who face the most acutedisadvantages. Unfortunately, evidence fromnational evaluations points in the opposite direction.Research in Ghana has highlighted a bias towardsregions and social groups that are already better off(Box 2.14). The broader failure to integrate technicaland vocational education into strategies for reachingmarginalized groups is clear in results from recentevaluations (based on Garcia and Fares, 2008):In Burkina Faso, only one-third of interventionsinvolving technical and vocational education wereoriented towards disadvantaged groups, mainlythrough micro-credit programmes.In the United Republic of Tanzania, out oftwenty-eight programmes reviewed, only threetargeted the poorest youth, one targeted youthwith no education and three targeted rural areas(where the vast majority of the poor live).In a region where 95 million young men andwomen have no education and are unemployed,have low-paying jobs or have withdrawn from thelabour force, second-chance programmes arevirtually non-existent. A review covering BurkinaFaso, Ethiopia, Uganda and the United Republicof Tanzania concluded that ‘most second-chanceinterventions are small in scale, underevaluatedand face severe challenges for sustainabilityand scalability (Garcia and Fares, 2008, p. xxx).’The problems evident in vocational educationin sub-Saharan Africa are widely recognized bygovernments, regional organizations and aid donors(Africa Commission, 2008; COMEDAF II+, 2007).Across the region, vocational education isundergoing major reform. Several countrieshave created or strengthened national trainingauthorities, reformed qualification systems andcreated structures giving the private sector astronger voice:In Cameroon, the four ministries involved invocational education have developed a sectorwideplan linked to the national poverty reductionstrategy (African Development Bank, 2008a).In Ethiopia, new curricula have been drawn upand qualification systems restructured to bolsterthe development of skills that labour marketsneed (African Development Bank, 2008b).In Rwanda, a strategy adopted in 2007 setsout ambitious goals for changing the image ofvocational education. A Workforce DevelopmentAuthority has been created to oversee coordinationand facilitate private sector involvement (AfricanDevelopment Bank/OECD, 2008f).Vocationaleducation is failingto target thosewho face themost acutedisadvantages25. Reporting conventionsmake it difficult to compareacross countries (Adams,2008). The reported shareof informal employment intotal employment rangesfrom over 90% in Mali(where agriculture isincluded) to 22% in theUnited Republic of Tanzania(where agriculture isexcluded).87