DXI'rED ~~A'l'ICJ13
IDEF jECA-MA/ SUT/ 64 LùEP/ E'l'/ SuT/ 22 3 AF.!:UCAN INd'J.11 'I'UTE FO.r.l. .8C0l:-!C·::IC
Jü:;D .ùbV i!JLOHv:c.uli'I' PLANTZIHG
Original : French
.D
A K A R -
"Augmenta·c:ï.o:a. antl impr0vement of availê,-~.üe resources
in Africa"
by A. S.c'\ll.ù\l.ri.K
IDEP SErn; AR FOi:l.
m ;
IVER0I TY TEl-_CHEHS - -.-
-·.;_:;_~-'-"----~---"--·In his paper Dr . Olak.::.apo deal t in turn v:i th the lLevelopment of human resources anJ. 1rith infrastn.lC't1tre 9 he then appro2..ched the problem of the mob.l izatiun of inte~nel financial resour ces %hich are not 'real ' resources but cre o. cùnu.ition for creating them. I should. like to stress here particule,rly tl1B prublem of the develo·!jment of human
.resources, vTi th ~.erhaps a l)ricf word about the other two point deal t wi th.
As ïl.r . ulakanpo rig~ltly pointed out, it woul d seem thc:t the faci- lities for training an~ developing human resources in Africa, comprised mainly by the educa tional s;ys tems, are 5enerally inadectun te and inappro- pria.te. However , I feel ·c~1et i t 1-lüulù. be a.dvisable to make a few additicnal points on this subject.
In the field of p::ciu12-ry oduca t;ion, which Mr. Olakanpo se ems to regard as a CoYJ.sun;ption good ( and this is largely true unL~er present
cond.i tiùns), the effort s . boing made are not only c.1uanti trtively insufficient, varying also grea tJ.y frvm colmtry· to country ( in 1960-61 the primary
schcol attendance rate w·e,s
84 . 97b
in Gabon,82 . 37b
in Congo Leo e.nd78.2%
in Cameroun, but only ';.
7%
in i!iger,10 . 7%
in Mali ancl28jS
in Sehegal) (1)
but above all the ~uali ty 2-ï.lC::. i1C ture of thé education 1:1rovi<ied clo not cons ti tute a stimulus tc eccnomic development. While, fror,1 the point of vieVT of quality, a poorly qu1:1lified teaching staff ce.n only give
mE:liocre results, the very no.tu:ce of etlucati on, at l east in the French- speaking African countries, is :ilighly c;uestionable. Primary education is in fact conceived as a "oultur"'l " teaohing.
( 1 ) Fie:,ures taken frL-m a st~:.cly of I:t;.JES.
1.
CE TRE
D
l •DE
DOCUM- TATION
IDEP/ECA-EA/SUT/ 64 IDEP/ET/SUT/223 . Page 2
Those pu1-ils who J.o not continue their stucües beyonJ. that leval~ anJ. they form the great maJority, are at best able to read9 write and count. But they ~ill h~ve receiveJ. no initiation in the occupational field. Moreovbr education makes them look L~Ovm on manual ;wrk~ aliena tes them from the ir envirunmant an~ helps to 0ring auout an inorJinately great migration from the cuuntry9 which swclls and multiplies the parasitic activities in the urban centres. Of course the problem of the migration to towns is not sol ely a ttri bu table -~.?- od.uca t~on; i t is rela ted -Go ether factors such as the flagrant inequalities between the rural and urban levels of living, the systems of l<:'..ncl OHnersh~p .a..,nd tenure etc. o o 9 but i t remains
.:..
....
a fact that primary elucation hcs so far played a J.etrimcntal part in this connexion.
Moreover 9 primary cc'..ucé.-,_tion as at present concc..ived has helped very little to break dawn tho sociological and psychological obstacles to development9 nor has it hclpod much tu inculcate a r2.tional outlook, to 01iminate fata1isrn anJ. Sl~pel"Sti tians or to get rid of preju-..Lices.
Thus i t would seem tha t a le.l·ge proportion of the expcmJi ture allotted to j;his eJ.ucntion is to soma oxtent wasted.
Wi th ret,ard to post..:...primary eJuuation9 i t is true tho.t the nurùbers of graduates from the various types of euucation are at ~rosent, in most African countries and espocially in_ those of tropical Africa9 below the neeJs as expressell in tcrms of the sk.illeJ. J:lersunnel required to operate the ecuncraic activi tit:.s in opt1mum c;ondi tians. Thisexplé:.ins 9 as Dr. Olakanpo points uut~ the rccourse to expatriate staff 2-nd tu insufficien-
tly çualifieJ. persans. The c~ief explanaticn of this shortage is the fact that the types of education in question viere for too ·long negl ecteJ. by the CGlonial authorities. It was only a few years prier to independance and more especially after i t, that an impetus was given to tl1em. This impetus has not yet had the time to show its affects and to be fully reflected in numbers of ~r~duates. It is only in a few ycars1 time that the flow of stu~ents who boGan their post-primary studios about the time of in,i.epenience will b0 coning on to the labour market. Does this mean that the flow will necessarily be adapted to the needs? Eothing is less certain; and there are in~ications that in most cases this adJustment
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will be lackü1:;. This coulJ. be érltri bu:bed to the absence of any real planning of training, since training has beon divorcod from its utili- zation. Thus by no means uncommon~ even new~ to find, in sorne African countries, graC:i.u2tes of tt:chnical educa tien unenrployed through lack ·of market for thoir skills, a:tili general ed.ucation graduates becoming
unemployed intolloctual. It is also J.isturbing to note that~ in the· ..
African countrios in whioh agricultural nctivity constitutes the chief resource, agrioultural education is treated as the poor relation and in seme cases cL..; os not manage to rccrui t stuclents.
Thus, fo:c lack of any :Planning of training
~acili
ties, (planning which can only bo clone in the long term o-rring to the "gestation" period of intelloctual invostment and which, as it c.omnot always be authori-tari.~:.n, must bo accompanieJ. by measures to make the opportuni ties open
tho types of o::.lucation W:Jich the country neocls more attractive) - thore is a danger that the efforts made in favuur of the training and the pro- motion of human resources may not be fruitful.
It must not be ovorlooked. that tho E!ffort of training human resc.urces through the educational s;ystem absorbs in its turn a by no maans n~gli~ible proportion of financial resources in the African
countries, ancl this despite the fairly large amount of ~oreign aiJ in this field. According to the figures submittecl to the Conference of Ministers of ~ducation of African countries which met last March at Abidjan, the proportion o:{ ::sross J.omestic proJ.uct allo ca ted to public educa tional expenJ.iture .-ms
4·4%
in Ghana,4.2%
in Con0o Brazza,4.1%
in Uganda,4 %
in Sudan,3.8%
in Dahomey,3.8%
in Senogal, etc ••• Furthermore, accor-~ing to the targets set by the AJ.dis Ababa plan, every African country ought to sponcl 6~:- of i ts national incomo on education in 1980. If we bear in mid ·t;hat France, for example, only allocated 3-5% of its national income to eclucational expendituro in 1960, and Federal Germany
3. 79%,
no see what a great load the African countries v:illhave to shoulclcr in training human resourcos by education. It is thero- fore import2.nt that the sums thus expended shoul d yielJ. a maximum
return anJ. wako a large contribution to econor.üc and. social J.evelopment.
This goal can only be achieved by juuicious Illanning.
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It is also necessary for train~ to be accomplished. at the lo-vrest possible unit oost. Unfortm1ately~ i t seems that in many African countries the unit costs of eù.uca tion 9 l)?.rticularly the 1•ost-primary t;y'}les of
eiucation~ in many cases, 2.re ioo high. The low pupil-teachcr ratio~
bad management of op6ra tional funcls, too sumptuous buildings 9 boarding sohools copiod from :E,'uropean moclcls etc ••• are sorne of the fe,ctors contributing tc this state ci affairs.
The educational system. is not the only means of training human r esources. Special~attention ought Slso to be pai~ to vocational
training. It would perhaps be desirable for governments to ...;ompel the foreign enterprises establishec~_ in the country to have a vocational training programme f;.;r na tiuüe>.ls 9 and to fix a time-tablc for Africaniza- tion in ev~ry large euterpriso. :But it must not be forgotten that
vocation~l training only givoa the best results ~hich it oomos after a proper schooling.
The African countries have not only to tra1n human rcsources
correspon~ing to their needs at the lowest cust and in the bcst possible cond.i tiuns? but they must also use the~;. in the most rational ua.y. Yet
. this is not always .l.one. The i··l'ofiferativn of civil servants in the
African countries beyond what is neeéleJ., their low pro~uctivi ty, a.i1;... the
: ~ ' :
excessiiue inrea.ds they make on ~Tod.uctive resources are all too vlell knovm.
This is a problem related to ~olitical structures, but there is a need ta aJ.opt bold. ren;~;..dies. It HOl.Ütl also be advisablq in ordor to mc.ke
full use of the human resOUl'Ces available~ to ad~ust romunorc.tionsconside- rably to the
advantageL~=bsts
i11 the bush? so as to offset the clisadvantage of being far removed from t~o ur~an centres.As to the secon:i· poü1t cleal t wi th by Dr. Olakanpo 7 conce:rning ii?.fras- tru.cture in the· narrow sense of the term, i.e. physical infrastructure . (al though there 1,.ras sorne mention of researçh l'rhich might perlE',p~ h2,ve been
-better placeJ. among the human rosource activi ties), i t 1-rould. be advisable to stress the danger of giving infrastructure too much weight in the Afri- can countries. · Thera i.s no c.·uestion, of course, of ~enying the usefulness
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and necessity of fi~oi Goci~l qyerhead capital in tho ~evelopment process;
lf
but the planners r.ü(Slü be tempted tv give it an e:cag.;erated preference. This might cerne ab~ut for several reasons;
up t u a point 9 invcstment in infrastructul'e is less risky than a lirectly proJuctivc inv.:>stment. \fhere there is a failure, this is less obvicus.
- The '""emonstr:,·ci on cffEJct exercises pressure in f2.vour of too costly inirastructure iüvos·l;uents 9 there is a '_Les ire to imi ta t e the d.eveloped cuuntries and to r2.isc tho ·~res tige of one 1 s o;~n country. by investment whi0h is scmetimes o:i e,n Gxtravagant na ture.
- a large 1-Jropo:.:tion of infrastruGture inV·Jstraent ln African (...Ountries is financed by pu'i;iic 1oreign ai ù. But this is not likely to inJ.uce the responsible offLi-.J.s L1 the _,evE:lopin.::, countries ·i;o l ook for econclhies in this field.
In the final ai.'lalysis, i t se ems tha t bcyon(~ a certain r:ünimum amount of infrastructure, i t is advantagec,us to opor2.--Ge a .:.cE:;velopment policy through a sllO:da,ge of fixed social ovcrh-:;ac.l cr:.pi tal an"" not through a surplus o:.l it. Thus the conseç_ucnces oi· investment will be
re;;;trictive; If ·t;ho l oad is given to J.ircc~ly proJuc.~-cive investr,.ent, this Hill necessi tat e sc·.~-Gli:if:, up the infrastructure, uhcreas if infrastructure l eaJ.s, this merely r,lakos the con-.i.i t ie-ns for carrying out ;:rocluctive invest- ment more favourablo. Of c:ourse, this scheJ.ul o is only valiù. in so far as therG is no very close technical cunnexicn bct7ccn the infrastructure
investrüent and tho r1irootly produdtive investHont •
.As to the tl:i:r·(t_ ::_;oint, concenüne-, the mob~li::.;c.:tion of intE:rnal finanoial resourccs, i t seems that thE: author t6ivcs 2- -Listinct :t;refcrence to :public savings d~lL" SU§.&,<:Jsts that surplus in. . .Livi(~ual buying power be soakei.L up by mGans o:L taxat icn.
I t m~y, howover, be questione~ ~rl1ethor th0 onoroachment of taxation on savings is tlw bcs·c r;:etho...L of J:-ror:,oting i t. Of course 1 t is essential fe;r the African .:;uun'Ll·ies to 1-r8vent tl1E- tax evasion -:•hicrl is practiseJ.
by certa:tn foreign c~·,;,-i;orJ:J::..'L:,es 8stab1islw\ J. in tho country. But wcul ...L i t not be advantagocus f'o:c thest: 0ountries to sel; up ~ netvrck of voluntary collection ol national savings, savings banks for exa~~le,
anü to grant subst2,n·~üü benefi ts to savcrs uhile éè-c the same tirae
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con-~.uctl.ng a propa5anJ.a campaign on behalf of these institli.tions
Na turally, this wo"L<ll.L vnly be useful if the e;api tal th us accumula teJ. were used fer productive purposes •
•
I~. :i.s further to be notcd that in the J.eveloping co1.urcries thecoll~;;ction of liL1ui ... savings ~ such a current bank delJOSi ts, is easier than
· ;so
tha t of se.vings 1--ro:perly _oalled. I·erhaps. we coul-..i. study t:1e possibli ty of :financing certain proél.uc-~ivo activities throuE;h ordina,ry commercial banks - even if this means flouting the principle of speci~lization.
Doubtless this operation ca!li.lOt 'Ge carried out without risks, but it nevertheless deservcs to be oxamined attentively.
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