EDUCATION WITH PRODUCTION- LEARNING FROM THE THIRD WORLD

David Knox and Stephen Castles

ABSTRACT

Flexible, self-organised work groups will become increasingly important in rich countries like the U.S. as employment in the formal economic system continues to decline. Educational models and methods based on the linking of learning with productive work developed in Third World countries can give a valuable stimulus to educational innovation in those industrialized countries hardest hit by the current crisis.

Education with production will be important in equipping people for the new situation. The article discusses examples of several types of education with production. Among issues raised are: what skills are needed; what sorts of people the different types of post-school education with production cater for; how to extend the benefits of self-organised work; some important factors in introducing education with production at school level, including demands on the teacher and relevance to pupils' needs. The role of the Foundation for Education with Production is briefly described.

Introduction

The U.K. is now experiencing much higher levels of unemployment than at any time since the Second World War. The current recession is not the only cause; automation and higher productivity are leading to the loss of unskilled and skilled jobs, and computer programmes are now being developed which can offer diagnosis and advice in professional fields. It has been predicted that the U.K. will only need 10% of today's labour force to supply all its material needs by A.D. 20101. We can expect that the formal industrial sector will in future employ fewer people for a given level of output, and unemployment will continue to rise unless there are substantial changes in the way our society is organised. The idea that consumption per head should continue to rise in the rich countries is also being questioned (see, e.g., 2,3).

How should we equip p e o p l e - adults and c h i l d r e n - - f o r life in the foreseeable future in a country like the U.K.? One catch- phrase which has been around for some time is "education for leisure". Though this idea has some validity, we cannot overlook the fact that most people do not find enforced leisure s a t i s f y i n g - they want to be productive.

A sample of employers notifying vacancies to careers offices in the U.K. in 1972 was asked what characteristics were needed to do the jobs satisfactorily. Mental alertness was specified as needed for 51% of the vacancies, manual dexterity for 30% and elementary literacy for 22% 4 . This shows a very large number of routine, monotonous "dead-end" jobs: hardly an ideal world. Waldmann ~ suggests:

tio,ns. The only, currently known, constructive alternative to authoritarian measures, e.g. conscription and/or compulsory public-work service, is to stimulate market outlets for high quality, maintainable goods and personalised services, environmental improvements, main- tenance, repair and other conservation activities. To be active in this kind of system--currently known as the informal economy--firms and groups of individuals will need to be versatile, self-directing and innovatory.

3. The climates of most organisations in the formal economic system have always been and are expected to remain non-conducive to the development of versatility and self-organisation. To those who will survive in the formal economy, people will, in any case, become increasingly unimportant as a resource - - except o,f course highly specialised designers, technologists and technical management."

We think that the more desirable types of job, where people are able to shape and organise their own work, are more likely to occur in small units where everyone has a say in what is going on, such as a small producer co-operative.

How do we equip people to operate effectively in this sort of work environment? Logan and Gregory 6 give some examples of successful and unsuccessful co-operatives, while Eccles 7 provides a detailed analysis of a large worker co-operative which eventually had to close down. These show the importance of financial and managerial skills, as well as attitudes necessary for joint decision-taking. In general, we suggest that the best way of learning the necessary skills and attitudes is "learning by d o i n g " - - w e are looking for forms of education which are centred around work that is to a large extent self-determined or autonomous.

"Present social and economic trends indicate that: 1. People's needs for intrinsic job satisfaction will

increase. They will continue to prefer activities which provide variety, opportunities for self- o,rganisatiola and responsibilities and an atomsphere of co-operation.

2. The needs of the market ,for standardised, mass produced goods and services will increasingly be met through capital and technology intensive processes. A growing number of firms will be squeezed out of the ,formal economic system and the pool of structurally unemployed will take on politically dangerous and economically crippling propor-

Background to the Foundation for Education with Production

Late in 1980, a group of African educationalists decided to set up a new international non-governmental organisation to encourage educational innovation. The Foundation for Education with Production (FEP) is concerned with developing and propagating forms of education that link learning with productive work, and also believes that education at all levels should serve the emancipation and development of

the broad masses of the population, rather than be a tool of selection for a privileged elite.

The motive force behind the establishment of FEP, and its first Director, is Patrick van Rensburg. For nearly twenty years, van Rensbu ry - - a South African refugee--has worked to develop educational alternatives in Botswana. The first attempt was Swaneng Hill Secondary School in Serowe, set up in 1963. The idea was to finance secondary education in a then extremely poor country through self-help and productive activities of the teachers and students. 8 The model was very much in line with what President Julius Nyerere proclaimed in 1967 as "Education for Self-Reliance" in a speech which was profoundly to influence educational thinking in Africa and elsewhere.

However, it rapidly became clear that the main problem was not the small minority of students from privileged (i.e. cattle owning) families who were using secondary school as a way into the new elite being thrown up by the growth of the formal sector. The real issue was the large number of primary school pushouts, whose schooling--geared to entry to secondary s c h o o l s - had provided them with no capabilities of economic or social value. In response to this situation, Van Rensburg established the Serowe Brigades in the mid-sixties. Brigades were production units in activities like farming, building, tanning, forestry, sheet metal work, printing, motor maintenance and carpentry. The trainees spent about eighty per cent of their time on production, combined with on-the-job training, the rest on theoretical training and academic lessons in maths., English, Setswana and Development Studies. The Brigades aimed to provide foci of rural development, and it was hoped they would reduce rural-urban migration, through improving living standards and educational opportunities in the countryside. The Brigades proved highly successful: by the mid-seventies they existed in most of Botswana's towns and larger villages. Usually they were linked to local Brigade Centres, which provided central administration and coordination. 9

However, it was found that even the Brigades were benefiting mainly children of

the somewhat better-off groups. Above all, they did nothing to improve the living condi- tions of older members of the community, particularly the large number of female headed households (a product of the migrant labour system). To meet their needs, a third model was set up in Serowe~ Boiteko (self-help), a network of production groups organised on a co-operative basis. Using local materials and resources, Boiteko was meant to give income- generating work to produce useful goods for village people and to provide child-care, literacy teaching and other support activities.

All these models attracted considerable international attention. In particular, the liberation movements of Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia saw useful blueprints for types of education to meet the needs of their peoples after liberation. They send cadres for training at Serowe, which in turn helps to develop and sharpen the political ideas of people in the Brigades. Education was increasingly perceived not just as a tool for raising national income and speeding up development, but also as a necessary part of national liberation and social emancipation. The dissemination of ideas being developed in Serowe and elsewhere in Africa was encouraged by the Dag Hammarskjold Founda- tion based in Sweden, which funded a series of international seminars on educational alterna- tives.

Yet in the seventies, all three Serowe models ran into difficulties. The secondary school was first to feel the pressure of elitism: students saw themselves as the future leaders of the country, and expected high economic rewards and social status. They were increasingly unwilling to participate in manual work. Van Rensburg resigned from Swaneng Hill School in 1972. Today it is a govern- ment secondary school, quite indistinguishable from any other.

The Brigades found it increasingly difficult to attract good managers and instructors as formal sector salaries soared. The best trainees of building and mechanical Brigades were not remaining as cadres for rural development, but were being pulled into the towns, often as foremen or skilled workers for South African companies. Graduates of

Brigades involved in more traditional forms of production (e.g. tanning, farming) found it hard to find employment, and the Brigades themselves ran into economic difficulties. Internal conflicts on political aims and management policies exacerbated the situation. Van Rensburg resigned from the Serowe Brigades Development Trust in 1979. Today, more than half the S erowe Brigades have closed do~vn, and the situation is similar in other Brigade centres. The trend in current government thinking is to turn some of the Brigades into government trade schools, hive off others as independent production units, and to designate a third group as community development projects. The link between education and production is to be removed.

Boiteko too is on the verge of collapse. The use of labour-intensive traditional produc- tion methods has kept productivity too low to be able to offer reasonable levels of income to the members. People have drifted away, and most production units have closed.

What happened in Serowe cannot simply be written off as a failure. Over a period of fifteen years, the Brigades showed how linking education with production could stimulate an alternative type of development. Botswana's current rapid expansion could not take place without the skilled workers and technicians who were trained in Brigades, even though development has now taken a different course, based on the exploitation of mineral resources by multinational companies. The Serowe Brigades models show possibilities of self- reliant development which are relevant for educationalists in many areas, as well as showing the problems of alternative education.

Perhaps the most important lesson from the Serowe experience concerns the relation- ship between education and society: the best structured educational model cannot survive in the long run, if it does not take account of the social, economic and political structures around it. FEP is an attempt to learn from and broaden the Serowe experiments, and to make these lessons available to people involved in education elsewhere.

In the remainder of this article we go on to consider some examples of education with

production, both out of school and in school. We then discuss some issues which arise, briefly consider the role of FEP and possible directions for activities in the U.K.

Some examples oJ education with production- out o[ school

Tshwaragano Enterprises (TE) is a small producer co-operative about 20 km from Gaborone in Botswana. 13 It was started by FEP in February 1981; the Dutch Humanist Development Foundation, H,IVOS, provided a loan to purchase the 6-hectare site, and starting and working capital for the training period. The total input of outside capital for 3 years will be about US$100,000.

The co-operative is planned to provide a 3-year training in building and horticulture (for both of which there is a ready market in Gaborone). During this period the members - - a l l the trainees--will acquire ownership of the co-operative and its assets. By the end the staff (one project organiser and two instructors) will withdraw, leaving the mem- bers in full co/atrol of a productive enterprise designed to provide them with permanent employment. If a member leaves, he or she must sell his/her share back to the collective; thus no. individual will be able to acquire ownership.

TE has twenty members (12 men and 8 women), aged 16-24. Before joining it they were unemployed rural-urban migrants lacking school certificates and training. The initial group was recruited by instructors and FEP staff from outside the gates of firms on the Gaborone Industrial Site; care was taken to choose people with high work motivation, and who came from the poorer strata of society- i.e. from families owning few or no cattle, and therefore dependent on other families for access to land and employment.

All members have decided to learn both construction and horticultural skills. About 30 hours per week are spent on production. Work-gang leaders are elected by the members, to maintain efficient working and give leadership training to the members in rotation. About 12 hours per week are spent on education-- theoretical trade training,

English, mathematics, and co-operative management.

Perhaps the most important single educational institution of the co-operative is the weekly meeting, at which all problems are discussed, production is planned, and all important decisions are taken. The co- operative's constitution gives this meeting final authority in all matters. In the early months, most talking was done by the staff, but as members came to understand the issues, their participation increased, and by the latter half of the first year they were beginning to take initiatives and overrule staff in certain c a s e s .

The first year has been devoted to developing the site (building accommodation and dams, clearing land, fencing etc.); now (December 1981) the members must start taking on outside building contracts and selling poultry and vegetables.

Problems that have arisen so far include the following.

a . Success involves not only the learning of cultural capabilities and skills, but also a profound change in attitudes, in terms of developing initiative, collective respon- sibility, and a willingness to take one's fate into one's own hands. This process does not take place smoothly and without conflicts, and there have been deep-going and painful discussions on such issues as the authority of instructors and role of women in the project. Such conflicts are a vital part of the learning process.

b. There was some staff turnover early on, but the situation has now settled down with suitable staff.

C. The co-operative members were initially not used to financial transactions with donor agencies, and tended to regard funds provided as an inexhaustible supply of money from heaven. It was hard to convince them of the need for responsible use and eventual repayment of the finance. Hence there is a danger that the staff and project initiators find themselves in the position of having to represent the

donors, and hence try to prevent the meetings from taking risky financial decisions. However, there are (Decem- ber 1981) signs that more financial understanding is developing, and the staff and initiators will be able to play a less prominent role.

d. It is hoped that the members will develop a commitment to working in a self- governing co-operative with shared decision-taking, rather than for or as employers. It is too early to say to what extent this aim will be realised.

At a conference in Cardiff in September 1981, organised by the British section of FEP, we heard about two contrasting activities now going on in South Wales, a rather depressed industrial area of the U.K.. The work of the West Glamorgan Common Ownership Development Agency was described by its Development Officer, Jenny Lynn, and the Integrated Activity Centres of the Council of Social Service for Wales were described by Jon James, the Secretary. We give brief summaries below.

The West Glamorgan Common Owner- ship Development Agency has been in existence for two years, and has been instru- mental in setting up five cooperatives, four of which are still flourishing. The experience has been one of trial and error, working on a shoe-string budget.

The co-operatives are totally owned and controlled, including the control of finance, by the people working in them. The first priority is to build up a group of p e o p l e - to get to know them and to build up confidence, while weeding out people who are not prepared to work to learn the basics. It is not always easy for people who have had little formal education, and have been unemployed, to gain confidence in their own ability. The next task is Io find out what the group would like to do, and whether there is a market for the product: market investigation is necessary. Then a business plan must be worked out in several sessions, taking one area at a time, with each person undertaking a specific task - - finding premises, equipment etc.. It is

important to check on progress through weekly report-back sessions where the Development Officer sits down with the whole group. In this way members gain some experience of the difficulties of working together in a co- operative before the business is actually set up. Finally the project has to be put together, and a budget predicted for the first two years. Once a coherent draft plan has been put together, an accountant is asked to help finalise it, to facilitate the next stage of attracting money and backers. After the enterprise has started, there is a need for on- going support and training.

The Council of Social Service for Wales, with funding from the Manpower Services Commission (a government body responsible for training), is running several integrated activity centres in South Wales for disad- vantaged 16-19 year olds referred to them by careers officers, social workers and other agencies.

Many of these youngsters find it difficult to form relationships with other people and are very deficient in basic social skills, as well as having meagre school accomplishments.

The Integrated Activity Centres aim to develop self-awareness and improve confidence, to encourage young people to be inter- dependent and build on basic skills. Partici- pants are encouraged to join in deciding on the content of their own programme. Concern, care and empathy can start youngsters off. There is then a possibility of establishing basic s k i l l s - people start to read, write and add because they want to - - and also of developing physical skills such as swimming and ice skating as well as domestic skills like cooking and sewing. Activities like carpentry and decorating can also be undertaken. When participants seem to have enough confidence and self-discipline, they can be sent out on work placements in local firms, where they are visited by staff from the Centre. Initially the visits will be daily, reducing in frequency as the youngster settles in and needs less assistance. All the arrangements are very flexible, to cater for individual needs.

It is hoped in the future to expand to

include activities such as horticulture or agriculture, or perhaps an "Outward Bound" type of centre (where, guided by instructors, people stretch themselves to their limits in activities such as climbing, mountaineering or s a i l i n g - this accelerates the development of self-awareness and maturity), where young people can develop their abilities and help to manage the centre as well as using it as con- sumers, along with other people in the locality.

Some examples of education with production - - in school

During the armed struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe African National Union had developed in Mozambique a new type of schooling based on self-reliance and on Zimbabwean national culture. Students had built ~heir own classrooms and grown their own food. After independence, Rusunun- guko Secondary School was set up early in 1981 to cater for students and teachers who had been in exile in Mozambique during the liberation struggle. Rusununguko, and other schools like it set up in Zimbabwe after independence, aimed to develop and maintain these qualities of self-reliance and of linking education with production, and make them instruments for socio-economic and political development, providing a model for a non- elitist secondary education.

Rusununguko School was set up on a 1,000-hectare farm, bought with help from HIVOS, the Swedish governmental aid organisation SIDA and other agencies. In the previous few years during the fighting, the land had been left fallow and the farmer was running an agricultural machinery shop on the premises. The highly skilled workers there stayed on to work in the new venture. The Ministry of Education provided teachers, transport, building materials and fertilizers.

The school now has about 800 students aged from about 13-22, in Forms I to IV. The pupils spend about two-thirds of their time on academic subjects and one third on production (building and farming). At the time of writing (December 1981) one problem was that the single building manager needed others to help him. It also remains to be seen whether the teachers will be able to integrate

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the productive work into their teaching, or whether ~he lessons will be essentially divorced from the production.

At the conference which founded FEP's UK Section, Arms Rajabu (University College, Cardiff) spoke about community education in Tanzania. in 1970 a pilot project was started whose main objectives were (1) to link the life of the village and the school, (2) to orientate the curriculum around village problems instead of traditional subjects, and (3) to offer some sort of life-long education. Amongst the targets set for school were the following:

To get school pupils to do as many as possible of the jobs around the school (e.g. cleaning, watering) so as to reduce labour costs.

Each school should feed its pupils as far as possible with produce grown by the school ,(again reducing costs).

Surplus agricultural produce should be sold to raise funds for other activities.

The school should undertake self-help building activities, helped by skilled workers from the village, with the govern- ment helping to provide materials.

Through self-reliance activities, pupils should come to see manual and produc- tive work as a good thing rather than a form of punishment.

In the Colleges of National Education (teacher training colleges), to help trainee teachers develop additional skills, tutors worked with extension and other agencies to develop poultry, agriculture, craft and small- scale industry projects. In-service training courses were run for serving teachers.

Among the problems encountered in the project were:

Teachers concentrated on academic sub- jects for the exam. at the end of primary school, as pupils wanted to go on to secondary and further education (entry to which was highly competitive).

Instead of staying in the village, school leavers went to towns looking for jobs; some later returned, others did not.

Some students who learnt skills in (e.g.) agriculture in rural development colleges then found that, to set up a profitable enterprise, they needed to get some finance, which in turn entailed having a carefully drafted proposal describing a viable project; they were not good at planning and preparing such a document. Some students went to 2-year post- primary training projects in small-scale industries funded by SIDA, but then found that expanding such projects to generate employment was hampered by problems such as finding the necessary capital, and sometimes mismanagement of project funds.

Some issues in Education with production- what skills are needed?

The successful running of a small producer co-operative without outside assis- tance will involve skills in the following fields:

a. Technical skills required to make the product.

b. Social sk i l l s - - to get on with other workers, and (in a leadership posi- tion) to explain things and get people to agree. Selling is often fairl T demanding in terms of social skills.

c. Self-discipline or internal motivation, to work ,effectively without detailed supervision.

d. Financial control, marketing.

e. Planning.

There will also need to be a suitable blend of personalities, especially among the leaders.

Home backgrounds are likely to have complex effects on all of these types of skill, especially (b), (c), (d) and (e) above. For examples, Eccles 7 comments:

" . . . the skills which are required to promote solidarity in the face of management initiatives

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may be quite inappropriate once the initiatives all rest with the employees. A shop-floor culture which is collective, oral, reactive and which deduces from experience is quite different from a managing culture which is individualistic and takes initiatives based on analysis." (p. 377)

". . . it is saddening to see how vulnerable workers are to market conditions, largely because the ethos which binds them collectively is so antipathetic to management and to business. The result is an inadvertent blind trust in the fates which leaves too many workers to wake up to the problems only when the roof falls in." (p. 391)

"Participation is stressful . . . As one KME steward [a trade union representative elected by a section of the workers in a manufacturing cooperative called KME] put it, 'No one on the shop-floor wanted genuine involvement because it would have meant challenging your mates.'" (p. 393)

Although Eccles is writing about an engineering factory in the U.K. employing several hundred people, which was turned into a workers' co-operative when the previous owners decided to close it because it was losing money, the comments illustrate some much more general differences in approach between people accustomed to controlling their own lives and those who essentially are pushed around and have little say in the control of their work and all that goes with it. Such differences in approach between families from different walks of life are found in developing as well as rich countries.

Formal schooling can be expected to have a direct effect on social skills by improving fluency in language, though there will often be little scope in traditional classes for practising social skills in decision-taking situations. Dore ~4 has argued persuasively that, especially in developing countries, the uninhibited pursuit of certificates militates against the development of the more altruistic forms of motivation.

We can also speculate that there are some indirect effects of formal schooling as we go further up the academic ladder. The sense of achievement will give rise to greater self- confidence, and those lacking self-discipline will be less likely to get the higher points on the ladder. As a student gets nearer to the

top of the ladder, his class-mates are likely to contain an increasing proportion of people from families who are good at social skills, and he is likely to become more aware of ways of thinking which will be useful in taking management and business decisions.

What sorts of people do different models of education with production (after school) cater for?

The co-operatives set up the West Glamorgan Common Ownership Development Agency are small concerns wholly owned by their members, who all participate in planning the venture and in important decisions. This means that all the members will need alt the types of skills we listed above. As the ventures also need to be self-supporting from the outset, t ime-consuming and expensive training is not feasible.

The benefits of this structure include: (a) it is relatively cheap to start, and (b) as the workers know from the beginning what is involved and what their financial position is, they are less likely to continue doing things which will not pay. A drawback is that initial recruitment must be very selective - - the co-operative cannot afford too much learning on the job, and there will be no time for any non-productive activities needed to improve the social skills or self-confidence of people lacking these qualities.

All the members of Tshwaragano Enterprises will also need all the types of skill listed, by the time the pump-priming staff withdraw. The members came f rom home backgrounds likely to lack experience of financial control and planning, and initially lacked confidence. The T E model ig seeking to remedy these deficiencies through suitable educational inputs. If successful, it will show that a producer co-operative wholly owned and controlled by its members can work for people from the lower strata of society, provided that enough resources are given to appropriate education. A major problem lies in financing the high cost of starting up; particularly in developing countries, this may prove a major hurdle unless substantial funds from rich donors become available to "prime the pump".

How can we extend the benefits of self-organised work?

One approach is to concentrate on setting up self-reliant co-operatives on the West Glamorgan C.O.D.A. and TE models, and hope that such enterprises will expand and recruit more people who can then learn on the job. This seems likely to be a slow process.

We can also look for other models which reduce the range of skills that participants need. Not all people are equally interested in taking strategic decisions, nor are all people equally good at making effective decisions in complex circumstances. Eccles (7, p. 392) notes:

self-organised work within conventionally owned enterprises 15. A conventionally or- ganised work environment in industry has been described as having "rigid work allocations, close supervision, competitive piece work payments and deskilled, sectionalised and short cycle operations ''5. Thus in a tradi- tional situation a sewing machinist would be shown exactly how to make a particular piece by the supervisor, who also checked the quality of production. After versatility training a machinist, when shown a sample of what was needed, works out how to make it, diagnoses and corrects faults, and checks the quality. A different style of management and supervision is needed.

"There is little evidence that the bulk of workers are yet interested in the grand strategies of business. Study after study shows that workers are interested mainly in what affects their everyday worklives and work- places. People tend not to intervene in grander affairs if they believe that the power holders are trustworthy, constructively motivated, competent and well informed-- particularly if they feel that their own con- tribution wouldn't be relevant or helpful."

In the Mondragon co-operative structure in the Basque region of Spain, the bank set up by the co-operative movement provides con- tinuing guidance and expert services to the co-operatives, thus helping to reduce the demands on the members. Logan and Gregory (6, p. 41) comment:

"As a support organisation the bank fosters co-operatives, acting as provider of capital, it carries out feasibility studies, coordinating business plans and monitoring the results. The Management Division plays a key strategic role not only in planning for the development of the existing co-operatives but assisting in the formation of new ventures."

Furthermore, as co-operatives get larger, the day-to-day decision-making will inevitably be delegated to a group of members, thereby reducing the demands on the others. If the enterprise becomes too large, the danger of alienation grows; the Mondragon planners aim at a ceiling of about 200 members (6, p. 42)[

In the U.K., the Industrial Training Research Unit ( ITRU) has been working on the problems of training staff for versatile and

The I T R U i s studying the problems of diffusion of approaches leading to self- organised work. Two important factors that have so far emerged are:

The management must be committed to the new approach.

Instructors need help in adopting an appropriate non-authoritarian style and in learning how to stimulate and guide "self-organised learning". In one pro- gramme, "4 out of 10 instructors acquired the appropriate attitudes, styles and technical competencies for managing versatility training programmes. Further refinements to the programme should im- prove the success rate. ''5

The role ol education with production at school level

The general aim of equipping people to be in charge of their own lives, through work which they control, is obviously appropriate for activities in school as well as activities later on. There are some additional benefits which may be more specific to school level, where education with production should remedy some deficiencies of present educational systems. These benefits should include:

Giving children employable skills, espe- cially the financial management and business skills now almost completely neglected, which are so vital for self- employment.

Helping to interest and motivate children by involving them in things which are fun to do and lead to a thngible end product. This would be particularly helpful for those older children in coun- tries like the U.K. who see little chance o~ success in gaining certificates.

(especially in developing countries) Contributing towards meeting the costs of the school.

(especially in developing countries) Helping to make learning more meaning- ful through practical work and experience, as opposed to the all-too-common situa- tion where the ~eacher stands in front of the class dictating notes to the pupils.

Some important factors to be considered in introducing education with production at school level

A. Demands on the teacher

To make the best educational use of productive work, the teacher should:

Know how to deal with commonly occurring situations in the work.

Be able to set about dealing with a prob- lem where he does not see the answer straight away. (The less expert advice the teacher has access to, the more demanding this requirement is.)

Be able to apply textbook knowledge to everyday life situations. This involves having a good grasp of the main concepts involved.

teacher must have practical experience not only of the productive activities but also of integrating them into the general teaching. Preservice and in-service courses must provide this. Where the teachers' general educational background is fairly weak - - a common situation in primary schools in developing c o u n t r i e s - this means that special attention must be given to developing self-contained units of curriculum tied to particular productive activities, so that teachers can use these even if they are not well versed in the general principles involved.

Implementing productive activities also requires more equipment, materials and arrangements than "chalk and talk", and so more things can go wrong - - e.g. in agriculture the weather may be unsuitable, seed or pesticide may be difficult to get at the right time, equipment or produce may be stolen. Because more organising and inputs are needed, there must be adequate back-up for the teacher: the headmaster and other staff must be supportive, and the teacher needs not only materials but access to sound advice to help him deal with problems.

B. Relevance to pupils' needs

Pupils and their parents must see the productive work as being relevant to their needs. In the initial development of a school, when there is no satisfactory school building, with good leadership it may be possible to get the pupils to put in a lot of work constructing the school building, if it is clear that the alternative to a self-built school is no school. Later on, it may be more difficult, especially if, as the school gets larger, pupils have less direct contact with the inspirational leaders.

A teacher who cart do these things will have enough self-confidence to admit to the class when he does not know the answer, and to venture into the complexities of real-life situations rather than simply sticking to the artificially simplified textbook situations. Beeby TM has discussed the ways in which teachers' lack of general education can restrict them to relatively ineffective ways of teaching.

To be able to teach effectively in an "education with production" situation, the

The balance between education and production is likely to be important. Too much emphasis on production in order to produce financial returns to the school is likely to reduce the amount of education associated with the production, through using the pupils as relatively unskilled labour and by cutting down on the amount of time spent in class on planning the work, recording and discussing the results. This may help to generate unfavourable attitudes in developing countries, as school is widely seen as an avenue which

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should lead away from the condition of hard work for low rewards, rather than perpetuate it.

Especially in developing countries, certi- ficates are very important, so pupils tend to concentrate on examinations rather than on other activities. Two examples:

At the ideologically committed Solomon Mahlangu College in Tanzania, a secondary school run by the African National Congress of South Africa, students spend the afternoons producing vegetables for the college. The organisers noted that: "It became obvious that during periods when students were involved in their academic work (like during examinations) it was difficult to maintain the vegetable garden." (12, p. 52)

In the Namutamba Project in Uganda, primary school children and primary teacher training college students follow a curriculum which emphasises using the local (rural) environment, with activities such as experiments and observations to find the best spacing for crops. Children and students at Namutamba take the same traditional examinations as their counterparts in the rest of the country, and on average get better results. Despite this, the project organisers experience pressure from children and students to gear the teaching more obviously to the examinations, and are therefore seeking to establish their own forms of assessment geared to the new curriculum as soon as they have the necessary skilled manpower (O.S. Kiyimba, personal communication).

No innovative curriculum project in schools can ignore the effects of public examination systems. The two main approaches in the later years of secondary schooling are either to deal with children who have abandoned the pursuit of paper qualifica- t i o n s - which usually implies low status for the p r o j e c t - - o r to sit down with the examiners and fit inside the system, which may involve some compromises on objectives. The world is never perfect!

The way in which profits are distributed can also affect pupils' attitudes to productive work they are engaged in. In Sierra Leone, the fact that secondary school pupils kept the profits they made by selling produce they grew at schoot greatly increased their enthusiasm for doing practical work in agriculture (a G.C.E. 'O' level examination subject) (N. Ethirveerasingam, personal communication).

Support from the administrative hierarchy is needed for several of the things mentioned above (e.g. in-service work and other back-up for teachers, co-operation of examining authorities), not to mention keeping a separate cash float for making purchases. Administra- tors (and others) often like to be able to put a new activitity into some category which fits inside their system. It may be necessary to have a decision taken high up to create a new category so that education with production activities does not suffer through being treated like other activities with different needs.

C. Attempts to change society Sometimes, governments and social move-

ments have hoped to use education to change society, for instance to arrest the drift to the towns in developing countries. However such attempts have often failed: changing con- sciousness through education is not sufficient to bring about change, if political, economic and social structures remain untouched. Educa, tional innovations or projects with aims struc- tured in crass contradiction to the surrounding society are likely to fail as experience in Tanzania and other parts of Africa has shown. Educational innovation must therefore be linked to programmes for change and develop- ment in other sectors of society, if learners and society are both to prosper. For FEP this means working closely with national liberation movements, trade unions, farmers' organisa- tions and community development programmes. The high priority given to educational pro- grammes by organisations like the African National Congress of South Africa shows the importance of this link between educational innovation and social change.

The role of the foundation for education with production

As we indicated earlier, FEP does not

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wish to promote a form of education which simply reproduces the existing hierarchies and inequalities of society: rather, we want to help the people at the bottom to be in charge of their own lives and determining their own future. It is in developing countries that people at the bottom are worst off. FEP's ideas have been developed with them in mind, but we think these ideas are also relevant in the rich countries. ,FEP believes that:

People must be able to produce things to satisfy their needs.

People must be able to control their own production. They need to understand not onty how to make goods, but also how to operate effectivebr in society and work for improvements.

In education, theory must be linked with practice. The linking of theory and practice requires the regular and real involvement of learners and teachers in the social, cultural, political and economic life of the community. To facilitate this, the curriculum must be flexible and adaptable to the varied local situations, rather than rigidly prescribed from a centre. (Difficulties may arise here if the teachers' general educational level is very low. This ploblem is discussed by Beeby (16, chapter 4) .)

A further consideration is that most third world countries cannot afford high quality education for all unless schools contribute to their costs through production 17. (Some of the difficulties involved in the balance between education and production have been mentioned earlier in this article.)

FEP aims to provide an international network of information and resources to sup-

port and encourage innovation in the field of education with production. As a first step towards setting up this network, FEP is:

Publishing a journal called Education with Production as an international forum for discussion on educational innovation. The first issue is due at the beginning of 1982.

Compiling a series of directories of alternative projects, and of hand-books on how to set up projects such as educational co-operatives, or schools linking educa- tion with production.

Providing advice and consultancy services for alternative projects, as well as for governments and organisations concerned with educational innovation.

Conducting international and local seminars and courses:.

Facilitating communication between pro- jects in different countries, and promoting mutual support.

Contact addresses People wishing to find out more or help

in the work of FEP are welcome to contact any of the following:

FEP, P.O. Box 20906, Gaborone, Botswana. (Tel. 51376)

Stephen Castles (European coordinator), Giintersburgallee 76, 6000 Frankfurt-am- Main, West Germany. (Tel. 0611- 459954)

David Knox (Convenor, UK Section), Faculty of Education, Senghennydd Rd., Cardiff CF2 4AG, U.K. (Tel. 0222-44211 ext. 2193)

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R6sum6

Les groupes de travail flexibles et organisds d'eux-m~mes deviendront de plus en plus importants dans les pays riches tels que le Royaume-Uni, au fur et ~t mesure de d6clin progressif de l'emploi dans le syst~me 6conomique normal. Los modbles et m6thcdes d'6ducation bas& sur le raccord des 6tudes avec le travail prcductif effectu6 dans le tiers monde sont en mesure de stimuler l'innovation dans l'6ducation darts los pays industrialis6s los plus touch6.s par la crise actuelle.

L'6ducation productive sera importante dans la prdparation des gens pour cette nouvelle situation. L'article reprend des exemples de plusieurs mod61es d'dducation alliSe h la production. Parmi les points soulevds il y a lieu d'6voquer: les vocations n6ccssaires; la nature des gens 6ventuellement re cus dans les 6tablissements d'dducation pour la production; comment 6tendre los avantages du travail organis6 ind6pendemment; certains parambtres importants touchant a l'insertion de l'6ducation pour la production au niveau des dcoles, y compris les demandes retombant sur l'enseignant et le rapport 6ventuel aux exigences des 61~ves. Le role de la Fondation pour l 'Education avec la Production est ddcrit bri6vement.

Extracto

Los grupos de trabajo flexibles y organizados autdnomicamente kiln aumentando su importancia en los parses ricos como el Reino Unido, a medida que el empleo en el sistema econ6mico formal continfe su decadencia. Los modelos y m,6todos educacionales basados en la conexidn entre el aprender y el trabajo productivo desarrollados en los parses del tercer mundo pueden deparar un estlmulo valioso a la innovacidn educacional en los parses industrializados mils fuertemente vlctimas de la crisis actual.

La educaci6n con produccidn serfi importante para equipar a la gente para esta nueva situacidn. El artfculo discurre sobre ejemplos de varios tipos de educacidn con produccidn. Entre los planteamientos suscitados se sefialan.: cufiles habilidades y oficios se necesitan; qu6 clases de gente los diferentes tipos de educaci6n post-escolar con produccidn engloban; c6mo ampliar los beneficios del trabajo organizado autdnomicaments; algunos factores importantes en la introducci6n de educaci6n con producci6n a nivel de las escuelas, incluyendo las exigencias demandadas del profesor y la pertinencia con las necesidades de los alumnos. El cometido de la Fundaci6n para Educacidn con Produccidn se describe brevemente.

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References

1 STONIER, Tom. 1978. Article in The Guardian newspaper, 14 Nov. 1978. Quoted in Laurie, Peter (1980): The micro revolution. Futura Publications, London.

SCHUMACHER, E.f. 1973. Small is beautiful. Blond and Briggs Ltd.. ~(Published by Sphere Books Ltd., London, 1974.)

' ZIMEN, Karl-Erik. 1974. The race against growth-- the world situation and energy prospects. Universitas (En~glish Language Edition) 16 (4): 355-363.

• DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT: NATIONAL YOUTH EMPLOYMENT COUNCIL. 1974. Unqualified, untrained and unemployed. Report of a working party on job opportunities below craft level. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London.

WALDMANN, P.E. 1981. Learning to be versatile at work. Journal of European Industrial Training 5(3): 17-Z1.

LOGAN, Chris and GREGORY, Denis. 1981. Co-operatives and job creation in Wales: a feasibility study. Wales Trade Union Congress, Cardiff.

ECCLES, Tony. 19,81. Under new management. Pan Books Ltd., London.

" VAN RENSBURG, Patrick. 1974. Report from Swaneng Hill. Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden.

0 VAN RENSBURG, Patrick. 1978. The Serowe Brigades: alternative education in Botswana. Macmillan Education Ltd., Londo11.

to Seminar on Education and Training and Alternatives in Education--Proceedings. (1974) Published in Development Dialogue 1974/2. Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden.

~1 Semibnar on Another Development in Education, Proceedings. Development Dialogae 1978/2. Dag Hammarskjold Foundatioaa, Uppsala, Swede~t.

1~ KLUG, Heinz, CASTLES, Stephen and RICHER, Pete (Eds.) 198~1. Education and culture for liberation in Southern Africa. (Proceedings of a conference in Lusaka in 1980'.) 126 pp. Foundation for Education with Production, P.O. Box 20906, Gaborone, Botswana.

1~ CASTLES, Stephen. 1981. Tshwaragano Enterprises--an educational co-operative in Botswana. 4 pp. Mimeographed document. Foundation for Education with Production, Gaborone, Botswana.

1, DORE, Ronald. 1976. The diploma disease. Education, qualification and development. Allen and Unwin, London.

~ INDUSTRIAL TRAINING RESEARCH UNIT. 19,80. Tradining for versatility. (ITRU Publication TR 12.) 5,0 pp. Industrial Training Research Unit Ltd., Lloyds Bank Chambers, Hobson St., Cambridge CB1 1NL, U.K.

10 BEEBY, C.E. ,1966. The quality of education in developing countries. Harvard University Press.

~7 See also, Learning and Working, Unesco, Paris, 1979.

~ See also, Castles S., Van Rensburg P. Richer P., The Education of Transition, Prospects, Unesco, Paris, 1982.

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