Chapter 8: Education and Development i. ii. iii. Introduction a. The various states also searched for nationhood identity at this time after colonialism ended b. The new African states were characterized by poverty, underdevelopment, and economic dependency i. The lack of an industrial base and an inelastic job market turned African economies into dependent economies c. The new African states faced enormous political instability since the departure of the colonial administration had created a political power vacuum i. Political power was contested along ethnic lines of loyalties and affiliations d. Since European colonialists failed to educate the African majority, the newly independent states faced the daunting task of high illiteracy rates among the populations e. The new African leaders soon realized that their countries were confronted with the problem of international trade competition, international laws and regulations i. Were now subject to the dictates of the international or world capitalist market forces in which they had very little bargaining powers f. It was evident that economic dependency of new African states had naturally created an ambivalent relationship between the new African states and their ex-colonial rulers African Concerns at Independence a. The problems at independence included national unity against ethnic loyalties and affiliations, the development of effective healthcare systems, educational expansion, construction of passable road networks, building effective and competent administrative systems, economic development, and the creation of adequate numbers of employment for the restless workforce b. African leaders believed they could achieve the development of their countries through industrialization The Modernization Theory of Development a. The theory conceptualized the modernization process as an evolutionary movement along a well demarcated continuum of social change b. Basic underlying assumption of the theory was that all countries must necessarily follow a unilinear and incremental path from an underdeveloped to a developed state in a manner like that experienced by the states of Western Europe c. This mode of analysis implied the acceptance of a mechanistic, teleological theory of convergence in which homogenization is both desired and inevitable d. To examine the gap between development and underdevelopment Rostow envisioned five distinct stages: traditional society, preconditions for takeoff, takeoff, the drive to maturity, and the age of mass consumption e. Economists argued that the developing nations were poor due to a circular constellation of forces that acted and reacted on one another in a manner that reinforced and perpetuated the conditions of poverty f. iv. v. vi. Functionalism argues that schooling represents an efficient and rational method of sorting and selecting societies most talented and motivated individuals to occupy positions of high social value The Dependency Theory a. Argued that the modernization theory incorporated African economies into the world capitalist system at a subordinate level, thus promoting underdevelopment and neocolonial dependency b. The dependency theory thus suggested that the notion of development had to be refined for the concept to include issues like attacking poverty, reducing inequalities, and eliminating unemployment c. The causes of African underdevelopment continued to be perceived as primarily endogenous to the countries and western nations maintained that Africans could only develop through acquisition of the characteristics of the western capitalist countries The Human Capital Theory a. They claimed that education, health, and nonprofit research contributed to the economic growth by increasing the level of efficiency and therefore productivity of the entire economic system b. Schultz’s work showed that the allocation of resources to formal education increased by approximately three and half times relative to consumer income and the gross formation of capital c. But that discovery is flawed, it has been discovered that the development of stocks of human capital alone did not cause economic growth nationally or individual levels d. The economic payoff to educational investments was substantially higher in the developing nations than in the developed nations Education and Development a. Education not only improved choices available to all people but that an educated population provided the type of labor force required for industrial development and economic growth b. For most of the developing nations educational expansion was perceived as an anticolonial device c. The elusive quest for development has compelled Africans to continue to seek foreign aid to finance expensive imported Western development projects in the hopes of solving their increasing socio-economic problems