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High
school learning has a vital mission The primary
school offer young children is a growing matter, which start bearing
fruit and a strong pressure will be felt once they join the higher
level of the education system. Obviously, in many developing countries
secondary school participation rates is low and couldn’t grow as
expected without changes in the structure and nature of their financing.
Changing the role of secondary schools relates to curricula patterns,
and these carry implications for the school organization and resources.
The primary school curricula stress the importance of these
basic learning tools to lay the foundations for more systematic
acquisition of skills and capabilities at higher levels. The secondary
school curricula are typically more focus on analytics and abstract
skills in principle as well as practice, stress links with outcomes
that relate to that which is useful in employment and adult life.
It is a secondary school level that science and technology can be
developed in depth, language skills can be consolidated and higher
cognitive skills refined and applied to problems. It
also recognizes that surging demand for secondary education in many
parts of the developing countries creates an invaluable opportunity
to build up in large scale a workforce that is well trained and
capable of generating knowledge-driven economic growth. In today’s
world, secondary education has a vital mission - one which combines
the policy peculiarities of being at the same time terminal and
preparatory, compulsory and post-compulsory, uniform and diverse,
general and vocational. Secondary education is now being recognized
as the cornerstone of educational systems in the 21st century.
Quality secondary education is indispensable in creating a bright
future for individuals and nations alike. In the two
groups of countries (developed and developing) are the most important
causes of differential social and economical levels are only the
differences in the scientific and technological infrastructure and
in the popularization of science and technology. An essential prerequisite
to a country's technological progress is early recognition
of necessity of a good educational system. This was one of the key
factors that contributed to Japan's economic success. The critical
size of human resources and infrastructure, and the amount of investments
in these areas,
illustrates
how science and technology
importance are neglected in developing countries. Industry
and universities in Turkey face shortages of researchers -10 for
every 100,000 of population compared with 280 in US, 240 in Japan,
150 in Germany, 140 in the UK. In 1984, in Turkey non-defense research
expenditures were 0.20% of GNP, while in the US they were 2.74%,
2.65% in Japan, and 2.54 %in Germany. Thus, developing countries
have principal shortcomings in their funding and supporting scientific
infrastructure. The practical use of science through technology
created the climate for ever increasing emphasis on the pursuit
of science and education in developed countries, where funding scientific
enterprises is widely accepted as a vital and long-term investment.
Contributions of industry to national expenditures on research and
development are about twice this amount. Secondary
education is indeed a central stage for the education system. This
is where most primary school teachers are trained; it is also where
the future students of higher education are selected and taught
essential foundation skills. Students enter secondary school as
children and leave it as young adults. What they experience there
will influence the course of the rest of their lives. It is the
level at which youngsters consolidate their basic knowledge gained
in primary school, but also where they acquire the common culture
that will allow them to be useful citizens in a peaceful society,
where they build knowledge through experience and experiments, where
essential subjects such as science, health education and technology
are first taught in a formal way. Finally, this is where youngsters
learn how to think, how to be, how to work, and how to cooperate
with others. If those countries with the lowest high school enrolment
rates continued to utilize scarce resources to (teachers, infrastructure,
research, etc) will be less efficient than the primary schools. According the studies secondary school could
be the most expensive to GNP per capita for those countries with
the lowest enrolment rates. In sub-Saharan Africa where economic
growth has been low, with high population growth and dependency
ratios and this also could limits the scope for increased investment
per student. The two greatest
challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa for the secondary level are to
absorb the growth numbers of students from expanded primary systems
and to provide skills, broaden their competences and enhance their
employment opportunities. The two challenges recognize the importance
of the problems emerging related to secondary provision. Rates of
return for secondary schooling remain high and are often argued
to be above the opportunity cost of capital and the rates of return
for many other types of investment in agriculture, industry and
infrastructure (World Bank, 1995). In
an ideal world, primary education would be universal and publicly
financed, and all children would be able to attend school regardless
of their parents' ability or willingness to pay. The reason is simple:
when any child fails to acquire the basic skills needed to function
as a productive, responsible member of society, society as a whole—not
to mention the individual children—loses. It also implies
changing the culture of many head teachers, who would have to be
trained to be real managers. The cost of educating children is far outweighed
by the cost of not educating them. Adults who lack basic
skills have greater difficulty finding well-paying jobs and escaping
poverty. Education for girls has particularly striking social benefits:
incomes are higher and maternal and infant mortality rates are lower
for educated women, who also have more personal freedom in making
choices. In its broadest
sense, learning can be defined as a process of progressive change
from ignorance to knowledge, from inability to capability, and from
unconcern to understanding. Also
in many low income parents affecting demand for education to their
children is perceived as value-less. Perhaps because parents have
the poor quality of the education available to them may not have
enough information to assess the return on an investment in their
children's education accurately. In most developing countries, where weak demand for education is
not attributable to cost, school attendance will not improve until
cultural barriers and prejudices are overcome and the higher opportunity
costs for girls than for boys are addressed. Improving the quality of secondary education, therefore,
must include policies which use current resources creatively and
more effectively. Teachers and principals are the most expensive,
and possibly the most critical, components in establishing quality
in education systems. New and more effective approaches to the preparation,
deployment, utilization, compensation, and conditions of service
for teachers, accompanied by more effective school leadership, are
therefore necessary in achieving higher standards of quality in
secondary education in Africa.
The fiscal capacity of most governments to improve teachers’
compensation and conditions of service is extremely limited. Increase
in or reallocation of public funds to secondary education as a general
remedy is not feasible. Ensuring an adequate supply of qualified
teachers requires monetary resources that many countries do not
presently have and are unlikely to get in the near future. Countries
therefore will need to make better and more creative use of the
resources that are already available to secondary education. Eighty percent of the learning
capacity of the human brain is defined in the early years of life,
before a child enters school. Given the right start, a child has
a better chance of overcoming obstacles and succeeding in creating
a positive and productive life. No education reform could succeed
without the provision on a continuous basis of highly qualified
and motivated teachers. The articulation of this paper is for developing
a creative ways, mobilizing and providing continuous training for
such a teaching force. In order to prepare young people for life
and work in a rapidly changing
world, secondary-level education systems need to be re-oriented
to impart a broad repertoire of life skills. Such a model of secondary
education is expected to equip young people with multiple skills
so that they are prepared to enter and re-enter the workforce several
times in their working lives Dr. Ghirmai
T Kefela Ph.D. (Int.
Business) 03/22/2007 |
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