3. Policy, planning and administration

From the country reports under study it is clear that the twenty-three countries consider policy and planning with regard to technical and vocational education to be of fundamental importance in national educational development policy as well as in development policy as a whole. Furthermore, a consensus exists as to the two major policy goals for technical and vocational education and these goals, which may be summed up as follows, are in accordance with the Revised Recommendation:¹

1. Technical and vocational education should be geared to fulfilling the manpower requirements for economic development and the social requirements for employment.

2. Technical and vocational education should be developed in such a way as to provide broader educational opportunities for an increasing proportion of the population.

^1. See Section III, ‘Policy, Planning and Administration’, of the ‘Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education’, on pages 118-20.

All recognize that the achievement of these goals requires careful planning and the creation of the necessary legislative, financial and administrative structures. In many countries, these structures remain ill-defined, even though a general policy may have been adopted; in others they are now in place but their full and efficient functioning is not yet fully attained.

The implementation of educational policy, and in particular policy regarding technical and vocational education, requires structures within which responsibility is clearly allotted for five essential functions. These functions may be summarized as:

1. General administration and institutional management.

3. Co-ordination, both internally within the educational administrative structures and externally with manpower planning and employment.

4. Research and evaluation.

5. Supervision to ensure that the system functions smoothly and that established standards are being met.

A comparison of the structures through which these functions are carried out in the various countries not only illustrates solutions currently being worked out in developing countries, but also highlights certain problems involved in policy implementation through the general organization and management of technical and vocational education.

Financial resources are an obvious factor determining how well and how rapidly policy may be implemented, and lack of such resources is one of the major, and often the major, barrier to implementation of change and reform. A comparison of allocation of resources to, and costs for, technical and vocational education underlines the problem facing most developing countries, namely, on the one hand, the need to bring down costs for technical and vocational education and, on the other, the necessity for hard decisions concerning allocation of available funds in line with the priority given to the development of technical and vocational education.

A number of the countries concerned provided information which allows the overall administrative structures of technical and vocational education to be described, in more or less detail, in graphic form. These are presented in Figures 23-36. Where the information permits, responsibility for the above five functions is shown according to the following key:

Key to Figures 23-36

	Responsibility for general administration and institutional management of technical and vocational education
	Planning function
	Co-ordination function with manpower planning and employment
	Research and evaluation function
	Supervisory function
	Lines of co-ordination:
	(a) within educational structures
	(b) between education and manpower planning and employment
	Lines of attachment between administrative bodies and semi-autonomous or advisory bodies

Afghanistan

FIG. 23.

Bangladesh

FIG. 24.

Burma

FIG. 25

Ethiopia

FIG. 26.

India

FIG. 27.

Ivory Coast

FIG. 28.

Republic of Korea

FIG. 29.

Malaysia

FIG. 30.

Nepal

FIG. 31.

Nigeria

FIG. 32.

Sierra Leone

FIG. 33.

Thailand

FIG. 34.

Uganda

FIG. 35.

Uruguay

FIG. 36.

General administration and institutional management

The implementation of policy requires administrative structures which are a true expression of that policy. Indeed, the creation of new structures within the administration or modification of existing ones to correspond to adopted policy is the initial step towards bringing about change or reform. Thus several of the countries under study, having recently adopted policies to strengthen technical and vocational education within the educational system as a whole, have made structural innovations or are in the process of doing so in order to implement these policies. To cite several examples: the structure of the educational administration of Nigeria, shown in Figure 32, was set up in 1976. That of Sierra Leone, Figure 33, will be changed in the near future in the sense that the technical education division will be expanded considerably. This division, which now only administers the technical institutes and public trade schools, will in future have three major units: one responsible in general for in- and out-of-school technical and vocational education and training at secondary level; a second responsible for technician training, technical teacher training, and industrial supervisory and training staff; and a third responsible for planning, development and coordination of technical and vocational education and training. Liberia provides a good example of an approach taken in a country where provision for technical and vocational education is minimal but which has come to realize its significance in the whole development process and has adopted policies accordingly. Although the country has only two technical-vocational schools, administrative structures are being created which will eventually implement a broader policy of technical and vocational education. Because of the current reorganization of the Ministry of Education, it was not possible to diagram either the present or future structure of the ministry. The report, however, did indicate the direction to be taken for the administration of technical and vocational education. A Bureau of Science and Technical Education has existed within the ministry since 1972, but has never been fully staffed. Plans are now being made to expand and staff this bureau which will be organized into six units responsible respectively for: research, survey, evaluation and planning; curriculum and professional personnel development; agricultural education; business and office education; home economics education; and industrial arts. The Ivory Coast (Fig. 28) is exceptional in that responsibility for technical and vocational education as well as vocational training and continuing education up to the highest levels devolves upon the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training separate from the ministry responsible for general education. The structures are now being put into place within the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training which will allow this body to perform the functions for which it is responsible and include in addition to education and training, guidance, planning, technical teacher training, research, supervision and continuous evaluation of the system as a whole. Because of the close links with employment which are an organic part of its structures, and its responsibility for all forms of continuing education relating to professional advancement, this ministry will eventually serve as the primary link between education and employment as a whole.

Thirteen of the fourteen countries whose administrative structures are shown in Figures 23-36 have a special body or bodies attached to the national ministry of education responsible for technical and vocational education. In many cases, these bodies are responsible not only for general administration but for one or more of the other four functions. In some of the countries, the special body takes the form of a Department of Technical and Vocational Education attached directly to the ministry and separate from structures responsible for general and higher education: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Uruguay. In Ethiopia, the special body takes the form of a council and is indirectly attached to the Ministry of Education. In other cases the responsible agency or agencies are located under bodies generally responsible for primary, secondary and/or higher education: Nepal and Uganda. The Republic of Korea provides an example of a variation on the latter organizational method in that responsibility for the general administration of secondary technical and vocational education is incorporated into the body generally responsible for science education, while higher technical education comes under the Bureau of Higher Education. Although (because of its federal structure) Nigeria is a special case, it also follows this pattern in the organization of the Federal Ministry and in the administration of the federal educational institutions. The direct administration of most educational institutions is, however, the responsibility of the various state governments. India, also a federal State, is a case apart in that direct administrative responsibility devolves upon directorates of technical education with state departments of education while national policy is established by a body which has been created for this purpose within the Ministry of Education, Social Welfare and Culture and which has an advisory and coordinating function vis-à-vis the state departments of education. In two cases, Bangladesh and Thailand, where departments of technical and vocational education are directly attached to the ministry, responsibility for technical streams within comprehensive schools comes under the authority of the department responsible for general education.

Planning

The Revised Recommendation places great emphasis on the necessity for comprehensive and realistic planning for the development of technical and vocational education. The country reports provide ample evidence that this fundamental requirement is recognized and that planning structures are already in place or are being created which will allow this requirement to be fulfilled. Two general structural patterns for planning with regard to technical and vocational education may be distinguished. In the first pattern, primary responsibility for planning is assumed by a unit within the Ministry of Education; in the second, it is assumed by a national planning body.

Ten of the countries reporting provide for technical and vocational educational planning according to the first pattern. In Chile, the Inspectorate of Public Education (Superintendencia de Educación) is responsible for educational planning at national level while on regional level this task is carried out by the regional ministerial secretariats for education (secretarias regionales ministeriales de educación). In both Costa Rica and Paraguay planning for technical and vocational education is provided for in the National Educational Development Plans. In Ethiopia, the National Council for Technical and Vocational Education attached to the Ministry of Education is responsible for both policy and planning. As mentioned above, Liberia proposes to institute a planning division within the Bureau of Technical and Science Education. The Technical and Vocational Education Division of the Malaysian Ministry of Education has full responsibility for planning. These plans are submitted for approval or revision to the Curriculum Planning Committee and the Educational Planning Committee attached to the Ministry. Nigeria has recently established a National Board for Technical Education within the Federal Ministry of Education to advise the government on policy and planning to meet manpower requirements. In Thailand, it is the responsibility of the Department of Technical and Vocational Education within the Ministry of Education to co-ordinate the development of technical and vocational education with manpower planning. Upper Volta places planning under the Directorate of Educational Planning attached to the cabinet of the Ministry of Education, a body separate from the Directorate of Technical and Vocational Education. The planning agency consults with other government organs such as the National Office for Employment Promotion under the Ministry of Labour and the Chamber of Commerce for Industry and Crafts under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Planning in Uruguay is the responsibility of a special planning division within the Council for the University of Work (Universidad del Trabajo). The Ivory Coast is again a case apart in that a semi-autonomous agency, attached to the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training but having its own budget, is responsible for planning for technical and vocational education within the framework of the objectives of the national plan. This agency is also responsible, among other tasks, for framing general policy in liaison with the General Directorate of Training for possible adoption by the ministry, research concerning manpower requirements and the technical education and vocational training system, and evaluation of the functioning of the system.

Seven other countries place primary responsibility for overall planning within the national planning bodies which establish the criteria and the broad lines of development for technical and vocational education. In this pattern, more specific planning for technical and vocational education is undertaken by an appropriate body in the Ministry of Education. In Bangladesh, responsibility for planning devolves upon the Planning Commission attached to the Ministry of Planning. In this commission a special section exists which is responsible for relating technical and vocational education to manpower planning and employment. The Directorate of Technical Education initiates new programmes within the framework established by the commission. The programmes are then evaluated by the Ministry of Education and finally by the Planning Commission. After the evaluation process, the National Economic Council approves programmes for full implementation. In Burma, general planning for technical and vocational education is carried out through co-ordination between the Ministry of Planning and Finance and the Ministry of Education. The Technical, Agricultural and Vocational Council under the Department of Technical, Agricultural and Vocational Education is responsible for developing specific policy and plans along these lines. In India, general planning on national level is done through co-ordination between the All-India Council of Technical and Vocational Education of the Ministry of Education and the National Planning Commission. On the basis of these general policy guidelines, further planning is carried out at state level through the state boards of technical education attached to the states’ departments of education which also co-ordinate with state-level manpower planning and employment agencies. The National Planning Council structures the overall development plans of Jordan. The Directorate of Technical and Vocational Education is then responsible for establishing policy and planning within these outlines. In the Republic of Korea, general planning is carried out by the Economic Planning Board attached to the Office of Planning and Coordination and the Ministry of Education is responsible for developing policy for technical and vocational education accordingly. The various government departments have, however, a fair amount of independence in the planning process with regard to their respective domains. In Nepal, overall planning for technical and vocational education is carried out through co-ordination between the Manpower Co-ordination Committee of the National Planning Commission and the Ministry of Education. In Panama, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Policy together with the Institute for Human Resources Training and Development is responsible for manpower planning and projections upon which technical and vocational education programmes are based.

Co-ordination

The co-ordination of in-school and out-of-school technical and vocational education and of technical and vocational education with manpower requirements and employment is closely linked to general provision for policy-making and planning. Paragraph 12 of the Revised Recommendation strongly urges that bodies at national level be created which, through their membership and function, co-ordinate all forms of technical and vocational education as well as education and employment. Four of the countries reporting have now created such structures. The National Council for Technical and Vocational Education in Ethiopia is responsible both for planning and co-ordination. The All-India Council of Technical and Vocational Education with representatives from the state governments, from national ministries, from industry labour and commerce, from professional bodies, the universities, technical institutions, parliament and other concerned bodies, is a permanent advisory body serving the co-ordinating function. Nigeria’s recently established National Board for Technical Education will have similar responsibilities. The Ivory Coast has taken a different approach to the question of co-ordination in that this function is the central one ascribed to the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training. Through its structures, this ministry organically links in- and out-of-school technical and vocational education and training, and all forms of continuing education and in turn links these to employment. Sierra Leone plans to create structures co-ordinating technical education and employment, and in the country report provided a diagram to illustrate the probable organization (Fig. 37).

FIG. 37. Proposed structures to co-ordinate technical education and employment in Sierra Leone.

Although Upper Volta has yet to create structures for co-ordination, the country report indicated the advisability of establishing a permanent advisory body for technical and vocational education which would be responsible for policy and planning, as well as for co-ordination and research. In all these cases, both existing and planned, the national body is primarily responsible for planning and policy-making, as well as for ensuring the necessary links between education and employment and manpower planning.

In the other countries, various types of provision have been made for co-ordination. The Technical Education Board in Bangladesh, responsible for policies regarding curricula, accreditation and examinations, by virtue of its membership, which includes both educators and employers, serves a co-ordinating function. In Jordan, three major agencies are now required to consult in order to co-ordinate technical and vocational education with manpower planning, training and employment: the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour and the National Planning Council. In both Thailand and Uruguay, responsibility for co-ordinating technical and vocational education with employment lies with subdivisions of the major agency responsible for technical and vocational education under the Ministry of Education. In Thailand, such co-ordination is undertaken either by the schools or the colleges divisions of the Department of Vocational Education. In Uruguay, this is undertaken by the pivotal Planning Division of the University of Work (Universidad del Trabajo), which is also responsible for general policy, overall evaluation of technical and vocational education and research. The Bureau of Scientific and Technical Education in Liberia, when staffed, will undertake the co-ordinating function. In three countries (Kenya, the Republic of Korea and Malaysia) co-ordination with employment is undertaken independently by the various governmental agencies and departments responsible for technical and vocational education and training. Uganda has a system of national advisory committees for the various engineering branches which link together the ministries of education and labour, as well as the Industrial Training Council, on the one hand, and, on the other, link these to the East African Examination system.

Research

The reports of the twenty-three countries indicate that generally structures and institutions for a co-ordinated research effort for the development of technical and vocational education are either non-existent or very weak. In most of the countries, research is being carried out in one or several institutions, but few report a concerted policy on research upon which to base planning and policy-making. For the most part, research in the area of manpower planning, employment trends and economic development in general is carried out separately from educational research. The Ivory Coast provides an exception to this very general statement in that the National Office of Vocational Training undertakes research into questions of manpower requirements and employment, both on a national basis and in terms of sectorial needs, as well as educational research and experimental projects. Provision for pedagogical research for technical education and vocational training as well as for design and production of teaching equipment and materials is made within the framework of the National Pedagogical Institute for Technical Education and Vocational Training.

Supervision

Most countries reported the existence of supervisory services, but comprehensive services ensuring not only that educational standards are maintained within the schools but also overall evaluation of technical and vocational education have, on the whole, yet to be created. The Ivory Coast and Uruguay in their structures, which are similar in that they incorporate responsibility for technical and vocational education within the education system and vocational training outside it, have, however, both made such provision. In the Ivory Coast, the National Office of Vocational Training is responsible for the external evaluation of technical and vocational education and training in order to ensure that it meets the objectives set as well as for establishing the methods and criteria of evaluation. The General Directorate of Training is responsible for the internal evaluation of the system in order to assure that institutions and programmes, both public and private, are meeting adopted standards. Through this system of internal evaluation, private schools are accredited or not and uniform standards may be upheld throughout the system. The University of Work in Uruguay provides throughout the structures for the function of supervision and evaluation: the administrative division is responsible for supervising and evaluating the efficiency of the administration; each of the three divisions which correspond to occupational clusters (agricultural, industry, commerce and the artisan trades) contain structures for supervision and evaluation of programmes, teachers, facilities, and finally, the planning division has structural provision for the overall evaluation of the university.

Financing

In all of the countries under study, technical and vocational education is primarily financed from public funds, central or local. In some of the countries, financing is borne entirely by the State; in others, to varying degrees, the responsibility is shared by private agencies or individual students through school fees. Many receive or have received aid from external sources for capital investment through bilateral agreements or from international organizations. One country, Bolivia, requires that industry share the burden by contributing 2.5 per cent of profits to the government for education, of which 68 per cent is assigned to technical education.

Tables 1-3 indicate the general relationship between expenditure on technical and vocational education and expenditure on education as a whole.

The figures for those countries which specified the percentage of the education budget for recurrent expenditure devoted to technical and vocational education indicate that the latter, despite the higher costs involved, still claims a relatively modest proportion of the budget. On the other hand, the figures concerning capital expenditure indicate a trend to making the capital investments necessary for the development of technical and vocational education.

TABLE 1. Technical and vocational education: percentage of education budget for recurrent expenditure.

Country	Date	Latest figure (%)	Date	Projected estimate (%)
Afghanistan	1974	6.4	1975	6.7
Bangladesh		3.0
Burma	1974/75	2.4	1975/76	2.7
Kenya	1974/75	3.0	1975/76	2.5
Malaysia		5.3
Sierra Leone		2.2

TABLE 2. Percentage of education budget for capital expenditure.

Country	Date	Latest figure (%)	Date	Projected estimate (%)
Afghanistan	1975	19.0
Bangladesh		15.0
Burma	1975/76	25.0
Kenya	1974/75	10.0	1975/76	32.0
Nigeria			1975/80	11.0

TABLE 3. Percentage of total education budget with no distinction between capital and recurrent expenditure indicated.

Country	Percentage	Country	Percentage
Bolivia	3.76	Nepal	28.01
Chile	5.28	Panama	6.0
Costa Rica	7.0	Thailand	15.0
Ethiopia	20.0	Uganda	10.0
India	20.0	Uruguay	11.6
Liberia	5.3

^1. Percentage of total budget for higher education.

The guidelines for the country reports requested that an indication be given of unit costs per student per year for technical and vocational education if this information was available. Table 4 has been drawn up on the basis of the information given in the reports, which was provided in most cases as only an approximate indication. As may be seen from the table, the figures provided were broken down in various ways.

	Secondary technical and vocational				Secondary vocational	Secondary technical	Post-secondary technical				Average unit cost		Average unit cost2 GDP per capita
Country	Industrial	Agricultural	Commercial	Other			Industrial	Agricultural	Commercial	Other	Secondary	Post-secondary	Secondary	Post-secondary
Afghanistan	262	218	79	129							172		1.95
Bangladesh					68	101					85		1.29
Bolivia	819		84				2,031		1,751		452	1,891	2.25	9.40
Burma	170	133	81				141		251		128	196	1.58	2.42
Chile3	162	399	130	155							212		0.29
Costa Rica											386		0.48
Ethiopia											1,000		11.00
Republic of Korea3		467					6	695			467	695	1.23	1.44
Liberia3		802									802		2.4
Malaysia3					1,068	1,990		3,020			1,529	3,020	2.54	5.01
Nepal	304	273		411								329		3.69
Nigeria					1,667			3,3334			1,667	3,333	7.34	14.68
Panama		329									329		0.31
Sierra Leone		305									305		1.4
Thailand							539	343	294	245		355		1.35
Uganda					241	482		1,446			362	1,446	2.56	10.25

^1. Figures given in national currencies converted to dollars on the basis of mid-point rates for 1975 in Table 66, ‘Exchange Rates’, U.N. Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, Vol. XXX, No. 10, October 1976.

^2. GDP per capita taken from U.N. Yearbook of National Accounts Statistics, 1975. Vol. Ill: International Tables (ST/ESA/STAT/SER. 0/5/Add. 2).

^3. Figures given in dollars in the Report.

^4. Figure includes costs for upper secondary technical and vocational education.

The averages for secondary and post-secondary education are given separately wherever possible. In order to have a rough idea of comparative unit costs, these averages were then, with three exceptions, related to the per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 1973, the year when the latest complete figures were available for most countries. The latest figures for two countries were from 1970, and for a third from 1972. Table 4, because of the figures available, the various means by which they were arrived at, and ways in which they were presented, can give only the roughest picture of comparative unit costs. The ratios arrived at for secondary technical and vocational education yielded a spread of from 0.29 to 11. Leaving aside, however, the two countries with the highest ratios and the three with the lowest, the ratios for the remaining ten countries were concentrated in a range of 1.23 to 2.56, a differential of 1.33 points between the highest and the lowest. It might be very tentatively concluded from these figures that, on the whole, unit costs vary relatively little among the majority of the countries concerned in this study.