argued that academic schools were in fact perceived as vocational since they led to the
most desirable modern sector jobs and that vocational schools would inevitably be
regarded as inferior and orientated towards vocations that were unattractive-a second
best option unless conditions in the wider labour market changed.
The second justification has suffered from another kind of fallacy. Training, especially
that directed towards waged employment, does not of itself usually produce jobs. It
may redistribute who gets the jobs and it may over time contribute to increased
productivity, expansion and more employment. But this is unlikely to be its first impact
except where there really are acute shortages of skilled labour which constrain
production.
The third justification has the force of human capital theory behind it. In so far as a
more educated and trained workforce will be more productive, and in so far as the other
factor inputs necessary for production are available in sufficient quantities, appropriate
training can increase production and productivity and thereby accelerate economic
development. This will only happen if the training is appropriate, those who benefit
from it use the skills they have acquired in their livelihoods, and there are enough job
opportunities for relevant employment to be possible.
Poverty reduction may occur through investment in training if indeed it is the poorest
members of the community who gain access to training opportunities of comparable
quality to those available to other sectors of society. Where such opportunities simply
shadow, with lower quality, those available in other institutions gains to the relatively
poor will be diminished in competitive labour markets.
And as for the problem of the transformation of attitudes this returns to the Fosterian
argument that such attitudes are not basically formed or reinforced by schools but by
the economic and social realities of wider society - "the idea that children's vocational
aspirations can be altered by massive changes in curriculum is no more than a piece of
folklore with little justification" (Foster 1966:405). Respect for and attraction to jobs in
agriculture, rural areas, the informal sector, and traditional service industries appear
more related to the objective realities of income, working conditions, and prospects for
betterment, than to the influence of vocational schooling on the attitudes of labour
market entrants (Achola and Kaluba 1989).
Since Foster's analysis resistance to curricula that introduce agriculture into schools has
widely been assumed to be inevitable (Bowman 1980). However some recent studies
have questioned the extent to which this is so. Riedmiller and Mades (1991) reviewed
experience in 30 countries of primary school agriculture. Studies from Tanzania,
Zimbabwe, Cameroon find positive attitudes amongst parents to primary school
agriculture; teachers in Zimbabwe and Botswana were less favourably disposed