Financing training in developing countries: The role of payroll taxes

In most developing countries, the major programs of vocational training and manpower-skill development are financed from general government revenues. Increasingly, however, earmarked payroll taxes are employed to finance training. This paper summarizes international experience with these payroll taxes, drawing the distinction between the more traditional revenue raising schemes on the lines of the Latin American model and the newer levy-grant schemes.Drawing upon experience of payroll taxes in advanced economies it discusses the incidence of these taxes in developing countries and presents an economic rationale for their growing use, as part of a reverse social security scheme. It concludes that the desirability of using payroll taxes to finance training, compared to other alternatives available to developing country governments, is likely to be contingent upon the stage of a country's development.     

Some critical issues in the training of educational administrators for developing countries of Africa

In this article the author discusses some critical issues in the design and implementation of training programmes for future educational administrators in Africa. Such issues include the determination of skills and competencies required by these administrators, the sociocultural awareness resulting from exposure to the training programme, the discernment of educational purposes, specialisation by sector and function, education for responsible and ethical behaviour, and problems related to the organisation of training programmes, and the certification and placement of the new crop of educational administrators. The discussion focuses on public education systems generally, but draws on the author's impressions and observations about English-speaking Africa.     

Policies for teacher education in developing countries

This chapter discusses the context of the 1990 s in which teacher education policy has been formulated. The focus is on three of the areas that are pushing for change: a conceptual shift from teaching to learning, a focus on effective school results, and the implementation in many countries of systemic education reforms. Though reference is made to conditions and constraints affecting teacher education in developing countries, the discussion emphasizes policy in the Latin American region. Consideration is given to conditions for implementation and sustainability of what appears on paper as interesting policy orientations. The importance of networking and interchange is seen as an important factor for broadening policy formulation and learning from experiences in teacher education reform.     

Creating world-class universities: Implications for developing countries

Many countries are now creating world-class universities (WCUs) as essential parts of their higher education reform agendas, and as national goals. It is legitimate to ask whether every county that aspires to build a WCU can do so—especially developing countries. To answer this question, this paper provides a three-step framework. The first step in building a WCU is to understand its characteristics. The second is for the country to systematically assess whether it has the capacity to create a WCU by rationally appreciating the challenges it would face in creating one. Third, it must understand, given the challenges discovered in the second step, what to do to create a WCU. Considering this framework, only a few developing countries have the potential to foster a WCU. Thus it is difficult for many universities in developing countries to enter an existing market already occupied by well-developed education systems and universities.     

Problems of engineering education and training in developing countries: Nigeria as a case study

Technological advancement serves as a major key to a nation's development. On the other hand, proper engineering knowledge (acquired through appropriate structures) plays a major role in the attainment of a high level of technological advancement. Most developing countries find it difficult to impact adequate knowledge and training to engineers at different levels of training. An overview of the problems militating against proper engineering education in Nigeria is taken in this paper. The paper identifies poor funding, inadequate equipment, students' population explosion (without commensurate facilities), lack of high-quality manpower (in terms of trainers or teachers), inadequate industrial training and poor attitude of employers as the dominant problems faced by engineering education in Nigeria. The paper, in addition to finding solutions to the above problems, recommends better remuneration for practising engineers, appropriate government policy and disposition and intervention of professional and international bodies (through provision of financial and material assistance) for assisting in the training and practice of engineers in Nigeria and in order that the country may achieve meaningful development comparable with foreign countries.