Dilemma In Development, Education And Employment: An Analysis Of Zimbabwe, Tanzania And Kenya

1979 was a year of impending change — change that was without form or concept. Speculation was rife while planners anxiously awaited policy direction. At that time we felt the need to point out certain realities in Zimbabwe’s education and employment potentiality, and to distinguish facts from the fantasies. In this paper we have identified four major premises which underlie existing educational and employment strategies. We call these ‘conventional wisdoms’; and in them we have tried to pin down the implicit assumptions which too often are taken as ‘givens’. These conventional wisdoms can be summarized as follows: 1. Resources to satisfy the demand for education will be available when the war stops and aid flows in. 2. Education will generate the required wealth and development. 3. People are unemployed because they do not have enough education or training. 4. In the fields of education and employment all that we need to solve our development problems is more of the same.

A Zambezia journal article.