Part 2 of the youth unemployment problem offers a number of solution options in two segments. The first segment, in this article, considers the expected responsibilities of governments of the continent for solving the youth unemployment problem. The second segment that will appear in the March 2022 edition will consider the expectations from the youth themselves. The colonial economies inherited at the time of independence have made it impossible for many African countries to modernize and expand the bases of their economies to be able to continuously provide jobs, not only for the youth, but also for rapid national revenue growth.
The November 2021 edition of Africa Supreme magazine indicated in the article on “The Desperate Youth of Africa” that two main factors account for the inability of many African governments to completely fulfill their responsibilities in job creation and in other development areas such as health, education, infrastructure etc. These factors are: increasing population growth, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the increasing yearly output of new graduates and school leavers from all sectors of the education system into the economy.
Solution Options for Youth Unemployment
This article provides solution options that governments on the continent could apply to mitigate the youth unemployment situation and also provide tangible jobs in many sectors of the national economy for the youth. The number of youth on this continent was reported in the previous article of November 2021, as 455 million for the year 2020. Of this number, 30 percent or 137 million youth is estimated as the number of unemployed youth across the continent in the year 2020. The assumptions for arriving at this percentage and the associated population number of unemployed youth in 2020 are presented in the appendix on the last page for interested readers. However, this high youth unemployment rate certainly needs some emergency and creative solutions from our governments.
The solution options proposed in this article are in three categories: Short term solutions, medium term, and long term solutions. The short term solution options are intended for immediate implementation within a year or two, to provide jobs in areas of the economy where the youth have relevant knowledge and skills.
The medium term solution options are those that will need one to three years organizational restructuring and personnel training before production. Medium term solutions will generally take about 5-7 years to show positive financial results.
The long term solution options are those that will involve complicated organizational restructuring, longer time training, and larger amounts of funding before the effects of the planned solutions could be realized. Long term solutions will generally take 10-15 years before reaching their targeted goals.
Solving the youth unemployment problem needs government intervention and responsibilities as well as the initiatives of the youth themselves. While this article deals with government interventions and responsibilities, the next edition will discuss ways by which the youth could create their own jobs individually and in groups.
Government Responsibilities
The previous article on “The Desperate Youth of Africa” in this magazine discussed the following as the causes of youth unemployment: population growth; yearly output of educational institutions in African countries; urbanization and rural/urban drift; decline in the number of industries; slow growth of the economies of African countries; excessive imports of overseas goods, especially used goods; and inattention to the prospects of youth unemployment.
This article uses the seven causes of youth unemployment indicated above as captions or titles for discussing the various solutions that could be applied in solving the youth unemployment problem. The solution options for the seven causes of youth unemployment have been put into short-term, medium-term and long-term categories as indicated below.
International and Local Trade Agreements
We realise that governments are constrained by international trade agreements through the World Trade Organization (WTO), and secondly, by trade rules and regulations with local Manufacturer Associations, Associations of Industry, Associations of Traders, and by agreements with respective Trade Unions. Consultations will have to be initiated with all these bodies in parallel fashion, rather than serial fashion, to ensure that new agreements are reached within six to nine months in favour of what needs to be done to solve the youth unemployment problem on the continent. Government Ministry of Trade and Industry should also be involved in such discussions and agreements.
Short Term Solution Options
A British theologian and philosopher known as William of Ockam (1280-1349) is reputed to have made the following statement:
The best solution to any problem is usually the simplest and the most direct with fewer steps in its implementation process.
Later versions of Ockam’s statement tend to shorten the statement to the following:
“The simplest solution is almost always the best.”
Both statements are referred to as “Ockam’s Razor”; cutting down the complexities of problem solving and reducing the process to its barest necessity.
However, the earlier version is more comprehensive, highlighting three things: the selected solution must be simple, most direct, and should thirdly, involve the least number of steps in its implementation. This combination is very important and preferable in this article.
The short term solution options discussed in this section are those that will bring jobs directly to the youth of the continent in the shortest possible time because the solutions will be most direct and will also involve fewer steps in their implementation processes. The solutions should be planned and implemented within a year or two beginning from now. The solutions focus on two things: creating job opportunities within private and public sector businesses and secondly, taking away parts of the excessive goods imports to create jobs for manufacturers and artisans on the continent.
Creating employment opportunities in Private and Public Sector Businesses and Organisations
Governments could arrange with private sector businesses to expand their businesses and increase job positions to be able to employ more young persons. Such a process was initiated in the UK in the period 1982-85 where the government offered private businesses which were willing to offer 10, 15 or more jobs to the youth, financial support ranging from ten thousand pounds, depending on the number of youth the firms could employ.
The private businesses involved in the scheme were expected to be self-supporting after a couple of years to be able to pay salaries and other benefits to their new employees. What will be suggested, if governments in Africa would consider this scheme, will be the following:
The private businesses involved in such a scheme should be required to provide basic training and orientation programmes for the youth who have been employed by the firms.
Apart from the in-house training provided by the firms, the government could also set up a model advisory board that will send advisors to the firms periodically to talk with the youth assigned to such firms, gather feedback information for boosting the moral of the youth employed in such firms, and for improving such government-private business youth employment programme.
Thirdly, the government could look through its various ministries, agencies, boards and other public institutions to find out areas that could be expanded to provide new job opportunities for the youth.
It was indicated in the November 2021 article already referred to, that a lot of foreign imports to Africa consists of used machinery, clothes, shoes, furniture and many other used items. Such imports take away jobs from our carpenters, tailors, shoemakers and many other craftsmen and women.
One of the short term or immediate solution options to this problem will involve adopting measures that will release a specified quota of goods that would normally have been imported, to local manufacturers. The government, through the appropriate channels could require that 20 percent quota of some specified goods should be reserved for local manufacturers.
(i)Creating jobs for tailors and dress makers of the continent
Currently all the boutiques as well as Men and Ladies Shops on the continent tend to trade in imported dresses, imported fragrances, imported shoes and all sorts of imported goods.
The short term solution for creating jobs for local tailors and dress makers is to institute a quota system. First of all, the boutiques and all dress making and fashion shops should be organised in associations to make it easier to reach agreements with all such bodies.
A specified quota of 20% of all goods sold in boutiques and in all male and female dress shops should be sourced from local tailors and dress makers.
Going further, Items such as baby dresses, ladies under garments and some others specified by government in consultation with private businesses should be manufactured by local industries with funding from local banks. Training of local tailors and dress makers will be required to help them develop the expertise to meet the standards of imported dress items, but this should not take more than three months. Training should focus on dress quality, standardization of processes for dress making, packaging and customer service.
(ii) Creating jobs for carpenters and furniture makers of the continent
Carpenters and furniture makers on the continent now have fewer job opportunities to make a living because full furniture sets including windows and complete doors with door frames come in huge container ships into the harbours of the continent and are transported by local trucks, as needed, to inland countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Burkina, Niger etc.
Using the 20% quota guideline, the government by agreement, will regulate the percentage of furniture, doors and windows and their associated appliances that would be allowed into the respective importing countries in Africa. While the free trade system shuts many doors against African manufacturers and traders, the 20% quota guideline should open a favourable door for local furniture makers and carpenters.
As indicated in the previous case above, the government must ensure that furniture makers and carpenters are already organised in associations to make it easier to implement the local quota manufacturing system.
(iii) Creating jobs for shoe manufacturers of the continent
The short term solution for creating jobs for shoe manufacturers of the continent should be similar to those proposed above. In the case of providing local shoes, two measures need to be considered: These are the short term measure and the medium term measure.
The short term solution option will involve organizing a short training programme for local shoe manufacturers. Many local shoe manufacturers are already accomplished in their profession and only need some two months orientation on modern manufacturing trends. An expert or groups of experts from overseas shoe manufacturing companies could be invited to conduct such training programmes across the continent.
At least 20 percent of baby shoes and adult shoes for men and women should be produced here in Africa. Just a few years ago, you could get a good pair of hand made shoes in red, yellow or in whatever colour the client desired in the centre of Nairobi in less than ten days. After initial orientation and training and with assurance for ready supply of materials, it is certain that local shoe manufacturers will perform wonders.
Establishing Regional Tanneries
Following the adoption of the above short term solution option on shoes manufacturing, each of the regions of the continent should establish a tannery for producing good quality leather for the manufacture of local shoes, hand bags, belts and other leather items. There is a lot of cattle across West Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana and in many other parts of the continent. Leather manufacturing and export of leather and beef should therefore not become a major problem if governments would put their minds to the idea.
(iv) Creating jobs for toy manufacturers
Toy manufacturing has moved from using wood to rubber and plastic materials. Unfortunately although rubber plantations exist in some African countries, rubber toys are manufactured and imported into Africa. Large amounts of rubber toys for children can be seen in small shops in both the cities and in the villages on the continent. Until viable rubber manufacturing companies become established in parts of the continent, rubber toys will have to be continuously imported from overseas countries. Rubber toys manufacturing is presently an area of great need on the continent.
The alternative available for creating local jobs for the youth in the area of toys and games, including computer games, will be to consider toy production using plastic materials; and also consider the use of computer chips in toy manufacturing to give toys the ability to talk, walk and perform some specified activities.
Import of used goods
If possible, certain types of used items should not be allowed to be imported into African countries. Apart from taking jobs from artisans and manufacturers of the continent, it is a system that is creating laziness and poverty on the part of trained artisans, and in the process making Africa the junk yard for used overseas under garments and other unnecessary items.
The understanding of exporting countries needed
Apart from the international and local agreements mentioned earlier, the understanding of overseas exporting manufacturers will be necessary for such short-term solutions to succeed. Obviously overseas manufacturers would have planned their production targets and expected export revenue over a couple of months or years before such short-term solution options are negotiated and announced. It is impossible to avoid upsetting production and revenue forecasts of overseas manufacturers and exporters, but it must be realized that the youth unemployment problem is a political problem on this continent. Already in July 2021, a military coup d’état occurred in Tunisia on the same youth unemployment issue, the second uprising on the youth unemployment issue after the Arab Spring of 2011. The youth unemployment problem and its necessary solutions should therefore not be taken lightly on all sides.
Secondly, African countries need to start their own manufacturing processes for revenue and development purposes. This happens to be the most opportune time; and we can’t go back.
Thirdly, there is the need for a new world order in trade relations that will allow low income and lower middle income countries more leverage to help them manufacture and export to the world. Trade, political and social relations become better where the partners have a certain level of equal standing especially in finances. Poor nations and rich nations cannot be equal partners in any venture. Such inequality, arising out of the marginalization of Africa over hundreds of years, cannot sustain equity in world relations.
Medium Term Solution Options
Medium term solution options will require about 2-3 years of planning, organization and training for positive effects to show after 5 years. These options will take longer time to show effects because they will involve construction of factories and training activities and will generally take about 5-7 years to show positive cash flow.
Production of parts and accessories for imported machinery and appliances
One of the causes of youth unemployment as indicated in the November 2021 edition of Africa Supreme magazine is the declining number of industries across the continent. The first set of medium term solutions will essentially involve manufacturing parts and accessories for some imported items. Some specified goods could be imported without the addition of defined accessories by agreement with the manufacturers of the goods in the exporting countries. Local companies could then be set up to manufacture those parts and accessories required under the specifications of the original product manufacturers.
For example, agreements could be reached with overseas manufacturers for the following parts or accessories to be manufactured in Africa:
Item Parts Manufactured in Africa
Desktop Computers: Mouse; Monitors
Bicycle: Bicycle seat
Saloon cars: Front and back bumpers
The process of sub-contracting the production of parts of main items to manufacturing firms in Africa will, in just a few years, lead to increases in the number of industries in African countries providing more business opportunities for the youth of the continent. This process redresses two of the causes of youth unemployment:
Declining number of industries
Slow growth in the economies of the continent
Some of the items listed above such as computer mouse and monitors probably do not need any agreement with any overseas manufacturers. If those produced here in Africa are of good quality, they could have good market on the continent and elsewhere in the world. However, the process of manufacturing parts and accessories of existing machinery will directly reverse the trend of continuous decreases in the number of industries in African countries, and secondly, add more dynamism to the growth of the economies of African countries.
Dealing with problems of sales of locally produced goods
For goods that will be produced under the short term and medium term conditions discussed above, the key problem that will necessarily arise is the problem of colonial mentality that works to hinder optimum sales of locally produced goods in African countries. This is a problem that our governments must use all the machinery they could put together to fight and control. It is not only citizens who need to be convinced to buy locally made products; governments must also work with the Association of Local Manufacturers to ensure that local manufacturers improve the quality of their products to meet the standards set by overseas manufacturers. In many cases, it is only the packaging that makes the difference between overseas products and locally made products.
Improving living and work conditions in the rural areas
Rural/urban migration is one of the causes of youth unemployment mentioned on page 2 earlier. As more people move from the rural areas into the urban areas, available job opportunities in the urban areas consequently tend to decrease, hence increasing the poverty in the urban areas. The solution then is to find ways and means for creating conducive rural environments that will provide better work prospects and living conditions in the rural areas.
People leave their rural homes for towns and cities in response to some push factors such as lack of electricity, lack of pipe-borne water, and lack of decent roads and clinics. Push factors are factors that push people out of their home environment to seek better conditions for living and working in other places.
Besides the basic necessities for living that is food, water, a place to live, and clothes on one’s back, the availability of decent schools has become one of the basic needs that parents require of their governments. The priority for African governments in the struggle to provide jobs for the youth should therefore include the following considerations:
Assist the villages to grow into towns or townships.
Provide better schools in the rural areas just as exist in the urban areas.
Provide well trained teachers for schools in the rural areas.
Provide accommodation facilities for teachers in rural schools.
Provide the rural areas with adequate water supply, roads, clinics and security services.
Encourage entrepreneurs to set up agro-processing factories and cottage industries in the rural areas to provide job opportunities.
By improving the quality of education, living facilities and job opportunities in the rural areas, migration from the rural areas to the urban areas could be minimized; and secondly, make the rural areas mostly self-supporting and efficient in production.
Long Term Solution Options
The long term solution options are those that should take 10-15 years for their benefits to show clearly. Production factories could show positive financial results after 3-4 years of factory construction and another 3-4 years of production. For other solutions such as an Education Reform, planning and organization will take 3 years, equipment; construction of education and training buildings and facilities should take 3 years, and the conduct of education and training of students should take 5 years followed with 1 or 2 two years further training for a total of 7 years of training programmes, making a total of 13-14 years for preparation. Rapid spurt in national industrial production should show from the fifteenth and sixteenth years.
This section starts by considering the following causes of youth unemployment followed with some long term solution options:
Africa’s Population growth
Population of people in agriculture
Annual output of educational institutions
Inattention to the prospects of youth unemployment
Africa’s Population Growth
Using the population data of 2020, it was indicated in the November 2021 edition of this magazine, that the total African population was 1,341 billion. Of this number, 455 million people or 34 percent were in the youth age group of 15-34. It was also stated that people in the age group 0-14 accounted for 541 million persons, representing 40 percent of the total African population, and higher than the youth population percentage of 34 on the continent.
Experts in population studies, called demographers, tell us that when a country’s average fertility rate reaches 2.5 births per family, per year, the population of that country will double in 20 years. This means that, all things being equal, the population of Africa, with fertility rates higher than 2.5, will more than double to 2,682 billion and above in 2040. And this is the minimum population the continent could expect in 2040.
The average fertility rate in Africa is reported at 4.212 in 2022, a decline from 4.7 in 2020, and a decline from 4.268 in 2021. If fertility rate of 2.5 will double a population in twenty years, the rate of 4.2 will most likely double the continent’s population in far less than twenty years. Africa’s population higher than 3 billion in ten years from now is a grievous possibility that needs immediate serious consideration.
If we consider the 0-14 age group of 2020 numbering 541 million persons and representing 40 percent of the total African population as indicated above, that group will constitute a youth group of 1,082 billion people in 2040, assuming death rate remains constant from 2020.
Using the 30% estimate for youth unemployment on the continent, the question becomes clear that if Africa cannot presently cope with total estimated 30% of unemployed youth representing 137 million youth, how then will the continent be able to cope with over 325 million unemployed youth in the next few years?
Obviously, Africa’s fertility rate and consequent population growth are not sustainable and the continent must therefore take immediate measures to deal with a looming problem far greater than the current youth unemployment problem.
Increasing agricultural productivity, national revenue and job opportunities
While not prejudging the outcome of Africa’s population trend calculations over the next forty years, it has been noted from time immemorial that rapid population growth occurs more in the rural farming communities than in the urban areas. Farming communities tend to bear more children as a source for more farm labour and a source for security of parents in their old age when they would not have the strength to continue with farm work.
The old concept of creating more children for future farm labour does not apply in modern times. Farm population in Africa presently varies from 25-55 percent, while the percentage of farmers in most of the developed world, particularly in Britain, the rest of Europe and in America is just about 1% of the national population. The farming population of the Republic of Korea, that is South Korea, as an example of middle income and upper middle income countries, is just about 5% of their national population.
The population of people in agriculture on the continent is just too high and two factors have to be considered. These are as follows:
Reduce the percentage of people engaged in farming in African countries.
Reorganise the small farmland holding system from present 3-4 acres to larger farm holdings for increased farm production.
Improve and make farming more efficient by introducing technology.
By increasing education in the rural areas and by making agriculture more productive using machinery, better farm planning, more and better farm production inputs, better post harvest storage facilities, it will be possible for African countries to reduce the percentage of their agricultural populations, increase farm productivity, increase agro-industrial production, train excess educated persons in the rural areas in modern technical/vocational (TVET) professions and engage such trained persons in a variety of modern industrial work.
The more the percentage of people who get employment in modern industries and who will pay income taxes that are higher than what rural farmers pay presently, if any, the faster national revenues on the continent will grow and consequently lead to more increases in job opportunities.
In summary, Africa’s youthful growing population should be turned into an asset that will catapult the continent faster into higher revenue generation capacity and development status within the next 12-15 years.
Dealing with annual output of educational institutions
The increasing number of students completing each level of the educational institutions on the continent is very encouraging. There are fewer jobs and this is a reason why university graduates and trained secondary school leavers find it difficult to get employment. There can never be a situation where the number of people leaving the education institutions annually will equally match the number of job positions in a country. There can never be full employment in
any country unless it is a totalitarian country. More education is good for the individual and for the country as well.
As more students graduate from the education system, it is obvious that more job opportunities should be created in the economy to absorb more trained work force. Planning and creating new industries periodically to be able to provide job opportunities for coming generations of secondary and tertiary level graduates is a procedure that is accomplished in the Education Reform process some countries undertake periodically.
So far our governments, as indicated in the November 2021 article in Africa Supreme , have been inattentive to the prospects of youth unemployment arising as a result of the increasing yearly output of the educational institutions because there is hardly any education reform processes and where it occurs, it is essentially irrelevant to creating job opportunities. We turn our attention to the purposes and processes of education reforms as one of the long term solution options for youth unemployment in the next section.
Education Reform and attention to unemployment challenges
There are times when we hear of education reform in some African country. It must be realized that adding a new subject or two new subjects to an existing curriculum does not constitute education reform.
None of the reviews and major changes in the education systems in African countries qualifies as education reform in the true sense of the term. All such reforms are really recommendations of education committees such as “Recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Education 1975”; “Recommendations of the Kajubi Committee on Education 2000”; “Recommendations of the Science Review Committee 2015”; “or “Recommendations of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Curriculum Review 2022.” (These are only made-up examples).
Education Reform always has a major purpose. The purpose may be financial, industrial and jobs creation. We refer to education reform that is based on this purpose as Type 1 Education Reform. Education Reform in another country may be oriented toward meeting a military challenge or some scientific challenge as occurred in USA in the late 1950s. For purposes of distinguishing between the two types of education reform, we refer to this type of reform as Type 2 Education Reform. An education reform in any of the two types always has the purpose of changing a nation and positioning it on a new growth path.
Type 1 Education Reform, as indicated, is essentially financial in its purpose and direction. Although the target of the reform is toward improving the financial standing of a country and consequently the social life of a country, the process is called “Education Reform” because most of the activities involved are led by education and its various aspects: changes in curriculum, TVET, teaching methods and other processes,
Let us explain Type 2 education reform further and then return to Type 1 Education Reform. The International Council of Scientific Unions set a goal that required that scientists would launch an artificial satellite into space in the period 1957-1958. The United States, Russia and Germany were all interested in the possibility of space satellite launch. On October 4,1957 Russia launched the first satellite called Sputnik into space. The launch of the Russian satellite immediately had three effects. It sparked the space race; it secondly sparked the race for developing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM); it thirdly, compelled the American federal and state governments to do the following:
Put more money into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in secondary schools and in the universities
Set up scholarship schemes for undergraduate studies
Provide loan schemes for university students
Introduce work-study programmes for university students
Increase funding for university research
Set up sponsored public education
Initiate statewide curriculum
Institute local property tax to finance education
On january1st, 1958, America launched its first satellite called “Explorer” into space.
We realise that America was compelled by circumstances to rapidly make changes in its education system, putting more emphasis on STEM subjects; increasing the research capacity of the nation, expanding and funding industries connected to the space programme; all of these efforts consequently leading to significant expansion in education, significant expansion in job opportunities, and finally restoring America to its position as the world leader in science and its applications. Being the world leader in science brings with it lots of overseas contracts for American scientific products. These contracts would obviously have led to increases in the finances of the nation. This means that what we have referred to as Type 1 and Type 2 education reforms are basically the same in their processes and effects. The difference is only in the initial purpose of the reform.
Our concern in this paper is on how African countries could use the education reform process for improving their finances and their general economies. We turn to what we have referred to as Type 1 Education Reform. Type 1 education reform must be able to move the economy of a country to much higher ground; indicate the number of jobs that would be created by new industries and by expansion in existing industries with careful evaluation system within a specific time frame. Consequently, any education reform that does not start with considerations for driving up the GDP of a country faster is not education reform in its true sense. Further, any education reform that does not consider creating job opportunities is not education reform in its true sense.
This emphasis is important because wrongful use of terms leads to waste of public funds in many cases, adds minimal benefits to the education system, adds virtually nothing to the country’s GDP, and distorts government view of what education reform really is.
The Education Reform Process
For a start, the selected committee for the education reform must consider the financial position of the country and set a new financial target for the country after discussions with all key institutions, organizations and committees in the country. Let us consider the following example:
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and GDP per capita
The value of all the goods and services produced in a country in a year is referred to as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). When the GDP, let’s say for 2020 is divided by the population of the country, the number obtained is referred to as the GDP per capita.
Let us assume that an African country has population of 25 million and GDP of 35 billion US dollars.
Now, when the GDP of that country is divided by the country’s population, that is,
GDP per capita indicates the total monetary value of all goods and services produced in a country in the year in question. GDP per capita is generally also considered as an indication of the amount of money each person in the country would receive if the country were to share its revenue equally among all its’ people in the year in question. GDP per capita is hence used to indicate the wealth status of citizens of countries.
There are two types of GDP. These are GDP (nominal) and GDP (PPP). GDP(nominal) and its associated GDP per capita (nominal) are explained in the paragraph above.
PPP means “Purchasing Power Parity”. GDP(nominal) may be converted to international dollars which have the same purchasing power as the United States dollar. GDP (nominal) may hence be converted to GDP(PPP) by using the ruling rates of the US dollar, and out of which GDP per capita PPP may be calculated. GDP (PPP) and GDP per capita (PPP) are useful for many purposes.
GDP (nominal) and GDP per capita (nominal) are defined in the way already defined above and it’s simple to understand. We use GDP (nominal) and GDP per capita (nominal) in this paper unless it becomes necessary to change to GDP (nominal) and GDP per capita (nominal) to their PPP values.
However, the political leaders of our example country may come to the realization that their GDP (nominal) of US$35 billion and associated GDP per capita of 1,400 US dollars are just too low and may decide to do something about this .They realise that the country’s financial position is very weak and as a result the country cannot build a good education system; cannot build factories, and cannot supply adequate clean water for citizens. After thorough discussions, the appointed committee comes to an agreement that sets a new GDP target of 75 billion US dollars to be achieved in 15years; from 2022-2037. The new, projected GDP, all
things being equal, should increase the country’s GDP per capita (nominal) to US$3,000 from previous US$1,400.
New industries and expansion of existing industries
Given the resources of the country, the target of reaching 75 billion US dollars GDP in 15 years seems a huge task. The target means more than doubling the existing GDP and associated GDP per capita. The appointed committee now has the task of identifying industries that could propel the economy to GDP of 75billion US dollars in 15 years. The investigations and research from a number of industries in the country and outside the country, could point to some industries that do not presently exist in the country as the ones that could help to move the country’s economy faster from 35 billion US dollars in 2022 to 75 billion US dollars in 15 years.
The task of the committee is then to make plans for a new set of identified industries; carrying out investigations to find out which of the existing industries in the country have the potential for moving the economy of the country faster; making factory building plans; finding out machinery costs; estimating the job positions that would be created in each of the planned industries; carrying out necessary business plans, and calculating development and operational costs etc. to arrive at total costs and the budget for setting up the new industries and associated education and training programmes.
With assistance from financial consultants or the country’s public accounting system, the Profit and Loss Accounts of the various industries could be prepared based on expected export and local revenues, local taxes and associated costs etc.
Technical and Vocational Training Programmes
Side by side with the above preparations and processes, the required TVET programmes should be planned, the training institutions identified and their financial support arrangements carried out.
School curriculum
The new types of industries and the expanded existing industries will all make demands for new knowledge and skills. These together will make it necessary for review of the school curriculum from primary school to secondary schools, and to tertiary education institutions.
Examinations
Changes in the curriculum have implications for changes in the examination system of the country. The structure of the examination system for the levels of the education system has to be re-planned. Types and nature of questions, written, practical and school-based assessment tasks all have to re-planned.
Examinations processing and reporting:
Changes in the examination system will call for new examination processing procedures and new examination reporting system for pupils and students, and for the examining body itself.
With all the above spate of work, it then becomes possible for national political leaders to say accurately that the country will provide 2 million jobs over the next three years because all the ground work, projections and calculations have been carried out and checked before such announcements.
A summary of the discussion on education reforms so far is as follows:
1. Planning and organization – 3years
i) GDP target selection
ii) Identification of industries
iii) Estimate of number of job opportunities by beginning of
production time
iv) Planning of quarterly evaluation systems and benchmarks
v) Planning of programme inspection and reporting system
2. Construction of new or additional education and training institutions 3 years
3. Redesigned primary, secondary and tertiary education curricula 3 years
4. TVET programmes, inspection system and equipment plan 3 years
5. Revision of teacher education programmes 2 years
6. Supply of materials for school learning 2 years
7. Revision of the examination and other assessment processes 2 years
8. Implementation of revised secondary school education 5 years
9. Post secondary industrial and other professional training 2 years
10. Tertiary education and training 3-4 years
Total time duration from start time to the time when the post secondary students would have completed further skill training and ready to join the work force is about 15 years. The GDP of 75 Billion US dollars could be reached after two years of high value production in the new industries and in the expanded existing industries. Total time for doubling the country’s GDP, creating more industries and creating almost 90% employment will be about 17 years.
Some of the benefits of a well planned and executed education reform programme are as follows:
Increases knowledge and skill acquisition
Improves the research capability of the nation
Increases the number of industries in the nation
Opens up new job opportunities
Creates business expansion in both the private and informal business sectors
Expands the nation’s sources of revenue
Increases the nation’s GDP growth
Increases the income of individuals
Increases the Velocity of Money and the Acceleration Principle of Money
Velocity of money is the rate at which money changes hands in an economy. When an economy is buoyant and people buy and sell speedily, money changes hands quickly, makes people happy, and as it is said, “Makes the world go round.” The acceleration principle of money is related to the speed at which the GDP of a country increases. GDP increases faster only when the economy is based on the production of high-value goods. The growth and acceleration of the GDP of African countries is slow because our economies are basically based on exports of raw natural products.
It must be remembered however, that as the years move on, population growth will eventually ensure that job places provided ten or more years ago will no longer be enough for the current population. For this reason, governments should plan to undertake the education reform process once every 15-20 years to ensure continuous national industrial and development growth and also ensure continuous availability of jobs for the coming youth generations.
After two education reforms in a period of thirty years, with government, public and private sector industries and national scientific institutions leading in the selection and implementation of major industries, the grounds would have been prepared sufficiently for a plethora of new supporting private industries, new private supply businesses, and traders in new high-value products etc to emerge. From this point, continuous economic growth with jobs expansion will become a self-perpetuating organ that will rarely need another education reform process.
Definitely, another education reform process will be needed if some radical changes occur in the world and most importantly in the country itself to make another education reform necessary.
The nine benefits or targets of achievement listed on the previous page, and some other targets or goals, are the same goals upon which dynamic, efficient and productive nations are constructed. With these goals as the driving forces for an effective education reform, African nations will be able to achieve each of these goals and more in less than twenty years. Goals, determination and persistence are the essential keys.
Eva Penar’s work on “Youth Unemployment in Africa: An examination of Recent Data (Jan 23, 2021),” showed that youth unemployment rates in Africa varied from low rates of 3% in West Africa to 56% in South Africa. Following this range of unemployment rates a distribution of twelve classes of youth unemployment rates were developed with class intervals of 5 points beginning from Below 5% to 55% and above, as indicated here:
If there were unemployment rates available for all the 54 African countries, the procedure for finding the average unemployment rate would have proceeded by calculating the mean by dividing the total unemployment rates across the continent and dividing this total by 54 as indicated above, to obtain the mean as the average unemployment rate across the continent.
Without unemployment rate for each country, the procedure adopted was to use the median, that is, the midpoint of the distribution of 12 class intervals, which falls between the two classes, 25-29 and 30-34; and which is 29.5 or approximately 30%. This is the median rate of the distribution and is selected as a fair estimate of the youth unemployment rate on the continent.
When this rate is applied to the 2020 youth population of 455million, the number of unemployed youth on the continent in 2020, was approximately 137 million. Because the continent’s population figure for 2021, standing at 1.4 billion, has not yet been subjected to detailed analysis, the 2020 estimated number of unemployed youth is used, for working purposes, to provide a fair idea of the average number of unemployed youth on the continent currently, within error limits.
