Education for self-reliance and the world of work in Tanzania: an assessment of vocationalisation of the secondary school curriculum in equipping students with work skills

Education for Self-Reliance (ESR) was a Philosophy-cum-policy which aimed, among others, to change the bookish and elitist education which Tanzania had inherited from the colonial government. In order to achieve this goal, vocationalization of the ordinary- level secondary school cuniculum was initiated in 1972 to make the education more practically oriented, and also to prepare students to become skilled, employable and creative in self-employment. The purpose of this study was to assess the electiveness’ of the vocational subject biases in the ordinary-level secondary curriculum in providing work-skills to students and preparing them for the world of work. The main data collection methods were interviews, observation and review of official documents. The study examined the range of work-skills developed by the vocationalized curriculum in terms of demonstration of skills/behaviour patterns in the psychomotor domain relative to those in the cognitive or affective domains. The study also examined the teaching--learning methods used by teachers of the vocational subjects so as to link theory with practice and equip students with work-skills. Moreover, the study traced the whereabouts of the school graduates of the vocationalized curriculum in order to find out the extent of their employability and income-generating capacity. The findings showed that vocationalization of the ordinary level secondary school cuniculum was not effective in equipping students with work-skills. However, findings suggest that in order for the vocationalized curriculum to become elective in equipping students with work-skills, aborts should be made by all education stakeholders to increase finding for the programme so as to provide the required teaching and lcaming materials, as well as adequate fractional equipment and training materials for practical’s and well-trained teachers.