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The Economics of Education in Sierra Leone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Suhas L. Ketkar
Suhas L. Ketkar
Affiliation:
Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennesse
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Extract

With respect to investment in education, two important questions need to be examined. The first is concerned with the amount to be invested in primary and secondary schools, and the institutions of higher learning, and the second relates to the distribution of total costs among the state, private institutions, and those who receive education.

This short article first evaluates the existing formal educational system in Sierra Leone with the help of the cost-benefit technique. In order to obtain guidelines for future investment policies the internal social rates of return are computed for the various levels of education. Then the supply and demand of trained personnel are estimated for the period 1975–9 on the basis of the following classification: (i) high level (those with university education), (ii) middle level (those with some secondary education and technical/vocational training), and (iii) primary- and secondary-school teachers. The projections show that shortages will occur in all three groups during the next five years, above all at the middle level where a 70 per cent increase in the expected supply will be necessary to meet the requirements.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1977 , pp. 301 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

Page 302 note 1 Blaug, Mark, An Introduction to the Economics of Education (Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 108.Google Scholar

Page 302 note 2 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Civil Service of Sierra Leone and the Government White Paper Thereon (Freetown, 1970), pp. viii–xv.Google Scholar

Page 302 note 3 Central Statistics Office, Sierra Leone, Household Expenditure and Income and Eanzomic Characteristics for Urban and Rural Areas of the Provinces and the Western Area (Freetown, 1969–1971).Google Scholar

Page 302 note 4 This figure is based on the average life expectancy in Sierra Leone of 45 years and the minimum job-market entry age of 15.

Page 303 note 1 Based on a projected growth rate of G.D.P. at 5·5 per cent per annum and that of population at 2·5 per Cent.

Page 303 note 2 The estimates for primary and secondary education are those of Edstrom, J., ‘Education Finance, Expenditure and Unit Costs’, Sierra Leone Education Sector Mid-Review Conference, Freetown, 12 1973, p. 5.Google Scholar To obtain the unit costs of higher education, the total Government grant in 1972–3 of Le 5·23 million was divided by the estimated number of 2,716 students at the University of Sierra Leone and the various Teacher-Training Colleges.

Page 303 note 3 Thias, H. H. and Carnoy, M., Cost-Benefit Analysis in Education: a case study of Kenya (Washington, 1972)Google Scholar, World Bank Staff Occasional Paper No. 14, Table 4.15, p. 94.

Page 304 note 1 National Development Plan, 1974/5–1978/9 (Freetown, 08 1974).Google Scholar

Page 303 note 2 Ibid. ch. III, p. 27. Since teacher requirements are derived from the projected enrolment increases in primary and secondary schools (and not on the basis of sectoral growth rates), the 1974 and 1979 work force for public administration and other services is net of the estimated teaching personnel in these two years.

Page 303 note 3 Population Census of Sierra Leone, 1963, Vol. III, Economic Characteristics (Freetown, 1965), Table 13, p. 100.Google Scholar

Page 303 note 4 Op.cit. Table 19. The national educational attainments in each occupation are the ‘weighted’ average of the rural-urban educational attainments in the Provinces and the Western Area. The weights have been derived from the 1963 Population Census and are the number of workers in each occupation cross-classified by Province and sector or employment.

Page 305 note 1 Source: computed from information in the 1963 Population Census, and the 1967–1970 household surveys.