| dc.description.abstract | This study examines the attempts by the government of Kenya to
develop and implement policies directed toward the problem of urban
unemployment. specifically, it focuses upon two policy areas directly
related to urban unemployment: education and economic growth. An
additional element of this study is to examine the possible consequences
of Kenya's external dependency upon the linkages among education,
economic growth, and employment opportunities.
Throughout the 1960's, the main problem in the educational
sector of developing societies as perceived by planners, politicians,
and theorists, related primarily to the challenge of producing numbers
of educated people to promote a rapid localization of jobs and to sustain
the high rate of economic growth which were believed necessary for
development. The policy prescriptions involved a dramatic quantitative
expansion of school enrollments. This was understandable and inevitable
in view of the dramatic manpower shortages which existed at the time of
independence.
In recent years, however, these efforts at expanding educational
opportunities for the people of Kenya have resulted in widespread
unemployment of school graduates. The dynamic rate of economic growth
and a forceful campaign of Kenyanization have not been successful in
creating sufficient employment to meet the growing numbers of Kenyan
students who believe themselves qualified for gainful employment. The
problem is particularly significant in the city of Nairobi, where the
African population is increasing through births and migration by over
10% per year. In contrast, the tiny increase in employment is scarcely
noticed.
In an attempt to resolve the problem of unemployment among graduates,
governmental policies in Kenya were directed toward improving
various components of the school system, such as examination content
and procedures, curriculum, and vocational and technical education.
Policymakers believed that the mismatch between education and employment
was the cause of graduates lacking marketable skills to secure the
needed employment. However, the impact of these educational strategies
in solving the unemployment problem has been extremely limited.
Thus, any attempt to trace the causes of graduate unemployment
in Kenya rapidly leads to an analysis of the entire socio-economic
structure and touches on almost every element of development strategies.
A major factor is Kenya's dependency on external economic'
forces, which influence and constrain its actions by controlling the
amount of resources available to it and the distribution of political
power. The evidence presented in this study points to the continued
vulnerability and 1imitations of the Kenyan economy imposed by its
periphery role within the world economic system.
While changes in curriculum and in the examination system may
be expected to bring educational benefits, it is unrealistic to suppose
that such changes alone will improve the employment prospects of
graduates in the labor market. The results of this study suggest
that the roots of the unemployment problem are in the structure of
society, and particularly in the failure of the Kenyan economy to
industrialize and modernize at a rate that absorbs the labor force.
These economic problems are traced to Kenya's continued dependency on
external economic assistance, which reduces its ability to determine
the course of national development independently. This economic problem is of such a magnitude that it can only be solved by structural
adjustments, both internally and externally. | en |
