Documento de Trabajo N° 37

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Editor: Zaghloul Morsy

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Printed by Imprimerie des Presses Universitaires de France, V e n d ô m e .
© Unesco 1977
quarterly review of education Unesco
Vol. VII No. 4 1977
Contents Educational reform in

Comparative analysis
Viewpoints and controversies

Basic education: tool of liberation or exploitation? Marjorie Mbilinyi 489
Elements for a dossier:

Issues and opportunities in pre-school learning
Pre-school education in developing countries Gilbert de Landsheere 506
A n experiment in psychological intervention David Wood
and Miriam Harris 512
Toys for pre-school children Audrey Stephenson 528
Pre-school education and working mothers in Hungary
Julia Turgonyi 540
Non-formal education programmes for children and parents
in Peru Juana Consuelo Ibañez Solazar 549
Parents help to educate their children: an experiment in Chile
Carmen Balmaceda, Johanna Filp, Patricia Gimeno
and Howard Richards 557
D a y nurseries in Senegal Khady Gueye 565
Face to face with poverty: the Mobile Crèches in India
Meera Mahadevan 570
Trends and cases

World public expenditure: education and armaments, 1965-74
Gabriel Corceles 581
A n experiment in the use of low-cost teaching materials
José Francisco Nereu 588
Notes and reviews

1977 International literacy prizes. Book reviews. S o m e recent
Unesco publications. Books received. Index 1977. 597
ISSN 0033-1538
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its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
Vincent Guezodje
Educational reform in Benin
Vincent Guezodje O n 30 November 1972, the revolutionary military Government of

(People's Republic ^ p eo pi e 's Republic of Benin announced its programme and defined
tne t v e
Minister P °f development it intended to promote. This declaration
of Primary Education. laid stress on the need to free the country from dependence on
foreign powers and to create a new economic political and social
order based on the improvement of productivity and production
methods, a fairer distribution of the goods produced by the c o m -
munity and a radical transformation of social structures. It also im-
pressed on the people of Benin that in making this effort they must
rely in thefirstplace on their o w n strength.
Within the framework of this strategy for self-directed develop-
ment, an educational reform was promulgated in Benin in June 1975.
Since the revolutionary military government is convinced that edu-
cation is not a problem in itself but is only one aspect of a vaster
development problem, it has based the reform on the following
principles:
Educational institutions at all levels (primary schools, general and
technical secondary schools, the university) are an integral part
of the social environment; by developing the student's powers
of reflection, they should exercise a stimulating influence and pro-
mote a constant awareness of the need for change in all spheres
of life—economic, political, social and cultural.
Education should help to safeguard cultural values by revitalizing
whatever in those values is fundamental and compatible with the
progress and all-round development of every individual, while
refusing to countenance the process of alienation and the uncon-
ditional acceptance of whatever is labelled as modern.
Lastly, education should be concerned not only with formal in-
struction but also with every other aspect of life; in this connection,
455
Prospects, Vol. VII, N o . 4 . 1977
Vincent Guezodje
the Centre Populaire d'Éducation, de Perfectionnement et d'Ini-

tiation à la Production (People's Centre for Basic and Further
Education and Initial Training for Production W o r k ) (CPEPIP)
organizes the following activities for all sections of the population
not enrolled in educational institutions: literacy training, corre-
spondence courses, initial training in skills required for production
projects, educational leisure pursuits and sports.
T h e C P E P I P , which co-operates with the other organizations
concerned with development promotion work, seeks to equip every
citizen for participation in the process of change with the aim of
building ca n e w society where it will be good to be alive'. Education
for all or, as Paulo Freiré calls it, cthe conscientization of peoples'
is seen to be the essential condition for development w h e n it is
understood to imply an attempt at self-liberation from all the
constraints inhibiting the creative potential of the individual.
T h e n e w education system in the People's Republic of Benin has
been organized in accordance with the three guiding principles set
out above and will therefore be democratic and popular, compulsory
and free, public and secular.
T h e reform marks a break with the academically oriented tra-
ditional system, which drove a wedge between the world of the
intellectuals inherited from the colonial period and the hard-working
rural world. It establishes manual work as an essential part of edu-
cation, which will produce citizens w h o are fervent patriots, inte-
grated into their environment, politically conscious of their country's
problems and capable of developing the qualities required in order
to ensure that the nation's future can be taken in hand by the
entire community (resourcefulness, enterprise, a sense of responsi-
bility, etc.). Every educational institution is accordingly organized
as a production unit, whose earnings are added to the institution's
financial assets. Every school thus becomes a centre for stimulating
the cultural and economic life of the community.
O u r article will be focused on this aspect of the educational reform
in Benin in order to highlight some of its original features.
The origin of the reform: the Bensekou experiment
S o m e countries start by promulgating reforms, and the various

measures provided for in the enactment are then tested by organizing
experiments. T h e case of Benin is different.
456
Between 1966 and 1972 our country experienced a pedagogic revival

which concentrated mainly on introducing into our primary schools
teaching techniques connected with the study of the environment.
B y agreement with the other development promotion organizations
(concerned with agricultural information, health, social welfare, etc.),
about a hundred schools have started to give a lead to village
communities and are trying to create closer links between school life
and the daily life of the villagers.
These experiments have prepared the ground for the reform n o w
in progress, which reflects the deep need for innovation and change
expressed by the mass of the people. O n e such successful experiment
was carried out at Bensekou.
Bensekou is a small village of 400 inhabitants in north-eastern
Benin. T h e Bariba and Fula w h o live there grow cotton, yams,
maize, millet, beans and manioc. T h e villagers also breed cattle and
catchfishin the Sota, a tributary of the river Niger.
T h e population did not show m u c h enthusiasm w h e n the Bensekou
school was opened in 1965/66. In such remote areas school is regarded
as a 'foreign body' which turns the children's thoughts away from
working in the fields.
Despite this cool reception, the only schoolmaster in the village
and his thirty pupils cleared afieldto sow cotton as soon as the rains
came. Since cotton is the village's chief marketable crop, the school-
master's decision was in line with the activity and concerns of the
villages.
At the end of the 1966/67 school year, the remaining twenty-seven
pupils earned the s u m of 25,174 C F A francs, i.e. a per capita income
of 932 C F A francs, from the sale of karite, kapok, cotton and
ground-nuts. T h e pupils themselves deal unaided with expenditures
and receipts and all management problems.
In the following year, the income amounted to 83,895 C F A francs,
of which 22 per cent was spent on clothing and 16 per cent on school
equipment.
Impressed and stimulated by the example of the school, the
villagers increased their productionfivefoldin two seasons, from
104,000 to 560,000 C F A francs. Apart from the parents' association,
the link between the school and the village was the youth club which
organized itself, took on contracts for work such as the maintenance
of cashew plantations, roads, etc., and was even able to form an
orchestra capable of competing with those in Parakou, the capital
of the province of Borgou.
457
Vincent Guezodje
F r o m the educational point of view, agricultural work, the obser-

vation of plant life, the practice of crop-raising techniques and even
the handling of funds gave n e w life to classroom work. In this way,
what the pupils learnt was applied to everyday life, which in turn
illustrated the knowledge they acquired.
In order to widen the children's horizons, the school organized
and completely financed study tours.
In short, the Bensekou experiment was a conclusive test and
proved that schools can and must be units of production as well as
places of learning. This system makes schools less expensive to run,
both for the parents and for the State, since the school itself pays for
the children's clothing, educational materials and so on; it enlivens
education by linking theory to practice; it ensures that the school
becomes a centre for stimulating efforts to improve its immediate
environment.
But, above all, this reform is the outcome of political struggles led,
in particular, by the teachers' unions, which were determined to free
the Benin education system from the strait-jacket of old values and
to put an end to the exploitation of the people of Benin, w h o had
been trained in the schools of the colonial power to serve as the docile
instruments of its policy of domination.
Technically, therefore, the boldness of the educational reform is
based on a successful experiment, namely, that of Bensekou. However,
despite this achievement, w e thought it wise to conduct an opinion
poll in all sections of the population to find out what the public
expected of the n e w school system, before w e convened the National
Commission for Educational Reform.
The preliminary survey and the Law on Educational Policy
T h e preliminary survey, which lasted three months and was

conducted in the six provinces of Benin by six multidisciplinary
teams, showed that broad agreement existed on three points.
First, our peoples stated, with great c o m m o n sense and firmness,
that they wanted to see our national languages become school
subjects and languages of instruction.
Secondly, our peoples expressed the opinion that school curricula
should be relevant to the problems they have to cope with every day,
more closely integrated with life outside the school, and thus adapted
to reflect the activities of the local community.
458
Thirdly, the introduction of manual work into education is a

logical consequence of the second point.
Following this survey, a two-week national seminar was attended
by nearly 120 people, w h o were the most representative delegates
of all sections of the population, in order to analyse the answers and
draw u p specific proposals for the guidance of government depart-
ments. A document of s o m e hundred pages was then prepared for
the political authorities, which contained proposals regarding n e w
structures for each level of instruction and education, suggested h o w
the development of the n e w curricula should be approached and
assessed the cost of carrying through the reform.
This document was discussed, a m e n d e d and adopted b y the
National Council of the Revolution, and was then promulgated
on 23 June 1975 as the L a w on National Educational Policy.
T h e L a w on Educational Policy stems directly from the p r o g r a m m e
which was announced on 30 N o v e m b e r 1972, barely a m o n t h after
the revolutionary process had begun on 26 October 1972. This
declaration includes the following passage:
It is imperative to institute a system of democratic and patriotic education

making it possible to teach modern science and technology in such a way as
to further the interests of the people. T o this end, a genuine educational
reform must be worked out to meet the demands of the new policy. T h e
reform will have to set up structures for an education system based on a
policy designed to meet the requirements of an independent type of economic
and national development.
This is exactly what the National Commission for the Reform of

Education has tried to do. S o m e of its principles and objectives are
set out below:
There are no educational problems calling for separate solutions; there is one
development problem of which the educational problem is one important
aspect.
Education must become the prime mover of our economic and social
development. . . . This implies that it must aim at serving the whole
community and not a tiny minority of privileged persons. Accordingly,
education should become the natural point of convergence of all efforts to
seek, analyse and assemble whatever forces in the social environment can
be mobilized with the firm intention of transforming and developing that
environment.
All the Nation's available intellectual and technical personnel must be
used in addition to the traditional educational structures.
459
Vincent Guezodje
T h e image of the school must change. The equation: school=personal

diploma=individual betterment, must be replaced by: school=one of the
means of transforming the Nation =collective betterment.
In the new, integrated school, the teacher ceases to be the possessor and
dispenser of knowledge, but becomes an organizer of community activities, a
counsellor, a consciousness-raising agent. H e should no longer be considered,
or consider himself, to have the monopoly of knowledge and truth. . . . In
this setting, the teacher must continually exercise self-criticism and at the
same time allow his pupils to question the value of his knowledge.
T h e new type of school should apply an essentially active and dynamic
method based on educational theories that lay appropriate emphasis on the
study of the environment. This method should aim at the socialization of
the child in order to integrate him into his community while equipping him
with the intellectual and practical means of transforming it....
Education will safeguard national cultural values by enhancing and in-
vigorating whatever in those values is fundamental and compatible with
progress and economic and social development, while refusing to counten-
ance the retrograde process of alienation and the unconditional acceptance
of whatever is labelled as modern.
T h e above passages are extracts from the National Programme for

the Construction of the New Education System. T h e y s h o w that the
n e w type of system must strive to further economic and social
development, in particular by completely renovating educational
theories.
Since the L a w on Educational Policy was promulgated, several
practical achievements have already been recorded, the most out-
standing of which are as follows: n e w curricula have been worked
out and introduced into all branches of education; pilot schools and
polytechnical complexes have been set u p ; techniques for studying
the environment have been introduced into the pre-service train-
ing of young primary school teachers; our National Linguistics
Commission has been revived and has produced literacy training
textbooks as well as carrying out research on the schooling to be
provided for our children and the literacy training to be given to
our adults in the national languages; students and young revolutionary
teachers have been recruited for teaching missions to alleviate the
shortage of teachers; Unesco experts have conducted a socio-economic
survey on the application of the reform of education,, etc.
If it is to b e c o m e 'the prime mover of our economic and social
development' the school system must therefore be transformed to
enable it in its turn to become a factor of social change, as w e have
seen at Bensekou.
460
Í
T o this end, w e considered it indispan*
study of educational problems by holdi$
seminars on the subject, in particular the\s
development', and also to conduct further"
of practical training courses organized in
T h efirstof these started at Gandjazoumè and Paouignan in 1976.
S o m e of the crucial measures of the reform are already being
widely applied. For instance, all schools have really become pro-
duction units. Other measures will only become generalized practice
after the preparatory stages of reflection, training and experimentation
have been completed. This is precisely what w e aimed to achieve
by holding the Education and Development Seminar and organizing
the practicalfieldwork connected with it.
A decisive test: Paouignan
THE EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR
T h e Paouignan experiment, which w e shall discuss later in this

report, is simply the outcome of the Education and Development
Seminar which brought together people working in m a n y different
fields in order to obtain their views as to what courses of action would
lead to complete fulfilment of the objectives of the reform and
facilitate co-operation infieldwork between the representatives of
the various development promotion organizations.
S o m e of the recommendations m a d e at this seminar deserve
special attention, and they are summarized below.
Education must be enabled to fulfil its primary purpose which is
to serve as a link with social life and the surrounding natural
environment, for integrated development is impossible unless
concerted efforts are m a d e by all the skilled personnel available in a
community; nor can it be achieved without changing the existing
professional profile of the teacher and other development promotion
agents in order to ensure that they are better prepared for their tasks
of stimulating the social environment and contributing to the
consciousness-raising of individuals.
T o this end, it is necessary to train people for responsible positions
in all regions by periodically requiring all the skilled personnel of
the region to participate in practical courses organized in specific
social situations. A s the school is n o w considered to be one of the
461
Vincent Guezodje
training and development structures, it should be m a d e responsible,

at c o m m u n e level, for promoting concerted action between the
various institutions concerned with development in the following
fields: health, rural development, public works, youth, etc.
Since the school is also a production unit, it is likewise essential
to train people to be responsible for running school co-operatives
in order to ensure that they are managed more efficiently.
All these proposals were worth trying out. T h e Paouignan
operation was undertaken in order to put into practice, within the
limits of one specific area, the recommendations m a d e by the
Education and Development Seminar—in other words, to give effect
to the L a w on Educational Policy.
P A O U I G N A N : A TRAINING COURSE
ORGANIZED IN A SPECIFIC SOCIAL SITUATION
T h e c o m m u n e of Paouignan is situated in the heartland of Benin and

consists of three villages—Paouignan, Ouissi and Gbedavo—whose
total population in 1976 was 6,360. Most of the population belongs
to the M a h i and Idacha ethnic groups.
Paouignan's economy is based on agriculture, the main crop being
manioc; cotton, maize and groundnuts are also grown. T h e farmers
belong to the Groupement Révolutionnaire à Vocation Coopérative
(Co-operative Revolutionary Group) ( G R V C ) which is a m e m b e r of
the Section Épargne et Crédit (Savings and Loans Section) (SEC),
where they bank their savings or apply for loans.
Central Paouignan has three groups of classes: A (six grades),
B (six grades) and C (three grades), while Ouissi has one school
with three grades and Gbedavo one class offiftypupils.
Objectives
As already stated, the main objective of such operations is to give
effect to the conclusions and resolutions of the Education and Devel-
opment Seminar—which amounts, in fact, to putting the reform to
the test of practical work in the field.
M o r e specifically, it was necessary, in the setting of a rural c o m m u n e
(in this case Paouignan), to arouse the interest of the entire popu-
lation, through the community organizers and local authorities
appointed by the revolutionary government, and to induce everyone
to participate in meetings and joint projects in order to pursue the
following subobjectives:
462
T o popularize the educational reform by applying it in the field.

T o proceed by stages and in specific social situations to bring the
n e w education system into being by involving all local leaders
in an effort to reflect on the community's problems with a view
to promoting co-operation and concerted action.
T o try out in school, with the present teachers, the various possible
ways of bringing the realities of the social environment into edu-
cational theories, classroom work and other aspects of school life:
this means tackling theoretical and practical problems connected
with the study of the environment and analysing all the educational
and social implications of this approach.
T o show, in the form of a diagram applicable to other schools as
well, the n e w relations that the school must develop and expand
with the various local development promotion structures, and to
m a k e development promotion agents aware of the n e w attitudes
demanded by this effort.
Implementation
T h e development promotion effort in which the entire population
was thus involved affected almost all aspects of life: economic and
political problems, health, nutrition, the education of children and
young people, housing, hygiene, co-operatives, literacy training, and
so o n .
In each of these sectors, the immediate objective was to find out
h o w the school could contribute to the development and advancement
of the whole community.
T h e ten specialists responsible for conducting the operation lived
in the village for three weeks and sought to mobilize every type of
development promotion organizer in the c o m m u n e for reflection and
action 'with a view to changing people's attitudes to educational
realities rather than supplying a set of recipes for teaching or devel-
opment promotion work'.
T h e y started by providing information intelligible to all. T h e
social groups with which they established contact were composed
of all teachers, considered as organizers of community activities, the
pupils, w h o play the leading role in such activities, and other people
contributing to development promotion work such as the personnel
of the following services: rural development, health, public works,
posts and telecommunications, public finances, social welfare, the
constabulary.
T h e local political authorities and the various socio-economic
463
Vincent Guezodje
groups (tradesmen, craftsmen and artists) were also approached. T h e

information provided related to the principal objectives of the n e w
education system and the means of achieving them.
This preparatory work was followed b y working meetings with
the various development promotion organizers of the c o m m u n e and
district to make a joint effort to determine what kinds of relationship
should link them to one another and to the school; after these working
meetings, the leading participants and the inhabitants of Paouignan
held a meeting in the school playground. T h e inhabitants spon-
taneously decided that in future the agenda of their monthly general
assembly would include, besides the usual items, a progress report
on the way in which the National Programme for the Construction
of the N e w Education System was being implemented at Paouignan.
Briefing teachers
While the above-mentioned activities were going on, special attention
was being paid to teachers. T o start with, joint study groups were
held on the L a w on Educational Policy. It was necessary to go over
the text in this way to make its meaning clear, even for teachers,
because the concepts and ideas of the National Programme for the
Construction of the N e w Education System were not always easy
for them to grasp.
After the small study groups had worked through questionnaires,
the teachers m a d e a list of everything that had been done in the
schools of Paouignan to set u p the n e w education system: the intro-
duction of n e w subjects such as patriotic civic education, ideology,
courses on h o m e economics; the reactivation of the school production
unit and co-operative, etc.
Lastly, the information that had been collected was used as the
basis of an objective assessment of the gap between what teachers
in the c o m m u n e had actually done and what remained to be done
in order ot make the n e w education system into 'a fermenting-agent
for transforming the social environment'.
Criticisms of the Paouignan experiment

T h e reasons for the gap between what has actually been done at
Paouignan by the teachers of the c o m m u n e to enable their schools
to attain the objectives set for the n e w education system and what
still remains to be done m a y be summarized as follows:
Inadequate team work owing to the lack of equipment and training.
Absence of real links between the production eifort and intellectual work.
464
Failure of the Teachers' Association to m a k e contact with the other

development promotion agents and with the villagers, and also
its inability to m a k e the school a point of convergence of all efforts
to analyse and solve the problems of the community.
Hardly any change in classroom methods and behaviour.
In short, this gap is due to the fact that teaching draws very little
on the environment, except as a reservoir of examples or illustrations,
which is not nearly enough in these days.
A general meeting was held to reflect on the objectives and impli-
cations of the 'study of the environment'.
In our view, the 'study of the environment' consists in
taking the observation and analysis of the physical, social and cultural
realities surrounding the school as the subject-matter of lessons given in
various educational disciplines (languages, mathematics, history, geography,
observational sciences, etc.), in order to gain a clearer understanding of
problems affecting these realities and suggest practical solutions to be
applied with the co-operation of all development promotion workers and
the villagers themselves.1
T h e schools at Paouignan and Ouissi took part in the development

of methods for studying the environment. T h e y did field work,
collected material and studied it in groups, and afterwards produced
reports. T h e experiment is being continued around several themes
such as the cultivation of cotton and maize, the tailor's craft, etc.,
but it is already obvious that the children's powers of observation
and their faculty for analysing, judging and reasoning develop very
quickly w h e n they c o m e into contact with what is going on around
them.
General conditions required

for establishing this type of school
POLITICAL CONDITIONS
T h e success of the type of school w e are attempting to establish

depends very largely on the degree to which the population is aware
of its importance. It will therefore be necessary to promote the
emergence of what m a y be described as a political will or, better
i. 'National Programme for the Construction of the N e w Education System'.
465
Vincent Guezodje
still, as an ideology, which will be sufficiently inspiring to induce

communities to assume responsibility for their o w n decisions and
ensure their participation in development activities conducted along
revolutionary lines.
Benin has chosen to be guided b y Marxism-Leninism in its action
to transform the environment in order to found a socialist society.
W e must rely in thefirstplace on our strength, our own resources, on the

creative initiative of the broad masses in our struggle to free ourselves from
foreign domination, develop our economy and give our people the dignity
and personality of a free people. . . -1
STRUCTURAL CONDITIONS
For administrative purposes, Benin is divided into 6 provinces

which are subdivided into 49 districts, and these, in turn, are divided
into 310 urban and rural c o m m u n e s . All these territorial divisions
coincide with all the other development promotion structures dealing
respectively with: (a) political organization through the various coun-
cils of the revolution; (b) agricultural extension work through the
Centre d'Action Régional pour le Dévelopement Rural (Regional
Action Centre for Agricultural Development) ( C A R D E R ) ; (c) health
education; (d) information, culture for the people, sports and leisure
activities; (e) educational promotion work, etc.
U n d e r this system, the Comité d'État pour l'Administration de
la Province (National Committee for the Administration of the Prov-
ince) ( C E A P ) and the Comité Révolutionnaire pour l'Administration
du District (Revolutionary Committee for the Administration of
the District) ( C R A D ) are responsible in every part of Benin for:
(a) integrating and co-ordinating development programmes and activi-
ties in the province and district; and (b) combining material and
h u m a n resources in such a w a y as to use them as profitably as
possible.
EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS
A s teaching will henceforth be linked to production, a production unit

is n o w part of the co-operative of every school. M e m b e r s of the school
1. Declaration of 30 November 1972 announcing the revolutionary government's programme.

Published by O N E P I .
466
co-operative are thus engaged in crop-growing, stock-raising, handi-

crafts and cultural activities, and their earnings contribute to the
school budget. Tables i and 2 show the results of these productive
activities for the 1975/76 school year.
T A B L E I . Balance sheets of the co-operatives of nursery and primary schools (in C F A

francs)
— — S
O O ->
o oa _ •a
CO CO rr, Cfí X *J
. 1> , . OJ O . O. a
O -S o a o -g w u
u a u£ ua« 5
S ° S'H So 4 - 1 2
Provinces £8 £ § Z S » H
Oueme 284 300 131 5,267,233 2,418,495 2,848,738

Atlantique 259 267 134 7,037,279 2,843,860 4,193,419
Mono 191 204 81 4,978,458 2,303,414 2,675,044
Zou 261 268 63 2,862,459 1,355,826 1,506,633
Borgou 185 200 30 1,407,929 723,275 684,654
Atacora 173 186 45 1,669,051 988,569 680,482
TOTAL 1,353 1,425 484 23,222,409 10,633,439 12,588,970
1. Being approximately 34 per cent of institutions.
T A B L E 2 . Balance sheets of the co-operatives of general secondary schools (in C F A

francs)
Number
of
insti- Reports Total Total
Provinces tutions received receipts expenditure Balance
Oueme 24 II 3,028,338 1,697,294 1,331,044

Atlantique 26 14 3,781,854 1,529,787 2,252,067
Mono 9 7 2,040,478 1,177,857 862,621
Zou 23 8 1,541,954 963,230 578,724
Borgou 11 9 3,670,238 2,024,452 1,665,786
Atacora 7 7 1,347,321 962,520 384,801
TOTAL IOO 56 15,410,183 8,355,140 7,055,043
467
Vincent Guezodje
However, as the aim of schooling is not production as such, it

is still necessary to promote an approach to classroom work that
is likely to create a genuine link between the school and its social
environment and contribute to the transformation of the latter. This
was the objective of the 'study of the environment', and w e shall see
h o w the effort to attain it is reflected in curricula and teaching
methods.
Faithfully basing our action on the concept of the 'study of the
environment', w e have drawn up n e w curricula for every branch
of education in Benin, taking into account:
T h e physical environment that surrounds and conditions us. T h e
change in the academic year, for example, which n o w runs
from 15 February to 15 December, has adjusted the rhythm
of school life to the cycle of the seasons and of productive
activities.
T h e h u m a n environment, in other words, our social relationships
and the social realities which include our institutions, political
ideology, conceptions of ethical values, religion, and so on.
T h e technical environment which enables us, through the study of
various techniques, to become aware of the significance and impli-
cations of technology in its impact on our way of life, our behaviour
patterns and our mental attitudes.
T h e communications, environment, and in particular the national
languages which are gradually becoming the media of instruction
in literacy training work for the mass of the people, pending the
time w h e n they can be taught in our schools as subjects of the
curriculum.
In the provisions referring to the preparation and implementation
of such a programme, the L a w on Educational Policy categorically
rejects any tendency towards the juxtaposition of different subjects
to be studied quite independently of each other, and recommends
instead that education should be planned as a series of networks
deriving their basic unity from m a n as a social being w h o loves
life, asserts his personality, struggles to improve his lot and strives
to transform his surroundings.
T h e integrated development promotion policy adopted by the

People's Republic of Benin, to which schools will contribute through
the 'study of the environment', corresponds to a type of education
and training adapted to the needs of developing countries such as
ours.
468
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F I G . I. Diagram of dialectical relations
o
5
si between school and environment.
469
Vincent Guezodje
Documentation Use of this Suggestions for

on the environment material in changing the
collected by the classroom environment
pupils or presented exercises
by the teacher
Diagram of school-environment
dialectical relations
(1) Starting-point: (3) Techniques for studies

basic material for and analyses provided
classroom work drawn by the teacher
from the environment
(2) Problems affecting

the environment'
studied in school
Active centres of interest
(5) Feedback to the (4) Orderly presentation

environment: of what has been learnt
proposals for about the environment,
future advancement development of
Participation.in creativity, etc.
development promotion
activities
Individual development
Training of persons w h o have
A collective and integrated 'development' qualities:
effort to promote the resourcefulness, imagination,
development of the environment a readiness to shoulder
holds out hope of a better responsibility, a sense of
life for the community reality, etc.
F I G . 2. Methodology for the study of the environment school section—use of the

information yielded by the survey.
470
This type of development marks a break with the colonial and

neo-colonial system of education and gives the black m a n back his
pride; on the basis of the scientific principles of Marxist-Leninist
philosophy w e believe he will be able to build a society where it
will be good to be alive.
471
George Z . F. Bereday
Comparative analysis in education
Comparisons of one person with others, of one family with other George Z . P . Bereday
families, of one's locality, region or country with those of one's ( United States
of America).
neighbours are as old as juxtaposition of colours in the arts and Professor
older than comparisons of laboratory experiments in the sciences. of comparative
In education ad hoc comparisons are also old but meticulous compari- education
at Columbia University,
sons are not. Those w h o believe in comparisons point to the resulting founder and long-time
broadened vistas but admit that comparative methods are far from editor of the
being developed. Those w h o deny the worthiness of comparative Comparative
Education Review,
research not only complain of imperfection of method but add that former joint editor
inconclusive results are useless for the purposes of planning. T h e of the World Year Book
desenchanted m a k e their attack and the enthusiastic leap to the defence of Education.
Among his many
of comparative approaches. Meanwhile academic life goes on only works are:
slightly perturbed by these eruptions. A s long as there are people Essays on World
willing to pursue comparative interests, their activities ultimately Education,
Comparative M e t h o d
overcome the protests of the sceptics. in Education.
Within the field accommodations have to be m a d e for people w h o
wish to pursue comparisons with a varying degree of rigour. T h e
scope of comparative education is still sufficiently indeterminate to
permit one of two approaches. First, a micro-approach which would
mandate a setting off against each other of meticulously matched
countries or problems in order to elicit by a systematic and symmetric
comparison a balanced view of the similarities and differences. Such
semi-scientific comparison would come closest to permitting infer-
ences, predictions and recommendations of policy from the juxta-
posed materials. I have called this approach a balanced comparison.1
i. 'Reflections on Comparative Methodology in Education, 1964-1966', Comparative Edu-

cation, Vol. 3, N o . 3, June 1967, p. 169-87.
472
Prospects, Vol. VII, N o . 4, 1977

Others have thought of this approach as scientific.1 Second, a macro-

approach which permits a very broad use of comparative data in
a variety of ways. This approach is based on the conviction that
treatment of educational data from foreign cultures, even if not
prepared for comparison with care and precision, stimulates interest
in the study of education, satisfies curiosity, broadens intellectual
vistas of the students and permits to formulate global precepts about
education. W h e n foreign educational materials are set out side by
side, even if no deliberate comparison is attempted, none the less
this provides ad hoc comparisons even if only in the mind of the
reader.
T h e hard-core comparative workers are unhappy with this func-
tion of the macro-approach. Facile and false comparative conclusions,
arrived at by quick leaps over the data are very tempting to m a k e
and widely prevalent. It is deplorable w h e n they are used as guides
to policy. But in the end w h o is to deny a poet or a philosopher,
scanning the earth as he does the sky, his right to formulate intuitive
conclusions about what he or she perceives to be a universal h u m a n
condition? I have called this second approach 'illustrative' but it
could also be called humanistic.2
This article will briefly review these two traditions of thefield,the
meticulously comparative and increasingly scientific orientation and
the less methodologically demanding humanistic, or even impression-
istic orientation. Perhaps the two can coexist and even be combined,
as the list of the major researchable topics presented at the end of
the article attempts to suggest.
Probably nothing less than scientifically precise analysis will d o
for comparative education before it can be validly used in formulation
of policy. But the less exacting approach has broader policy uses,
including that of the general 'humanization' of policy-makers.
The science of comparison
T h e plea for meticulously setting side by side the materials to be

compared and an imaginative cross-reverencing of such materials
1. B . Holmes, Problems in Education: A Comparative Approach, London, Routledge & Kegan

Paul, 1965.
2. See 'Reflections on Comparative Methodology in Education', op. cit.; see also Robert
Ulich, The Education of Nations: A Comparison in Historical Perspective, Cambridge, Mass.,
Harvard University Press, 1961.
473
George Z. F. Bereday
to each other is old. It began w h e n Jullien de Paris1 evolved his list

of fifty-four checkpoints encompassing all information he felt was
needed to study one educational system and then to compare it to
a similarly systematized list from another system. This plea for what
is n o w k n o w n in statistics as 'matching' aimed at a parallel balance
in comparison. Sir Michael Sadler's famous admonition to study
not only schools but the social forces behind the pedagogical scene2
added a requirement in depth which turned comparison into a three-
dimensional study. Taking a cue from law w e might call the method-
ological interest inaugurated by Jullien 'procedural' because it was
concerned with techniques. W e might n a m e the Sadlerian tradition
'substantive' because it dealt with content. These two lines of tra-
dition form the basis of the scientific or balanced approach.
SUBSTANTIVE TRADITION
In the substantive tradition the educational comparisons are m a d e

not of schools but of clusters of social situations. T h e studies
of the social milieu in which the school was embedded were first
attempted by Isaac Kandel and Friedrick Schneider. In the very
influential Comparative Education3 Kandel sliced and arranged edu-
cational materials by structural characteristics such as age level of
schooling, administration, and training of teachers. In his Triebkräfte
der Pädagogik der Völker? less k n o w n because it was never translated
into English, Schneider imposed upon his data a social factor classi-
fication. T h e Triebkräfte became Corrientes in Pedro Rosello's pres-
entation6 and the emphasis on political, cultural, economic and other
social factors presented together provide thefieldwith the basis
from which to reach out for further refinement of the Sadlerian
dimensions.
Kandel's structural emphasis was transformed into a full grown
system analysis in works a m o n g which R a y m o n d Poignant and
Philip C o o m b s can be particularly singled out. Each writer served
for a time as director of Unesco's International Institute for E d u -
i. The most complete of the editions of Jullien's writings available is Steward Fraser, Jullien's
Plan for Comparative Education, 1816-1817. N e w York, N . Y . , Teachers College Press,
1964.
2. Reprinted in G . Z . F . Bereday, 'Sir Michael Sadler's Study of Foreign Systems of Edu-
cation', Comparative Education Review, Vol. 7, N o . 3, February 1964.
3. I. L . Kandel, Comparative Education, Boston, Mass., Houghton Mifflin, 1933.
4. F . Schneider, Triebkräfte der Pädagogik der Völker, Salzburg, Otto Miller Verlag, 1947.
5. P . Rosello, La Teoría de las Corrientes Educativas, Rio de Janeiro, Unesco, i960.
474
cational Planning in Paris and had access to the impressive collection

of international data on education. Poignant's work 1 was a deliberate
attempt to inquire h o w schools and universities of the European
Economic C o m m u n i t y countries 'were adapting to the h u m a n , social,
democratic and economic imperatives of the modern world'. This
aim was enlarged by a resolve 'to bring out some of the most charac-
teristic tendencies of their c o m m o n development'. However, compari-
sons of the spirit, methods and content of teaching were excluded
and those presented are of structural, social and economic character
and deal with main guidelines of school and university organization,
their recent revolution, indications of quantitative development,
social issue of access and withfinancialefforts and problems. T h u s
the study contains descriptive materials culled from eleven countries,
collected in each according to the same plan and same method and
it combines these with analytical attention to socio-economic factors
and to methods of simultaneous comparisons.
While Poignant's study is essentially concerned with educational
history of individual countries for the benefit of which the lessons
wrested from the evidence by comparative method are extracted,
C o o m b s ' study2 addresses itself to global laws. These are derived
from comparative evaluation of individual countries. But the central
focus is upon the functioning of the system per se as a world entity.
C o o m b s ' 'lens with wide-angle vision' is concerned with the expli-
cation of the world crisis affecting education. T h e concern is with
main global issues faced by educational systems and with planned
response by which these issues can be addressed and perhaps resolved
in a proper order of priorities. A m o n g these the issue of 'manpower
flow' is considered particularly important. Whether the educational
output and the intake by the economy are dove-tailed to each other
or out of step is one of the crucial questions determining decisions
about expansion or contraction of the reach of education. T h e evi-
dence drawn from different countries is diverse but not contradictary.
It permits the assessment of the effectiveness of education derived
from global rather than narrower perspectives.
1. Raymond Poignant, Education in the Industrialized Countries, The Hague, Martinus

Nijhoff, 1973.
2. Philip H . Coombs, The World Educational Crisis: A Systems Analysis, N e w York, N . Y . ,
Oxford University Press, 1968.
475
M E T H O D O L O G I C A L TRADITIONS
In the past, 'substantive' dimensions of comparative education were

regarded as central in the field. But concentration on social factors
affecting schools and the structural features of the schools has not
inhibited the development of the 'procedural' interest in the devel-
opment of the methods of comparisons. T h e purely methodological
attitude was displayed in the work of this writer1 and Franz Hilker.2
Comparisons, it was suggested, must go through a four-step ritual:
(a) description of educational materials in each country; (b) interpret-
ation or immersion of the schools' data in the matrix of sociological
circumstances in which they operate; (c) the easily misunderstood
step of juxtaposition in which materials from different countries are
tabulated side by side before comparison to see whether they can
be compared and if so with what hypothesis in view; and (d) c o m -
parison the conditions of which were later redefined by this writer
as a balanced (i.e. evenly matched) and simultaneous (i.e. cross-
referenced instantly to other partners in comparison and not pre-
sented in clusters of separate national data to be compared only
'in the eye of the reader').
F r o m these beginnings there arose a steady flow of methodological
articles proposing various classificatory schemes by which compara-
tive evidence can best be organized. Most of these appeared in the
three major journals: International Review of Education, Comparative
Education, and Comparative Education Review. Most recent is the con-
tribution of Wolfgang Mitter, the Director of the G e r m a n Institute
for International Educational Research. Writing in the International
Review of Education3 and claiming widespread need for comparative
methods in all areas of pedagogy, Mitter establishes distinctions
between international and intercultural comparisons and national
and supranational foci of comparative control. H e views comparative
education as heuristic and sees the improvement of comparative
method as a key to the clearing u p of 'definitional misunderstandings'
in theory of education. Mitter's article is the latest in a spate of
lively publications in the Federal Republic of G e r m a n y .
As another example and an illustration of contributions from the
1. George Z . F . Bereday, Comparative Method in Education, N e w York, N . Y . , Holt, Rinehart

& Winston, 1964.
2. Franz Hilker, Vergleichende Pädagogik, München, M a x Hueber Verlag, 1962.
3. Wolfgang Mitter, 'Komparative Forschung In Der Erziehungswissenschaft, International
Review of Education, Vol. 22, N o . 3,1976.
476
United States, A . Stafford Clayton's article on valuation deserves a

mention. 1 Clayton addresses himself to the much-discussed current
question in social sciences of whether or not they m a y be permitted
to take normative stances. H e answers the question guardedly but
in the main in the affirmative. T h e problem is, he argues, to differ-
entiate between different kinds of valuation: prizing, characterizing
and appraising. T h efirstis a statement of preference without effort
at exhortation. T h e two exhortatory treatments are distinguished
by the fact that characterizing advocates established n o r m s while
appraising advocates norms hitherto not established. B y defending
the method by which each of the systems of valuation can be applied
in comparative education Clayton significantly refines this sensitive
and confusing area of research.
THE T W O TRADITIONS COMBINED
T h e convergence of substantive and methodological concerns

occurred w h e n N o a h and Eckstein elaborated their proposals to
apply to cross national materials the rules of scientific analysis.2 T h e y
require that the treatment of comparative data be empirical and
critical (p. 92), that it be preceded by an early formulation of a
hypothesis stating a presumably systematic relationship between
educational variables, and that scientific proof be deployed that such
relationship in fact exists and that the co-variations in it can be
appraised if not actually measured with ever-increasing precision.
T h e Noah-Eckstein contribution has added a plea for a scientifically
controlled quantified inquiry to the roster of other methodological
concerns. These other problems included bias of national researches
working within and with an international setting. T h e y also include
the need for sustained integrated cross-disciplinary inquiry in a
field that must rely on research instruments of one or another single
social science.
This scientific formulation of the field heralded the arrival of
empirically controlled studies in education, one of which m a y be
mentioned as an outstanding example. In the well-known set of
cross-national studies generated by the International Association for
the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, a subject analysis was
i . A . Stafford Clayton, 'Valuation in Comparative Education', Comparative Education Review,

Vol. 16, N o . 3, October 1972, p. 412-23.
2. H . Noah and M . Eckstein, Toward a Science of Comparative Education, N e w York, N . Y . ,
Macmillan, 1969.
477
m a d e of mathematics (twelve countries), literature (ten countries),

science (nineteen countries), reading comprehension (fifteen
countries), civic education (ten countries) and English and French
as a foreign language (ten and eight countries).1 T h e inquiry was
mounted by an international consortium which developed inter-
national tests of achievement and administered them to samples of
13-year-old and 17-year-old students. This was thefirstattempt of
its kind to formulate international school achievement measures by
administering a composite cross-nationally derived test to adolescent
groups systematized in size for comparative purposes. T h e I E A
study produced other valuable offshoots, a m o n g them the more
general 'twenty-one national case studies' volume by Passow, N o a h ,
Eckstein and Mallea. This book examined the panoply of social
factors such as economic development, health care, population and
family size, religious, cultural, linguistic diversity and others and
related them w h e n that was possible to achievement means obtained
from the other studies. T h o u g h significant correlations were found,
for instance, between student-teacher ratios and achievement, the
relationships were not overall and persistent enough to provide
policy-makers 'with information directly applicable to action'.2
A m o n g several other less-widely k n o w n studies of a quantitative
nature the psycholinguistic formulations of Charles Osgood deserve
a mention. Aided by a group of researchers at the University of
Illinois, Osgood formulated an Atlas of Affective Meaning, an index
applied to the study of over 600 concepts in 23 different language
communities. Osgood's index is based on a seven-step scale which
measures semantic distance between words such as 'good and bad'
for evaluation, 'strong and weak' for potency, and 'active-passive'
for activity, thus indicating an 'affective meaning' of word usage.
With this complicated but reliable instrument it was possible to
identify cross-national quantities and differences in affective meaning
a m o n g adolescents of twenty-three cultures. T h e resulting data bank
afforded an opportunity for a sophisticated use of cross-cultural
methods of analysis and has provided important knowledge of h o w
1. Publications resulting from the I E A studies includes an initial report on mathematics and
nine volumes published by Wiley. For thefirstpart of a two-part review, see Prospects,
Vol. V I I , N o . 3, p. 440-3.—Ed.
2. This disappointing conclusion due to the complexity of the data has reinforced critical
appraisals of the I E A undertaking. See Journal for Research in Mathematics Education,
Vol. 2, N o . 2 , March 1971, and Educational Studies in Mathematics, Vol. 6, N o . 2, July 1975.
T h e most recent and the most thoughtful of these is Alex Inkeles's review in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Education, Vol. 4, 1977.
478
adolescents of different cultures verbalize the intensity of their

feelings, thus revealing traits of their national character.1
These examples of 'hard-core' comparative analysis only illus-
trate the genre but do not do justice to a great m a n y others that have
emerged. Eckstein and N o a h have assembled an impressive roster of
such works in a symposium published in 1969. 2 T h e comparative
efficiency of the training provided in the English sixth form and the
European secondary schools investigated by W . E . Halls with the aid
of the Gulbenkian Foundation is another example. 3 F r o m economics
one need only mention the analyses by Frederick Harbison and Charles
Myers* or by Friedrich Edding. 6 T h e variety, volume and contri-
bution of these studies has been substantial.
T h e general thrust towards 'hard' analysis in comparative edu-
cation has required a massive concentration of workers and resources.
It has yielded significant results. It has also evolved sporadic critical
reaction. A s an example, one m a y quote Benjamin Barber of Rutgers
University, w h o attacked the 'scientific' movement in 1972 in an
article in Comparative Education Review.6 Barber concentrates pri-
marily on N o a h and Eckstein though he thought theirs to be 'the
best and the most prudent attempt at social science in the educational
field'. T h e thrust of this attack was that an advocacy of methodology
should not be confused with advocacy for a science. In Barber's
construction, the latter is sufficiently broad to shelter under its
umbrella concepts that are actually humanistic in character. Barber
speaks of 'increased vigor, more systematic, encompassing theory,
and growth of comparative analysis' as postulates that are binding
upon humanities as well as science. H e follows with a substantial
list of problems attendant upon and diminishing the effectiveness of
the empirical method in comparative studies.
Those interested in criticisms of the empirical method would do
1. See in particular Charles E . Osgood, 'Exploration in Semantic Space: A Personal Diary',

Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 27, N o . 4,1971, p. 5-64.
2. M . A . Eckstein and H . J. Noah, Scientific Investigations in Comparative Education, N e w
York, N . Y . , Macmillan, 1969.
3. See W . D . Halls, International Equivalence in Access to Higher Education, Paris, Unesco,
1971, and also A . D . C . Peterson and W . D . Halls, The Education of Young People in
Europe, Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 1973.
4. As an example of books by these writers see F . Harbinson and C . A . Myers, Education,
Manpower and Economic Growth: Strategies of Human Resource Development, N e w York,
N . Y . , McGraw-Hill, 1964.
5. F . Edding, Internationale Tendenzen in der Entwicklung der Ausgaben für Schulen und
Hochschulen, Kiel, Kieler Studien 67,1958.
6. B . R . Barber, 'Science, Salience, and Comparative Education: Some Reflections on Social
Science Enquiry', Comparative Education Review, Vol. 16, N o . 3, October 1972, p. 424-36.
479
well also to consult Michael Henry's annotated 1973 bibliography

on the subject. H e observes 'a steadily increasing emphasis on
scientific, multidisciplinary analysis of foreign education systems
with a view to internationalism and/or reform at h o m e ' . 1 H e does
also note the decrease in methodological contributions which could
be interpreted as agreement with the movement of the field in the
scientific direction. A n unpleasant thought has occurred to Henry,
however. T h e decline of interest might m e a n not agreement but
degeneration due to disparity between theory and practice. It has
been suggested that comparative education has so little hold upon
the educational competitive market (whatever that m a y m e a n ) because
its leaders were content to play semantics instead of doing real
field work. T h u s once again an opening is provided into these areas
of comparative research and thinking which are untrammelled by
the constraints of the empirical system.
Other comparative studies
Contrary to expectations of some, the appearance of scientific studies

has not extinguished the activities of a more humanistic or even
random nature. This sector of comparative education is easier to
describe but less easy to define because its products are so m u c h
more varied and uneven in quality.
T o concentrate on the more meritorious studies only,firstmust
be mentioned these writers w h o continue to regard national area
studies as an integral part of comparative education. In the literature
of comparative education concentration on areas or what the Germans
have come to call Ausslandspädagogik has long been distinguished
from 'true' science of education or the Vergleichendeerziehungswis-
senschaft. Undaunted by such distinctions insightful work into the
working of single educational systems has proceeded apace and the best
studies such as Philip Foster's Education and Social Change in
Ghana? or Andreas Kazaminas's Education and the Quest for Modernity
in Turkey3 have c o m e from comparative educators w h o treat their
1. 'Methodology in Comparative Education: A n Annotated Bibliography', Comparative Edu-

cation Review, Vol. 17, N o . 2 , June 1973, p. 231-44.
2. Philip Foster, Education and Social Change in Ghana, Chicago, 111., University of Chicago
Press, 1965.
3. A . M . Kazaminas, Education and the Quest for Modernity in Turkey, Chicago, 111., T h e
University of Chicago Press, 1966.
480
subject in analytical and not descriptive m o d e . E d m u n d King has

overseen for over a decade a prominent series of area studies for
Pergamon Press.1 T h e Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development ( O E C D ) has put out a series of publications which
m a y serve as model of the meshing of statistical, systematic and
humanistic contributions.2
There have also appeared 'twin' studies in which two countries
have been compared and analysed. T h e two-country analysis is one
step up from area studies, and afirstopportunity to test out compara-
tive methods. F r o m more exhortatory studies such as H y m a n
Rickover's Swiss Schools and Ours: Why Theirs are Better* or Arthur
Trace's What Ivan Knows That Johnny Doesn't: A Comparison of
Soviet and American School Programs,* thefieldhas proceeded to
more dispassionate and balanced works such as Denise Kandel and
Gerard Lesser's Youth in the Two Worlds5 or Urie Bronfenbrenner's
Two Worlds of Childhood.6 These books compared the socialization
system of American and Danish and American and Soviet children
respectively and are works of psychologists. A m o n g these Jerome
Kagan also m a d e striking contributions to the understanding of
early childhood development by comparing first American and
Guatemalan children7 and then extending his researches beyond to
other cultures. T h e continuing work of anthropologists represented
by the Whitings also deserves mention.8
A s a further category of illustrative writings in comparative
education w e m a y mention the global or multinational studies that
go beyond juxtaposition of countries to the discussion of pedagogical
problems in world perspective. O n e example of such studies is
Martin Carnoy's Education as Cultural Imperialism.9 Carnoy seems
1. For example, W . D . Halls, Society, Schools and Progress in France, 1965; W . Dixon,
Society, Schools and Progress in Scandinavia, 1965.
2. They include the particularly relevant series: c O E C D Reviews of National Policies For
Education' and c O E C D Education and Development, County Reports, the Mediterranean
Retrieval Project'.
3. H . Rickover, Szviss Schools and Ours: Why Theirs are Better, Boston, Mass., Little,Brown,
1962.
4. A . S. Trace, What Ivan Knows That Johnny Doesn't: A Comparison of Soviet and American
School Programs, N e w York, N . Y . , Random House, 1962.
5. D . B . Kandel and A . S. Lesser, Youth in Two Worlds, San Francisco, Calif., Jossey-Bass,
1972.
6. U . Bronfenbrenner, Two Worlds of Childhood, N e w York, N . Y . , Russell Sage, 1970.
7. See J. Kagan and R . E . Klein, 'Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Early Childhood Develop-
ment', American Psychologist, Vol. 28, November 1973, p. 947-61.
8. Most recent book by these scholars is B . B . Whiting and J. W. M . Whiting, Six Cultures:
A Psycho-Cultural Analysis, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1975.
9. M . Carnoy, Education as Cultural Imperialism, N e w York, N . Y . , David M c K a y , 1974.
48I
to support the position spearheaded by Ivan Illich and Paulo Freiré.

In very general terms this position represents the Marxist view that
Western education, far from providing pupils with freedom, brain-
washes them into subservience to the military-industrial combine.
Carnoy's scholarship and in-depth treatment permit h i m to avoid
the pitfalls of overstatement. T h e book is instead a reinterpretation
of history of Western colonization on three continents and it contains
chapters on 'internal colonialism' in the United States. M a n y m a y
disagree with the tone and judgements of the analysis, but it is an
important source of data on social class bias in education.
Carnoy's approach is to discuss regions separately in each success-
ive chapter. A s an example of an even more simultaneous cross-
cultural treatment w e m a y cite Universities For All by this writer1
and Education and Social Change by E d m u n d J. King. 2 T h e former
book is limited to a transcultural treatment of a specific problem
of university reform in mass-education countries without separating
each country for discussion. T h e latter deals with broad social
change and h o w it is in global terms related to education.
Universities For All is narrowly illustrative because it was limited
to O E C D sources only. It traces the impact of the expansion of
enrolment in mass-education countries upon structure, curriculum
and the general place of higher education in society. Comparative
materials are deliberately a subject-matter of the book but they are
drawn to illustrate the impact of explosion of numbers without
regard to orderly rotation of countries. Illustrative comparisons
require merely that examples be found to support the generalizations
about to be formulated. But no substantive proof, qualitative or
quantitative, can be delivered from such formulations.
In King's presentation comparative materials are overtly foresworn
but covertly permeate the book. T h e reader is urged to treat the
book as theory and to follow it u p by a comparative study defined
as the best means of 'revealing some of our o w n problems in a n e w
light, or perhaps s o m e n e w hypotheses or practices to deal with
universal problems' (p. ix).
King's book itself is, indeed, theoretical but the discussion, far
from being a prelude to comparative analysis, is a product of it. T h e
accumulated cross-cultural knowledge of a noted comparative edu-
cator triggers—not follows from—the theory of social and educational
i. George Z . F . Bereday, Universities for All, San Francisco, Calif.j Jossey-Bass, 1973.
2. E . King, Education and Social Change, Oxford, Pergamon, 1966.
482
change presented. Global rather than national themes dominate the

scene.1
T h e comparative works mentioned thus far were mostly by social
scientists interested in problems of education. Only a few of these are
comparative educators as the term is m o r e narrowly conceived.
S o m e do not think of themselves as such and might even wish to
reject the claim that their work is in comparative education. Cinderella
labels associated with work in 'education' deter some. Such fears,
a m o n g others, are responsible for the recently formed distinction
between sociologists of education (sociologists with interest in edu-
cation) and educational sociologists (educators with interest in
sociology). But doctrinal differences and possible snobberies aside,
the writings discussed under the 'illustrative' label suggest that this
type of work can be a continuing and viable enterprise, if its methods
are those of one recognized social science. Probably the shift from
'social scientists' to 'comparative educators' occurs w h e n the subject-
matter forces one to be interdisciplinary. In any case the qualitative
or illustrative approach remains a viable sector of comparative
education, the rise of the empirical approach notwithstanding.
Reflections on the future
Empirical studies in comparative education are lean, well defined,

and tangible. It is a pity that they are not more conclusive. T h e
qualitative studies are neither conclusive nor tangible. Their quality
and variety are such that only a very few can be mentioned in discussion
as examples. But if thefieldcannot be defined, let alone pragmatically
justified, the following considerations mitigate the situation:
First, w h e n academically trained people decide to pursue an interest,
such is valid per se, practical or impractical results notwithstanding.
Second, that the results of the comparative inquiries are inconclusive,
is not a good justification for aborting them. Firm conclusions
can only c o m e from research attempts to reach for conclusions
across the generations.
Third, limited knowledge and tentative conclusions are better than
no knowledge at all.
Finally, w e must not b e obsessed by the need for empirical
conclusions. Scientific conclusions, even w h e n sound, limit the
i. Several of King's other books are in the global style—see World Perspectives in Education,
Minneapolis, Bobbes-Merrill, 1962.
483
head-on awareness of intangibles. A computer m a n and a dreamer

must live peacefully side by side. Neither should attempt to take
over the work of the other nor be allowed to distort social life by
claiming the monopolistic understanding of it.
There is thus no need for a change in theory which has always
claimed historical, philosophical, socio-economic and geographical-
descriptive dimensions as the proper avenues of research for compara-
tive education. It should treat of the dimension of 'time', the
dimension used in space research or in history, the passage from
family education to formal education, from initiations to examinations,
to account for the process of millions of children all over the world
every day leaving their parents, the 'natural' educators, and under
penalty of law enter public buildings, to be taught by public servants
in the w a y prescribed by the public sometimes with, but often
without, the advice of the parents.
It should treat of the dimension of 'height', or philosophy, and
compare goals, to explain w h y some educational systems, such as
the old Indian one, educated people for salvation, the English for
character training, the Soviet for social cohesion, the French for
intellectual achievement, some for material achievement, and most
for a varying combination of all these.
It should treat of the dimension of 'depth', or of socio-economic
issues, the dimension in which w e are concerned with the ratio of
teachers to pupils, or of pupils to population, and in which w e study
selectively patterns of prestige and problems of élite versus universal
education.
It should treat last, but not least with the largest dimension, of
'breadth', the dimension of geography, that expanse in which more
than a hundred different educational systems display variety, from
action-centred to thought-centred education, from individualistic to
collectivistic, from centralized to decentralized, from disciplinary to
permissive, from short term to long term, from general to specialized.
Within a stable theory of 'coexistence' of the several types and
methods of research the practical tasks before comparative education
m a y n o w be reaffirmed.
First, as a variety of major articles in the journals, edited symposia
and books attest there is a great need for an improved data bank.
N o criticism can stem the need for the steady output of work of
accumulation, sorting and classification of materials pertaining to
education viewed in geographical perspective. Such works supply
the basic data on which the more precise, scientific inquiries must
484
rely. In spite of painstaking efforts by individuals, universities and

organizations there continues to be a shortage of substantive materials
providing information about the functioning of the schools across
the world. W h a t does a standard classroom look like in Democratic
Kampuchea? H o w m a n y people are there in vocational education
in Greece? W h y do so m a n y teachers from Kuwait leave to teach
abroad? Precise information about Third World countries is scant
or non-existent and certainly not readily available. But even in
economically advanced countries the work of mining, storing and
cataloguing information must be rigorously pressed forward. W e
k n o w altogether too little about such well-worn subjects as juvenile
justice in Sweden, dental technicums of the Soviet Union, education
within industry in Japan, or services for the handicapped in the
United States. International conferences and publications notwith-
standing there is no satisfactory additive compendium of comparative
data such as Keesing's Contemporary Archives in political science,
Yale Human Relations Area File in anthropology or computerized
data banks in other fields.
Second, in addition to collection of data there must continue the
search for improved basis of comparability. If there is a sense of
disenchantment with the results of empirical research (and there
should not be), this should stimulate other avenues of discovery to
provide the field with a qualitative framework. A n area in which
this writer has a special interest is the use of law as tertium
comparationis of comparative studies in education. L a w is not the
full social reality of h u m a n life or of life in the schools. It is a
reflection, perhaps only a shadow, of that reality. But law provides
closure and definitiveness to h u m a n transactions which social sciences
lack. In law truth is what a judge or 'twelve m e n good and true'
pronounce it to be. L a w provides a sense offinality,a static hard core
of social facts and resolutions. In real h u m a n life these facts and rules
of conduct are, by definition, more volatile. Comparisons of life of
culture and of the work of the schools could be stabilized by the
employment of law as the centre of analysis. School law and the more
embracing juvenile law provide the precision which would greatly
benefit qualitative studies in comparative education.1
N e w theoretical framework or frameworks could also be found in
the developing comparative methods of other social sciences that
could accommodate the empirical as well as the humanistic ambitions
i. For general discussion of education law see G . Z . F. Bereday,'Education L a w ' , Educational
Forum, Vol. 303 N o . 3, March 1966, p. 313-19.
485
of thefield.In political science there is available an exhaustive roster

of methodological concepts. In sociology an example of special
interest is the work of R a y m o n d Boudon. 1 This French writer of
note whose work has affected the English-speaking world only upon
the translation of his book in 1973 has developed a social model
applicable cross-culturally. It attempts to explain the apparent stable
occupational mobility rates in Western nations even w h e n there are
large differences in educational access and success. T h e model takes
into account increases of educational attainments and their power
to reduce inequality of opportunity. It points out, however, the
inadequacy of the supply of high-level positions which fail to
provide places within the labour force to all educated people. Only the
very highly and the very lowly placed are unaffected by this disparity.
Those in the middle are affected by inflation of educational qualifi-
cations and a declining job market. T h e placement in that market is
stable only because that attrition is taking place. This model,
combining the inequality of educational and of social opportunity
( I E O - I S O ) could be usefully applied as tertium comparationis for
stratification studies in education.
Third, theoretical and practical shortcomings of comparative
education take away nothing from its task as afieldwith normative
lessons. T h e most important contribution of comparative education
is that it fosters an international frame of mind. It does so in the
field of endeavour, the schools, in which modes of thinking are
formed. That m a n forms loyalties to cultural groups of which he is
a part and that they shape his mind is an axiom hardly worth restating.
But that his attachment to his nation should dominate his thinking and
should take precedence over his love for the family or for the earth
as a whole is simply a degeneration of mind unworthy of our stature.
W e should not expel national loyalties from our consciousness.
But w e must certainly m a k e efforts to reduce their awesome supremacy.
Comparative education helps to form citizens of the world. Global
thinking provides strength to resist demands that nation-centred
viewpoints be placed at the centre of life.
Global committment need not lead to subversion nor to lachrymose
liberalism. There is enough experience with various forms of
federalism to provide models of harmonious adjustment of global
and regional interests. Comparative education simply aims at
reducing the aberrations induced by national propaganda.
1. R . Boudon, Education, Opportunity, and Social Inequality: Changing Perspectives in Western
Society, N e w York, N . Y . , Wiley, 1973.
486
O n e green Martian sailing in full view over the world in his

flying saucer would m a k e us forget our nationalities and think of
ourselves as Earthmen or Terreans. In the absence of so potent a
remedy international academic studies must quietly foster the
emergence of the transnational level of awareness.
A m o n g these studies comparative education has a potent special
mission. It m a y be difficult to talk of international disarmament, free
trade, world police force, or world parliament. It is not nearly so
difficult to think of a world school system. Every comparative
educator, without knowledge of a given national curriculum could
instantly n a m e the subjects taught in the schools of that country
with hardly a margin of error. T h e truth is that most of the schools
of the world already teach the same things. N o t everywhere do all
youngsters attend schools but w h e n they do, they attend essentially
similar institutions. Each curriculum would require only the addition
of an international language and greater adaptation of social studies
to international content to m a k e the entire citizenry of the world
bilingual and world-minded. T h e constant highlighting of similarities
and differences of school systems, the central concern of comparative
education, paves the w a y towards the emergence of such cultural
unity. All m e n do not necessarily like to be good and virtuous at
all times. But a world of wide brotherly vision and without war
which international studies foster, is a model of virtue that requires
no justification.
There is no content to academic life except what academic m e n
desire and do. T h u s academic supporters and academic critics have
simply to coexist. Occasionally a shrewd, honest critic, or a dispeptic
one intent on quickly making his n a m e , attack parts or even the
whole of thefieldof comparative studies. W h e n criticism is just and
cogent, or even w h e n it is simply loud enough to pose a nuisance,
thefieldadjusts itself by taking notice, absorbing, and implementing.
Unjust criticisms are particularly hard to bear because in the
nationalistic nature of most cultures, the argument that scarce
resources should primarily be spent on a domestic scene limits the
manpower and the fervour with which to study foreign experience.
But without criticisms there would be no academic life. Still, workers
in internationalfieldsdo not have to apologize for their presence in
the universities. These are the traditional centres of the international
meeting of the minds of people. Comparative workers stand by the
side of their other academic colleagues. Their mission is to provide
an angle of a wider vision.
487
Viewpoints and controversies
Basic education: tool of liberation

or exploitation?
Marjorie Mbilinyi
Marjorie Mbilinyi 'Basic education' for the poorest of the world's poor has become
(United Republic the cornerstone of education policy of international agencies and
of Tanzania).
Senior lecturer national governments in the capitalist world. In order to understand
in education, the goals and probable consequences of basic education for peasants
University of
and workers in underdeveloped capitalist countries, it is necessary
Dar es Salaam.
Author of T h e to examine the policy in context. S o m e fundamental questions under-
Education of Girls lying such an analysis are (a) W h o benefits? W h o s e interests are
in Tanzania,
and has compiled
being served? and (b) H o w ? W h a t are the mechanisms through
a volume entitled which certain interests are served? T h e latent objectives and aspects
W h o Goes to School of education reform b e c o m e as important as the stated, explicit ones.
in East Africa
(in press).
Basic education defined
'Basic education' is perceived to be one of the 'basic needs' that

all people should have satisfied, along with the need to work and
the need to have access to basic consumption needs. A s noted at
the recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) World E m p l o y -
ment Conference of 1976: 1
Basic needs, as understood in this Programme of Action, include two

elements. First, they include certain minimum requirements of a family for
private consumption: adequate food, shelter and clothing, as well as certain
household equipment and furniture. Second, they include essential services
provided by and for the community at large, such as safe drinking water,
sanitation, public transport and health, educational and cultural facilities.
1. Meeting Basic Needs. Strategies for Eradicating Mass Poverty and Unemployment, Geneva,
I L O , 1977 (author's italics).
489
Prospects, Vol. VII, N o . 4 , 1977

Marjorie Mbilinyi
Basic education reform is the key focus of the W o r l d B a n k Edu-

cation Sector Working Paper,1 which will be cited here given the
significance attributed to education reform b y the W o r l d B a n k group
and the influence of the latter o n other international agencies and
national governments. T h e target population of the W o r l d B a n k
sectoral papers for this decade has been the poorest 40 per cent
of the poorest countries in the capitalist system, including the United
Republic of Tanzania. T h e target population includes specific m e n -
tion of 'marginal' groups like w o m e n , youth, with particular focus
on smallholder peasants. T h e aim is to
help developing countries reform and expand their educational systems in

such a way that the latter m a y contribute more fully to economic develop-
ment. This paper explores therefore h o w low-cost functional education
can enable the poor to participate more effectively in the development
process.
Basic education should be 'mass education', 'functional' and different

for different groups of people in a given society, and different for
different societies. For example, the World B a n k paper declares the
following with respect to education for peasants:2
A different set of recommendations for the rural sector includes an increasing

emphasis on rural subjects in formal schools, development of non-
formal schemes as parallel or alternative programs, and functional literacy
schemes. . . . Such schemes, open to various age groups, would offer pro-
grammes of varying content and length adapted to the different groups'
needs, with corresponding changes in the training and the role of teachers
[my italics].
W i t h respect to different societies, the paper adds:
T h e differences between the lower-income countries and the relatively more

developed ones will determine the proportion or 'mix' of different areas and
kinds of assistance. In the poorer countries, basic education and rural
training are expected to receive emphasis, together with selective support
for the further development of skills. T h e development of secondary and
third levels of education would take a more central place in the education
strategies of the middle- and higher-income countries.
1. Education Sector Working Paper, World Bank, December 1974.

2. ibid.
49O
Basic education: tool of liberation or exploitation?
Basic education is different from universal primary education in

that it represents the ' m i n i m u m learning needs of especially identified
groups' a n d not steps in the education hierarchy; the target groups
include all age groups, y o u n g and old, m e n and w o m e n ; it is provided
'in different forms in different countries', through non-formal alterna-
tive education systems as well as formal schooling depending o n
local a n d individual resources. ' T h e costs will play a predominant
role in the choice of educational technologies of basic education
programmes.'1
A systems-analysis approach is encouraged to evaluate the effec-
tiveness and efficiency of basic education p r o g r a m m e s , based o n
'specific' education/training objectives a n d performance standards.
T h e underlying question given is ' W h a t kinds of behavior should
schools elicit in a developing society?'
T h e idea of a ' m i n i m u m package' of ' m i n i m u m essential learning
needs' w a s earlier espoused b y New Paths to Learning, a Unicef
publication which has b e c o m e a basic reference for international
education reform. T h e package is to include the following: (a) posi-
tive attitudes towards co-operation, work, c o m m u n i t y a n d national
development, further learning; (b) functional literacy a n d n u m e r a c y ;
(c) scientific outlook with reference to health, agriculture, etc.;
(d) functional knowledge and skills for raising a family and household
operation; (e) functional knowledge and skills for earning a living;
(f) functional knowledge and skills for civic participation.2
In achieving the distribution of the m i n i m u m package, education
must be relevant to different areas; there is no universal 'one formula
for all'.
T h e policy of basic education has since been promulgated at
several Unesco/Unicef programmes in eastern Africa, involving edu-
cation experts and government officials, beginning with the Nairobi
seminar in 1974 (Basic Education in Eastern Africa), followed by
several other meetings, the most recent being Teacher Education
for Basic Education.3 T h e 1974 report noted that despite different
views on the meaning of 'practical' education, 'there is unanimity
that a basic education must prepare an individual for the world
of work by imbuing h i m with positive attitudes and values towards
1. Education Sector Working Paper, op. cit.

2. Philip H . C o o m b s , with Roy C . Prosser and Manzoor A h m e d , New Paths to Learning for
Rural Children and Youth, International Council for Educational Development, for Unicef,
1973-
3. Basic Education Resource Centre for Eastern Africa, Teacher Education for Basic Education,
Nairobi, 1975.
49I
Marjoríe Mbilinyi
work and at least the foundations upon which practical skills, relevant
to his or her environment, m a y be built'. Attitudes and values should
be learned to enable the participants tofitinto the existing 'societal
mould'.
S o m e issues of basic education policy
Basic education is perceived to be reform of the 'traditional' formal

education system, bookish and academic, which has
resulted, on the one hand, in an increase in the number of educated unem-

ployed, alienation of rural youths, migration to urban centres and overseas
in search of jobs and, on the other, lack of properly qualified people to fill
jobs in some critical areas of development, all of which creates the general
sense of disappointment and frustration.1
T h e promotion of rural-oriented, practical, 'basic' education is

expected to alter the participants' expectations, to enable them to
adapt to their position in society as peasant producers or workers;
to cool their aspirations for higher education, and at the same time,
produce a minority cadre of 'qualified people', namely the petty
bourgeoisie, at the higher levels of education. T h e participants of
basic education are the poor, the peasants and workers of the poorest
nations. A related consequence of basic education is therefore lessened
class struggle and increased social and political stability, and increased
agricultural and industrial productivity.
Within this kind of argument, colonial education systems are
usually presented as elitist, bookish and irrelevant to the local environ-
ment. In fact, colonial education for the majority was rural-oriented
vocational education with most of the day spent on manual work.
T h e hierarchical education pyramid with its differentiated curriculum
corresponding to the division of labour in colonial class society was
very relevant to colonial society.
Basic education reform is part of developing a differentiated cur-
riculum for post-colonial society; rural-oriented, vocational education
for rural peasants, industrial vocational education for urban workers,
and special schools and special streams providing academic prepara-
tory education for the children of the national bourgeoisie and petty
bourgeois classes. T h e 'special' primary schools or streams at the
I. Prospects,Vol. V I , N o . 1,1976, p. 137.
492
base of the pyramid receive unequal allocations of qualified teachers,

books and equipment, and other basic resources. Since the mechanism
for selection to post-primary levels of education remains bookish,
rote-memory type paper examinations, with no quota system based
on class origin, the children of the peasants and workers are rejected
from entry to higher levels of the pyramid in a seemingly 'objective'
way. In reality, the children of peasants and workers have access
to poorer education resources and lack as well the material family
resources to m a k e u p for it (including housing, lighting, nutrition,
as well as books, literate parents with knowledge about the system
and well versed in the higher-education m e d i u m of instruction,
namely English or French). Basic education is one aspect of a dual
education system.
The problem is to provide an educational experience that can be terminal

for the majority of those who receive it [the producers], while at the same
time, adequately preparing a minority of students for further education
[ruling class and petty bourgeoisie].1
T h e concept of 'integrated rural development' including education

links the development of economic, political and cultural sectors
together in one package (see World Bank Education Sector Working
Paper). Hence, all aspects of peasant production and reproduction
would be affected if'integrated rural development' actually penetrated
the whole rural population. T h e 'minimal essential learning needs'
also reflect an integrated approach which, if effective, would influence
production and reproduction: for example, skills about raising a
family (social reproduction), skills for earning a living (production).
T h e causes of unemployment, rural poverty, illiteracy, malnu-
trition, etc., are attributed to national-level phenomena, such as the
'tradition-bound' nature of production, technology, social relation-
ships, etc., with 'modernization' perceived to be the necessary road
to development. 2 T h e basic contradiction between the interests of
foreign capital and the peasants and workers of developing countries
is ignored. T h e 'cross-sectional' a-historical approach used in such
analysis contributes to the mystification of reality by ignoring the
historical development of advanced capitalist economies, their depen-
dence on colonial exploitation and the continued exploitation of the
1. Prospects, Vol. V , N o . I, 1975, p. 128. (The words in brackets have been added by the
author—Ed.)
2. ibid.
493
Marjorie Mbilinyi
post-colonial economies, and therefore the necessary recognition that

the underdevelopment of post-colonial economies (expressed in prob-
lems of unemployment, increasing impoverishment of the peasants,
illiteracy, malnutrition increase, etc.) is a direct and ongoing result
of capital's exploitation of their natural and h u m a n resources.
Since the major problems are identified as unemployment, illit-
eracy, malnutrition, etc. (and not the exploitation of peasants and
workers by foreign capital and local compradors), the solutions are
necessarily increasing rates of growth in employment, increasing
literacy rates, decreasing malnutrition rates, etc. These solutions
are promoted within the framework of imperialist domination and
exploitation and therefore represent reformist mechanisms which
contribute to the reproduction of a more efficient exploitative system.
Another mystification of reality is the assumption of 'free choice'
with respect to which development 'model' a developing country
m a y choose. This ignores the present dynamic development of imperi-
alist domination and foreign capital's exploitation of peasants and
workers in underdeveloped, post-colonial economies.
T h e target population of basic education is poor and smallholder
peasants; young and old, schooled and unschooled, m e n and w o m e n ,
with special attention to w o m e n peasants given their particular place
in peasant production and reproduction. Basic education reform is
usually linked to egalitarian aims, that all people should have access
to the m i n i m u m learning needs which is identified with the bottom
step in the education pyramid; and that all should have equal
opportunity to compete for the scarce positions at higher levels of
the education pyramid. A s Galtung has already noted, 'equality of
opportunity' in the context of class society contributes to the repro-
duction of an 'unequal society'.1 It is essential, moreover, to note
that this attention to 'egalitarian' values is very m u c h a response to
increased d e m a n d from the masses for formal education, in the
face of hitherto unequal access at all levels of the education pyra-
m i d . 2 Such rising demands and corresponding rising consciousness
of inequality represent potential financial costs which the post-
colonial State cannot provide, a serious ideological problem and a
political threat.
Because of the lack offinancialand other resources, basic education
i. Johan Galtung, 'Educational Growth and Educational Disparity', Prospects, Vol. V , N o . 3,

1975-
2. See M . Mbilinyi (ed.), Documentation of Unequal Access to Education in East Africa (in
press).
494
is to be low-cost, cheap education for the masses—i.e. its form and

content is determined by the material base of underdeveloped society.
This also means it will contribute to the reproduction of the s a m e
underdeveloped material base, and to the reproduction of the exploited
and dominated position of the masses within the society itself.
Basic education reform in the world-wide capitalist system concen-
trates mainly on skills rather than substantive principles of knowledge
and cognitive attributes related to critical thinking, creativity and
problem-solving, ignores certain aspects of the form in which edu-
cation is delivered, which is a tacit acceptance of what n o w exists:
rote-memory learning; a competitive individualistic system; reliance
on extrinsic reinforcement; authoritatian structure of relations between
teacher and student, heads and all others in the school, etc.
T h e contrast with education reform in China is obvious:
The educational revolution covers the system of instruction, the principles

and methods of teaching, the conditions for admission, and die ideological
remoulding of the teaching profession.1
T h e choice of [examination] questions should be made in transforming the

pupils' ideology, in increasing their capacity to analyse and resolve problems
and in taking up and resolving problems that have arisen during teaching
and study.2
T h e ideological remoulding referred to is the transformation from

bourgeois to proletarian ideology; problems are resolved in the
interests of the masses, not in the interests of the local compradors
and foreign capital.
In the context of struggles against imperialist domination a n d
exploitation, a Tanzanian teacher educator cites the Cocoyoc Declar-
ation as a reference point for teacher education reform, calling for
increased public awareness of the nature of the system of which
he is part, as a producer, as a consumer, as one a m o n g the
billions populating the earth. H e has a right to k n o w w h o benefits
from the fruits of his work, w h o benefits from what h e buys
and sells.
i. Yong Hong, ' T h e Educational Revolution', Prospects, Vol. V , N o . 4 , 1975.

2. Souen Houa, 'Combining Theory with Practice', Prospects, Vol. V , N o . 4 , 1975.
495
Marjorie Mbilinyi
Education as productive force

and apparatus of reproduction
Education is one of the most important productive forces of any

society; at the same time, it both reflects and contributes to the
reproduction of the relations of production of society. T h e level of
skills and knowledge and the level of science and technology in
productivity; the degree of specialization and differentiation within
the education structure as well as within its curriculum; the amount
of education available to the labour force—these are aspects of the
forces of production which determine the nature of the labour
force itself and in turn the nature of production. A s advanced
capitalist societies developed, with ever-expanding development of
the level of production forces, the education system also expanded
and changed with respect to form and content. Education is also
a part of the class struggle. In advanced capitalist society, education
has expanded so m u c h that secondary education has become 'uni-
versal' but a dual system of education persists with respect to cur-
riculum, streaming within and between schools, and access to higher
levels of education.1 Education therefore acts as a dominant class,
both by providing the skills and knowledge necessary for increased
production and capital accumulation, and also by shaping the ideas
and attitudes of various classes in society in order that they 'adapt'
to their respective positions of exploited and exploiter. T h e pyramid
structure of education, however broad its base m a y be, ensures that
only a small minority actually have access to the kind of education
considered necessary to become a m e m b e r of the dominant economic
class or its petty bourgeois agents. T h e selection devices which are
used as the mechanism of legitimizing the education pyramid as
well as the use of education credentials for 'occupational' education
tend to favour the children of the bourgeois and petty bourgeois.
Mystifications about social mobility aside, expansion of education
has not meant significant vertical social mobility nor the development
of 'classless' society. Equality of opportunity has led to vertical social
mobility via education competition for a few individuals, i.e. their
co-optation into the class of exploiters, but it has not led to social
equity overall.
In colonial economies based on smallholder agriculture, like
Tanganyika, there was no material basis for the development of
i. Zsuzsa Ferge, 'The Janus Faces of Education', Prospects, Vol. V I , N o . i, 1976.
496
universal primary education or a highly developed and differentiated

education pyramid. T h e labour exploited b y foreign capital was
mainly unskilled or semi-skilled labour, with low levels of scientific
or technological inputs into production overall. Moreover, State
coercive apparatuses like the army and police, taxes and by-laws,
were the basic mechanisms relied upon to force the peasant to grow
cash crops of a certain quality, and forced the migrant labourer to
sell his labour on plantations or in mines. Ideological apparatuses
like schools were of minute importance with respect to the labour
force itself, but were important in creating a minority of semi-
educated Africans to take lower administrative positions, teaching
posts, or became semi-skilled technicians in government and c o m m e r -
cial service.
In Tanganyika the majority of Africans never had any formal
schooling. T h e African education structure was pyramid shaped,
with selection examinations every two years u p the pyramid. For
example, in 1945 there were 1,000 primary schools, 18 secondary
schools and 24 teacher-training centres. T h e content and structure
reflected and contributed to the reproduction of the place of Africans
as the manual labour force in the colonial economy. T h e majority
of those w h o entered school received rural-oriented, vocational edu-
cation, including literacy and numeracy skills and m u c h manual
farm work. A very few received post-elementary education, which
was vocationally streamed with the majority entering industrial crafts
and teacher-training streams and a very small minority entering
academic streams intended to train the educated petty bourgeoisie.
Post-elementary expansion was a function of government and private
business projection of 'manpower' needs.
Concern about middle-school leavers (and later primary-school
leavers) rising rates of rural-urban migration, and rising demands for
post-elementary education led to the promotion of 'adaptive edu-
cation' for Africans. T h e Phelps-Stokes Commission provided added
impetus for education reform, drawing on the form and content of
'Negro education' usually identified with Booker T . Washington as the
model for colonial education. Agriculture education was considered
most 'relevant' to the African as to the American of African origin,
since both groups were agricultural labourers. T h e curriculum was
to consist of health, home-life training, 'industry' and recreation.
In both cases, such 'adaptive education' was intended to contribute
to the reproduction of a cheap labour force characterized by low-
level skills and at the same time provide the base for allocation of a
497
Marjorie Mbilinyi
minority to higher education, the future compradors and petty bour-

geoisie. T h e point is not to suggest mere imitation of one form of
education, but rather to note that given the basic material conditions
and level of productive forces, and the nature of production relations,
the needs of capital for a docile, adaptive labour force were met in
similar ways through 'adaptive education' reform in two historically
different social contexts. Moreover, the same kind of adaptive edu-
cation also developed for urban immigrants and the working classes
in the United States in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth
century, and for the British working classes during the same period
of time.1
Post-colonial political, education and other institutions remained
basically the same after independence, and contributed to the
heightened reproduction of capitalist relations of production and
increased penetration of peasant production by foreign capital.
T h e post-colonial State therefore continued to act as an inter-
mediary between foreign capital and the indigenous peasants and
workers.
In the 1960s, there was no basic economic or political need for
expansion of the primary education base, since 'super exploitation'
was possible without investment in or fundamental attention to either
raising the level of productive forces within agriculture production
or to fitting ideologically the peasants and workers to their place
in production. However, with the increasing penetration of capital
beginning in pre-colonial times, contradictions between capital and
labour have gradually heightened, as have contradictions in advanced
capitalism centres during the present epoch. International struggles
for national liberation and for socialism have succeeded or have
been consolidated, which provide 'models' not to imitate but to
inspire national struggles for liberation, and also provide an
alternative set of trading and production 'partners'. At the same
time, the increasing contradictions between capitalist relations of
production and the level of development of productive forces on
an international scale have led to serious political upheavals in
developing capitalist countries, as well as in lesser advanced capitalist
countries. In the case of the former, political upheavals are partly
related to crises in food provision and in employment, including
1. Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, N e w York) N . Y . ,

Basic Books, 1976; John Lawson and Harold Silver, A Social History of Education in
England, London, Methuen, 1973.
498
rising rates of landlessness, and rising expectations with respect to

basic material and social needs. Formal education has become an
increasingly significant part of the productive forces, and funda-
mental contributor to the reproduction of relations of production.
T h e 'achievement' ideology of schooling legitimizes the efforts of
all, peasants and workers as well as petty bourgeoisie and the ruling
class, to get their children through to higher education and higher
class status. At the same time, the underdeveloped economy cannot
possibly absorb a 'secondary school educated labour force', nor does
society have the material resources to support such an education
structure.
Hence, rising demands for higher education, higher incomes and
higher living standards by peasants and workers must be contained
in order for foreign capital to be able to extract its profitable surplus
from the labour force in the developing countries. T h e penetration
of peasant production by capital has reached a stage where a more
organized State-controlled system of socialization is n o w required.
T h e socialization of the labour force can no longer be left in the
hands of the peasant household, because of the nature and level of
contradictions which have developed. Foreign capital is therefore
forced by objective material necessity to seek resolution of secondary
contradictions. O n e w a y is to increase the capacity of the labour force
to feed itself. At the same time, it is n o w necessary for foreign capital
to control the ideological socialization of the peasants and workers
in order to ensure their acceptance of and capacity to adapt pro-
ductively to the demands of foreign capital.
This is where universal basic education reform comes in. T h u s far,
basic education (whether schooling or adult education) has not led
to measurable increases in productivity. Indeed, a careful appraisal
of the level of skills and knowledge fostered in such programmes
reflects the lack of serious intention to increase production through
education. T h e skills and knowledge base of curriculum reform
represents a very low level of science and technology, characteristic
of hoe-culture stages of development and lower than the level of
technology already reached by kulaks and some more advanced
areas.
W h a t is being seriously emphasized in underdeveloped societies
are ideological objectives. A s noted in Prospects:1
I. Introduction to the dossier: C A Turning Point in Literacy'j Prospects, Vol. V I , N o . i,

1976^.65.
499
Marjorie Mbilinyi
The concept of functionality, although valid, was too technical a solution to

a problem which was only partially technical. It also showed that to be
effective, functional literacy should deal with political, cultural and social
aspects of development as well as purely economic ones.
This is based on the evaluation of the work-oriented functional

literacy p r o g r a m m e developed in eleven countries including the
United Republic of Tanzania after ten years' experience. T h e
report based on this evaluation1 pointed out that the objective of
literacy should be a 'critical awareness which should enable n e w
literates to master and transform their o w n w a y of living'.2
W h a t have the specific ideological objectives of basic education
reform become in practice?
First, 'cooling' expectations of parents and children for higher edu-
cation and vertical class mobility.
Second, adjustment to one's place as exploited producer.
Third, the learning of punctuality, submission to authority, order-
liness, individual responsibility; orientation to extrinsic, material
and individualistic rewards and punishments—all of which can be
subsumed under the rubric of the proper 'work-orientation', in a
context of alienation and exploitation.
Fourth, the legitimization of a schooling system which allocates a
minority to higher education; examinations are fundamental to
the mystification of the class bias in such allocation mechanisms.
Fifth, the legitimization of class relationships between foreign capital
and peasants and workers; between the local ruling class and the
peasants and workers.
Sixth, the camouflage of foreign capital's investment in basic edu-
cation reform by labelling such reform as a rejection of 'foreign
imported models'.
At this m o m e n t in history, capital is able to extract m o r e surplus
from the peasants without raising the level of productive forces, by
increasing the n u m b e r of producers w h o produce for the market
and depend on the market for basic consumption and producer
goods, and at the same time increasing the proportion sold of what
is produced, and through labour intensification. This is w h y w o m e n
are so crucial, since they have been the most obviously overlooked
1. The Experimental World Literacy Programme: A Critical Assessment, Paris, The Unesco
Press, 1976.
2. Prospects, Vol. V I , N o . 1, op. cit.
5OO
potential labour force a m o n g peasants. In the words of the Ghanaian

economist, Robert Gardiner. 1
By equipping Africans on a mass scale—young and adult, m e n and

women—with knowledge, skills, perceptions and insights which will enable
them to produce more goods and services, exchange them for cash incomes,
and buy for themselves the m i n i m u m essentials of a modern standard of
living. They should produce surpluses so that by their individual or collective
efforts they could buy and enjoy sufficient/<?£>i/, clothing and footwear, health
services, housing and furniture, schooling sports and entertainment, savings f
emergencies and old age.
Ferge's description of the rationale for the historical development

of mass education for workers in advanced capitalist (and s o m e
socialist) States is extremely meaningful n o w within the context of
the international division of labour in the world-wide capitalist
system: ' T h e basic objective w a s a moral taming, an ideological
breaking-in so to speak, designed to lead to an acceptance of a given
situation.'2 Here the interests of foreign capital, the post-colonial
State and the local ruling class coincide.
A new look at reform
T o be understood education reform must be examined in context.

N o one can disagree with the need to provide s o m e kind of a universal
'basic education package' to all the people of developing capitalist
countries and to involve producers in production of surplus for
exchange. T h e problem, however, becomes (a) W h a t are the appro-
priate aspects of the basic education package? (b) For whose benefit
is this package being promoted, the benefit of the peasants and
workers? T h e local ruling class? Foreign capital? (c) W h a t kind of
production system is it promoting, capitalist or socialist?
W h a t kind of education reform is in the interests of the peasants
and workers? This question can ultimately be answered only by
the peasants and workers through the process of struggle for national
liberation and for socialism. S o long as the post-colonial State
continues to be the intermediary apparatus for capital's exploitation
of the peasants and workers, State ideological apparatuses like schools
1. Robert C . Gardiner, 'Strategies for Educational Change', Universities of Eastern Africa

Conference on Teacher Education, Dar es Salaam, Institute of Education, 1972.
2. Zsuzsa Ferge, Prospects, Vol. V I , N o . 1, 1976, p. 19.
5OI
Marjorie Mbilinyi
cannot serve the interests of the people. A s Freiré has recently

clarified:1
to conceive of systematic education as an instrument of liberation is simply

to invent the rules of the game. . . . A truly liberating education will cor-
respond closely to the process of consciously organizing the dominated
classes in view of transforming the oppressive structures.
However, it is essential to clarify what a liberating education system

would be like after the victory of a national liberation struggle and
during the process of socialist transformation. S o m e points are
suggested:
M a s s education in the interests of the peasants and workers, based
on proletarian ideology.
Raising of the level of development of productive forces as rapidly
as possible, and side b y side raising the educational level of all
the people, young and old, schooled and unschooled.
Related to the point above, the universalization of university edu-
cation such as is already being achieved in China and C u b a where
universities go to the workers and the peasants.
With reference to content, increasing the mastery of fundamental
aspects of knowledge about (a) historical development of h u m a n
society based on the historical materialist outlook; (b) the historical
material context within which the specific society is placed and
h o w to investigate it and change it; (c) science and technology
through practice, experimentation and production; (d) skills of
communication like reading and writing, but also oral articulation
in order to provide access to knowledge and skills and also to
increase the participation of the producers in basic decision-
making about production and about all State and other insti-
tutions; (e) the promotion of the 'proletarian' ideology through
continual participation in manual production, whether peasant,
worker, student at any level, manager, expert, etc.; (f) raising the
overall cultural level of the masses, increasing the range of h u m a n
fulfilent for all; (g) abolishing the contradiction between mental
and manual labour with respect to curriculum (which includes
instructional strategies and evaluation techniques as well as content,
curriculum objectives, etc.).
T h e democratization of school and classroom teacher-student and
I. Paulo Freiré, 'Literacy and the Possible Dream', Prospects, Vol. V I , N o . i, 1976.
502
other relationships and the promotion of co-operative forms of

work.
T h e promotion of non-rote-memory teaching methods in order to
enhance student creativity, self-confidence, ability to solve prob-
lems and critical thinking.
Examinations to reflect the cognitive and attitudinal objectives given
above.
Educational credentials no longer the basis for selection to specific
occupations or promotions. Material rewards to be based on
contribution to the development of the nation and service to the
masses.
Selection to higher post-primary levels of education to be based
not on individually based paper examinations and school assess-
ments alone, but include other forms of evaluation which measure
contribution to production, co-operation with fellow workers, etc.
Primary education or its equivalent to be followed therefore by
two or three years of productive work as peasant or productive
worker (worker, not wage employee), after which fellow workers
or peasants would select those to be sent for further training in
order to fulfil local or regional/national manpower needs.
All such reforms must be a part of socialist transformation of pro-
duction relations and the liberation of the national economy from
domination and exploitation by foreign capital. Clearly, such edu-
cation reforms can only take place w h e n State power is in the hands
of the peasants and workers, and the workers have become the
ruling class with respect to control over production. So long as
the underdeveloped economy remains part of the world-wide capi-
talist system, its education will necessarily reflect the contradictions
of imperialism and underdevelopment and serve the interests of
foreign capital, not the peasants and workers.
503
Elements for a dossier
Issues and opportunities

in pre-school learning
Gilbert de Landsheere
Pre-school education
in developing countries
Certain expressions, however ambiguous they great majority of children w h o , in accordance

m a y be, die hard. T h e expression 'pre-school with the rules of tradition, are not called upon
education' belongs to this category. In m a n y to exercise technical or political leadership
contexts, it seems to imply that before infant- demanding functional relations with more dy-
teaching institutions are organized, young chil- namic cultures. For the minority, the future
dren are virtually deprived of any education. leaders, special educational measures are gen-
Nothing could be further from the truth. erally adopted: tutorship, attendance at private
T h e facts show that in traditional societies, nursery schools and, later, studies in indus-
especially in the developing countries, edu- trialized countries.
cational activity is pursued. This is particularly W e thus rediscover, in a n e w form, the
the case where the culture is stable and there is solution adopted for example in sixteenth- and
complete harmony with the background and seventeenth-century Europe, where the future
natural environment. It is, moreover, the in- leaders of social structures which, being essen-
delibility of this first educational experience tially static, were characterized by educational
that creates difficulties w h e n the process of forms oriented towards reproduction of the
acculturation begins. established order, received technical and func-
In cultures where the sector of primary, tional instruction, either by attending exclusive
i.e. rural, activities dominates—often engaging institutions such as the aristocratic academies
90 per cent of the working population—and in France and the Elizabethan academies in
which have, for this very reason, a markedly England, or by going abroad, especially where
static character, there is no need for any form a particular science or art flourished.
of pre-primary education other than that pro- In general, it m a y be said that systematic,
vided by the family or clan: at least for the realistic, predominantly scientific instruction
only spreads and develops widely in cultures
where the secondary—industrial—sector plays
Gilbert de Landsheere (Belgium). Professor at the
an important part, with all the ensuing econ-
University of Liège, where he is director of the Labora- omic, political, administrative and military
tory of Experimental Pedagogy and president of the complexity.
Institute of Education and Psychology. Among his most Such cultures, whose dynamism grows in
recent books are: Introduction à la Recherche en É d u -
cation; Évaluation Continue et Examens; Précis de
proportion to their development, exploit with
Docimologie; Définir les Objectifs de l'Éducation increasing intensity the available intellectual
(co-author); L a Formation des Enseignants Demain. potential, a fact which led certain people to
506

Pre-school education in developing countries
believe that the members of these societies scholastic attainment profile is already decided.
were more 'intelligent', more 'gifted', than Kraus, w h o followed 148 children in the
others, or even that they belonged to a 'superior United States—white, black, Hispano-American
race'. In the industrialized world, the exact and oriental—from kindergarten to adulthood,
sciences play a growing part. B y their very confirms Bloom's observations in the school
nature, they are based on a logic which, orig- environment. Kraus writes:2
inally philosophical, becomes mathematical;
T h e first assessment found to be in high and stable
upon a particular type of rationality charac- correlation with the results obtained in the intelli-
terized by a predominantly objective system of gence tests and the reading and mathematical compre-
reference. hension tests, given subsequently, is a reading test
T h e complexity of their theories and methods taken in the third year of primary school.
of organization and functioning also requires
highly abstract thought and language. A n d , Kraus continues, the results in the reading
It is largely for these reasons that in the test in the third year of primary school 'could
industrialized countries formalized, systematic have been used, for the majority of the children,
education begins increasingly early and lasts as predictors of success or failure, certainly for
longer and longer in a child's life. the following six academic years, thus covering
lower secondary education, and even for later'.3
Finally, Kraus observes that only a few of
A decisive period the pupils w h o failed in reading in the third
year were able to overcome this difficulty: these
This brings us to a crucial question. B y and were the children w h o had the good fortune to
large, it has been accepted for some time, thanks be individually assisted by reading remediation
to the progress of dynamic psychology, that a specialists. A n d the author concludes sadly:
man's character and affectivity are broadly out- 'There were no late bloomers.' 3
lined, even definitively drawn, in thefirstfive All this is confirmed by Husén 4 and by sev-
or six years of his life. This observation seems eral of m y o w n observations.6 At the end of a
to be universally valid. Furthermore, w e are longitudinal study carried out in Sweden, Husén
n o w in a position, at least in the highly indus- finds that the opinion of third-year primary-
trialized countries, to formulate a similar hy- school teachers and the results in intelligence
pothesis for cognitive development. tests taken at the same time are good predictors
It is k n o w n that in his now-classic work, for the school career.
Bloom 1 concludes from a considerable number In a Belgian mining region, M i n o n 6 has
of previous studies that the intellectual develop-
ment of the individual, in its varying phases,
1. B . Bloom, Stability and Change in Human Character-
evolves as follows: in relation to the general istics, N e w York, N . Y . , Wiley, 1964.
level of intelligence reached at the age of 17, 2. Philip E . Kraus, Yesterday's Children: A Longitudinal
about 50 per cent of aptitudes are already fixed Study of Children from Kindergarten into the Adult
Years, p. 41, N e w York, N . Y . , Wiley Interscience, 1973.
at the age of 4, the following 30 per cent are 3. ibid., p. 42.
achieved between 4 and 8 and the remaining 4. T . Husén, Talent, Opportunity and Career, Stockholm,
20 per cent between the age of 8 and 17. Almquist & Wiksell, 1969.
5. G . de Landsheere (ed.), Recherches sur les Handicapés
Parallel to this, the school career also seems Socio-culturels de 0 à 7-8 Ans, Bruxelles, Ministère
to be determined, in essence, early in life. de l'Éducation Nationale, Direction Générale de l'Or-
ganisation des Études, 1973,450 p .
Bloom observes that w h e n a child starts the 6. P . Minon, Facteurs Sociaux de la Première Orientation
first year of primary school, 33 per cent of his Scolaire. Liège, Institut de Sociologie, 1966.
507
shown that the occupational future of a great veloping countries do not need m e n of action
majority of socio-culturally deprived children trained on the spot rather than thinkers with a
is determined by the age of 10. long academic preparation? D o certain cultural
T h u s Ausubel 1 is probably right in asserting conditions in certain countries facilitate more
that 'in the field of culturally handicapped belated development than in the West?
childhood, the main theoretical and experimen- O n e cannot but be staggered by the fact that
tal problem, both for pure and applied research, large-scale transcultural studies were not under-
is that of the reversibility of the effects of taken years ago to clarify these problems. W e r e
cultural deficiency on the development of verbal m e n reluctant to raise them? D i d they wish to
and theoretical intelligence'. avoid them? This would be a serious mistake
O n e cannot but be struck by the convergence on the part of the developing countries. For
fo these various observations. However, they even if it were proved that man's intellectual
are still of purely statistical validity and w e lack, destiny is universally determined from child-
in particular, carefully collected studies of cases hood, this would not m e a n that the situation of
where this premature determinism seems to be these countries is hopeless. T h e West has faced
refuted by the facts. the same difficulty in its time.
H o w is this relevant to the developing In short, a series of problems with di-
countries? A s might be guessed, the question is, rect, fundamental educational repercussions
for m a n y of them, crucial. W e are reminded of arise during the transition—especially if it is
the despairing reaction of a teacher w h e n she accelerated—from an economy essentially domi-
heard of the aforementioned researches. For she nated by the primary sector to modern indus-
was devoting all her energy to educating Latin trialization and the development of services.
American adolescents w h o , u p to then, had This process exerts a dynamic influence on the
received no school education. W e r e her efforts whole culture which, from being static, sud-
practically useless? denlyfindsitself obliged to create n e w forms of
Certainly not. But could one hope to recover adaptation and to produce flexible, creative
all the educational time lost? W e cannot be sure. behaviour-patterns to which it is not used.
Whereas it is still possible, u p to a relatively This transformation, often of a mutational
late age, to m a k e reasonable progress in the character, requires, in particular: (a) an inten-
field offigurativeand social learning, it seems sification of communication and information
to be quite a different matter in the abstract, input, particularly in writing; (b) the use of a
symbolic field. It would appear that if a certain widely diffused language, which often has to be
basic symbolic learning has not been acquired learnt from scratch; (c) the formalization of
at the right time (during the 'sensitive periods', education.
as Montessori used to say), the aptitude for In order to achieve the acculturation w e are
acquiring it diminishes. H o w m a n y semi-skilled concerned with, children will have to learn to
workers, in the West, whose regular schooling perceive the world by means which have u p to
has often come to a halt at the age of 10, have then been partly or wholly alien to them; and,
been able to change course and start a n e w , as if such a task were not difficult enough in
more intellectual career? itself, the building of concepts, of this n e w
Nevertheless, the ambiguity of m a n y of the logic, will often have to take place at school, in
above reflections is obvious. Even if they are
derived from rigorous research, surely their val-
i. D . P. Ausubel, ' H o w Reversible are the Cognitive and
idity is limited to a very special type of culture? Motivational Effects of Cultural Deprivation?', Urban
Should w e not ask, for example, whether de- Education, Vol. 1,1964.
508
a language which is also alien, of which the academic progress, for which, by a strange
child originally knows nothing. coincidence, the criteria for success are precisely
If, as is only too likely, the pupils do not the capacity to reproduce, parrot-fashion, the
embark on this process until the age of 6 or 7, set forms he has learnt, and not to transfer or
or even later, w h e n , according to Bloom, only apply them to reality.
20 per cent of their general intelligence has still In what language should pre-primary edu-
to be developed, the vicious circle of difficulties cation be given? Bearing in m i n d the m a n y
is complete. tests conducted, with various objectives, in the
In writing these lines, one thinks particularly past, the only possible solution seems to be
of those regions of the world where contacts to use exclusively at the outset the language
with the culture which dominates the contem- heard by the child since birth and spoken
porary industrial, even post-industrial era have in the family circle. Except where the very
remained tenuous. M a n y less clear-cut situations nature of the conceptual substratum of the
exist, of course, but there is every reason to mother tongue makes this impossible, it is in
suppose that they are marked, in varying de- it that the quantitative study of the environ-
grees, by the basic difficulties w e are trying to ment, the pre-scientific construction of reality
indicate. Hence the usefulness of extreme cases and also, of course, certain essential qualitative
to m a k e the point more clearly. aspects would be approached.
F r o m the beginning of primary schooling, the
child would be initiated in the language of major
The role of pre-primary education communication in which secondary and, eventu-
ally, higher studies will be pursued. But u p to
As might have been guessed, all the preceding the age of 8 or 9, recourse would be had to the
considerations establish, in m y view, the necess- mother tongue to ensure deep understanding.
ity of making contact, as early as possible, with A s has been said, the child's living experience
the modes of thought and cultural forms of the must be enriched. H e will discover, in par-
world into which the future adult will have to ticular, in the school environment the cultural
integrate. elements missing in the family setting, yet
This must be done in such a w a y as to necessary in order to follow the educational
overcome the formidable difficulties in achiev- curriculum which awaits him. In these activities
ing balance and continuity between the original the conceptualization of space, time and caus-
culture in which the child has been soaked ality will take pride of place. Exercises involving
during the veryfirstyears of its life—apparently serialization, classification and grouping, always
the most decisive—and a culture which has in conjunction with the discovery of relevant
almost nothing in c o m m o n with the former, relations, will be done at every opportunity,
both from the point of view of attitudes and with hypothetico-deductive thought as the final
values and as regards behaviour towards the goal. T h e development of affectivity and moral
physical world. awareness will, of course, not be overlooked.
It is here that pre-primary education has a These few suggestions do not purport to be
decisive part to play, particularly in forming an a draft curriculum, but simply guidelines for
experimental background without which teach- thought, as regards both the elaboration of
ing can have no meaning for the pupil. In the educational programmes and teacher training.
absence of meaning, w e are reduced, at best, to T h e y also point the only way to breaking the
a solution of despair: the pupil learns by rote, vicious circle created by the system of parrot-
without understanding, all that is necessary for learning whose genesis w e have described above.
509
The institutions: be trained on the cheap. In Japan, for example,

practical considerations future nursery-school teachers pursue complete
university studies, and w e have suggested in
Is the immediate generalization of pre-primary another publication that this should also be
teaching in developing countries possible? T h e m a d e obligatory in all European countries.
answer, however sad, is evidently no. N o t only After twenty-five years offieldstudy and ob-
because the resources are lacking but also, and servation in the developing countries and a close
perhaps most important, because there are not examination of the university students they pro-
enough qualified educators. For, in order to duce, I have become profoundly convinced that
be properly carried out, pre-primary action each time a centre for pre-primary education,
requires solid psychological and pedagogical staffed by sufficiently qualified personnel, be-
knowledge, to be applied by teachers w h o have gins to operate in a developing country, a
themselves been through the whole process of veritable nursery for talent is created.
intellectual and affective training that their In this context, community development
pupils in turn will have to accomplish under centres can play a decisive part, for, to the
their direction. extent that the community, especially its lead-
W e thus face a crucial question. Is it worth ers, adopts the idea of pre-primary education,
while to invest heavily in primary teaching if, not only are the resources necessary for provid-
in the absence of pre-primary education, only ing such education more readily available but it
superficial results can be expected for the can also count on an adult world which ap-
majority of pupils? preciates its value and consequently engenders
W e are thus brought back to a previous ques- in the child the positive attitudes which are, in
tion of prime importance: in non-industrialized thefinalanalysis, the key to success.
societies, is it true that both affectively and
intellectually, the essential development of m a n
is virtually decided by the age of 7 or 8? If not, An anecdote by w a y
what should be done to overcome the difficulty? of conclusion
In view of the capital importance of this
problem for the future of the world there is a Just after the launching of Sputnik I¡ I had the
clear and urgent need for wide-ranging re- opportunity of carrying out a large-scale survey
search in the most diverse cultural contexts. Let of education in the United States. At the time,
us hope that international organizations and the country was living in a state of shock
private foundations will find here, as soon as and seeking desperately to stimulate its scien-
possible, a priority area for action. tific creativity. T h e means used were some-
In the meantime, what can the developing times unexpected. W e actually saw, in a first-
countries do? In the short term, however u n - year primary-school class in N e w England,
democratic such an option m a y be, they will Mendeleev's table used to teach letters and
no doubt have to continue to give priority to figures! Future atomic scientists can never be
a culturally privileged minority, capable of sup- conditioned for their career too early!
plying the necessary senior personnel and intel- At the end of long months of observation, I
ligentsia. Not for thefirsttime! was often questioned about the scholastic re-
But, parallel to this, they should prepare, forms which might be contemplated. T o the
with the aid of a solid theoretical framework, great surprise of the people I spoke to, I did not
the m a x i m u m number of young teachers for contemplate an increase in the number of hours
pre-primary education. These teachers cannot devoted to science in secondary teaching, or the
510
adoption of sophisticated programmes or tech- life on the development of m e n and nations.

nical novelties. I simply suggested that nursery This feeling has been strengthened over the
schools should be developed and democratized years, and if I were the Minister of Education
in that country where they were still the pre- in a developing country, I should not rest until
rogative of a rich minority. Even then, I I had beside m e a small team truly aware of the
believed in the influence of thefirstyears of significance of pre-primary education.
5"
David W o o d and Miriam Harris
A n experiment in psychological
intervention1
Generally speaking, attempts to apply psycho- The United Kingdom context

logical and sociological knowledge to everyday
affairs have been most marked by their lack of Responsibility for institutions for children
success. This is particularly true of attempts to under the age of 5 is divided between the D e -
help in the effective design and conduct of pre- partment of Education and Science ( D E S ) and
school facilities. This article describes a project the Department of Health and Social Security
which set out to try to apply knowledge of early ( D H S S ) . T h e D E S has overall control of nur-
development in those situations where very sery schools and nursery classes within primary
young children are being cared for outside their schools; these are free to parents, take children
immediate families. This has encountered sev- from the age of 3 years and m a y give a child
eral quite fundamental problems, some of which either a half-day (2 \ hours) or, more rarely, a
have to do with the nature and inadequacies of full-day place (full day however signifying a
psychological knowledge itself and others having school day—i.e. 09.30 h to 15.30 h approxi-
arisen directly out of the attempted co-operation mately, not a full working day). These schools
between practitioners and academics. and classes are run by qualified teachers, as-
Here w e will outline our o w n responses to sisted by nursery nurses ( N N E B s ) and some-
these various problems, our strategies for deal- times by untrained staff. They are part of the
ing with them, and, in so far as w e are able at educational system.
this point, try to estimate their effectiveness. All other forms of provision are ultimately the
Our project is not yet finished—we have a responsibility of the D H S S . They are day nur-
little more than one year to go, so this case series, child-minders and playgroups. D a y nur-
study will, perforce, be incomplete. series give full-day care from earliest infancy to
school entry (although some stipulate a mini-
m u m age) and their emphasis has traditionally
David Wood ( United Kingdom). Lecturer in psychology been on custodial care rather than education.
at the University of Nottingham, England. Formerly
Fellow at the Centre for Cognitive Studies, Harvard
1. The work described in this article is being supported by
University.
a contract from the Social Science Research Council.
David Wood's work is also being supported by a
Miriam Harris (United Kingdom). Seconded from the
Fellowship from the Nuffield Foundation and by the
Social Science Research Council to be research co- Oxford Pre-School Research Group. The authors wish
ordinator of the Oxford Pre-School Research Group. to make it clear that they are not acting as spokesmen
Former research assistant at the Tavistock Institute of for the group as a whole, and that the article should
Human Relations. be read as a personal statement on their own behalf.
512

A n experiment in psychological intervention
Child-minders are w o m e n registered by law to full-time employment, while legislation affect-

look after children in their o w n homes. Play- ing w o m e n at work emanating from the Depart-
groups, though covered by the same legislation ment of Employment allows the right to m a -
as the day nurseries and the child-minders, are ternity leave and enables w o m e n to return to
in fact a quite different phenomenon: a volun- their jobs shortly after childbirth—acknow-
tary movement, started in the early 1960s by a ledging the world-wide secular trend in this
mother w h o wanted some group experience for direction. So the United K i n g d o m lacks an
her young child in an area where no nursery overall policy for children, which in turn has
provision existed. Playgroups n o w cater for at led to the evolution of a badly co-ordinated
least 300,000 children w h o come together for system of provision and although there have
half-day sessions in a variety of settings. T h e y been recent attempts to encourage, at the very
rely largely on volunteer mothers but each least, co-ordination and co-operation, the ab-
group has a supervisor w h o will have undergone sence of political will and m o n e y does not make
some training by the n o w well-established Pre- for a particularly cheering prospect.
school Playgroups Association (PPA) which has While central government, through these
grown to a nationally organized, voluntary body. different departments, is responsible for estab-
Although these several different institutions lishing (or failing to establish) general policy
exist to serve families with pre-school children and guidelines concerning the care of young
throughout the United K i n g d o m , available evi- children, the actual control of pre-school pro-
dence of demand (e.g. Tizard (1975, 1976) and vision is exerted at local level by the counter-
Bone (1976)) suggests that there is a general and parts of the government departments within the
quite substantial shortfall in provision—par- local administrative structure—namely, the local
ticularly in the availability of full-day places for education authorities and the departments of
the children of working mothers. social services. It is at this level that decisions
Those, then, are the forms of provision and about nature and levels of provision are m a d e .
the central government departments under Consequently, the extent of the different kinds
which they come. However, other depart- of provision m a y and does vary considerably
ments—often with conflicting priorities—also from one county (or metropolitan borough) to
have an interest in the care of the under-5s. For the next. O n e m a y , for example, have a very
instance, the Department of Employment be- high number of nursery-school places but
comes directly involved in creating legislation hardly any day-care provision, while another
affecting working mothers and the Department decides on the opposite pattern. T h e proportion
of Environment is concerned in deciding pri- of whole-day to half-day nursery places can vary
orities in housing and provision of play space. enormously depending on local attitudes; some
Furthermore, the interests and policies of these authorities m a y encourage playgroups by m a k -
various departments often come into conflict in ing a substantial grant available via the Social
their implications for the care of under-5s. T h u s Services Department, whilst others m a y see
the D E S has been committed to an expansion of such activity as a dilution of pre-school edu-
part-time provision in the nursery-school sec- cation. Other areas again do almost nothing at
tor. Similarly D H S S has encouraged the growth all. O n the day-care side, individual areas en-
of playgroups as a form of community care al- courage child-minding in the belief that some
leviating the pressures on non-working mothers. form of day care is needed and even though
However, this department has resisted an overall minding is difficult to control, in the absence of
increase in day-care provision, in the belief that the considerable capital funds needed to open
mothers of young children should not be in new day-care centres, they hope that some
513
investment in child-minding as a service will got together a group of playgroup workers and
pay off. Other authorities do not wish to encour- trainers. A n d so on, through all those involved
age minding either because they feel it to be an in any way with the care of pre-school children
inferior form of care or because to do so would in Oxfordshire.
be to sanction mothers of young children going
out to work.
There is, then, no nationally agreed policy The search
governing the nature and extent of provision for for a common goal
pre-school children. Indeed, there is no agree-
ment as to whether the young child's primary T h e original purpose of our group was to exam-
need is custodial, social or educational; n o ine the literature and the prevailing wisdoms
consensus exists as to the extent of duration of about pre-school development in children,
his time in care or the desirability of his mother asking what recommendations these might offer
taking full-time employment. So it is clear that to those w h o have direct public responsibility
ourfieldof interest is a highly controversial one, for these children. First, w e convened a series
charged with m u c h political argument. of seminars which included research workers,
It was also necessary to acknowledge the practitioners from nursery schools, people in-
institutional and administrative constraints volved in the business of training teachers and
within which both w e and the practitioners playgroup supervisors and individuals whose
themselves were operating. But h o w were w e jobs involved them in the organization and
to do this? O n e solution to this problem was supervision of early education and welfare.
to take as a unit a single local authority, cover- As one might anticipate in the light of what
ing and administering the whole range of pro- w e have already said about the m a n y conflicting
vision. T h e convenient choice was the County opinions about the needs of pre-school children,
of Oxfordshire. W e realize that it is not of course these preliminary meetings led to wide-ranging
typical; no single county would be; but w e be- discussions and, occasionally, to open argument
lieve it can be used as a model or case study about the purposes and responsibilities of pre-
which others can adapt to their o w n local school organizations. These discussions eventu-
conditions. W e therefore set about acquiring the ally led us to reject what could be called the
necessary 'visa' to work in the county. W e saw 'usual' strategy of intervention. T h e most
it as essential to the whole idea of participatory c o m m o n strategy is for the researcher to go to
research that those involved should k n o w what the practitioner armed with a particular method
our aims were and, w e hoped, be interested in a and a theory of a set of hypotheses about what
collaborative venture; and in this w e were very should rightly be done with young children.
fortunate. Over thefirstmonths w e m a d e They might, as Joan T o u g h (1977) is currently
contact at various levels in the Education D e - doing, for example, try to steer teachers into
partment from the chief education officer, via specific types of conversation with children,
the senior primary adviser, the nursery teachers believing that forms of language use are instru-
and their staffs, in the Social Services Depart- mental in creating certain forms of intelligence
ment from the director via the principal social and ability. A n d indeed, there is a good case to
worker for child-minders and playgroups, and m a k e for the hypothesis that the characteristic
those responsible for day nurseries, to those w h o way in which language is used to help and
worked with the individual minders and play- control a child determines h o w well he will
groups, and nursery staffs. W e talked to the handle certain sorts of problems and h o w likely
County Pre-school Playgroup Association and he is to succeed in a formal educational setting
514
(e.g. Bruner (1971) and W o o d (1977)). However, factors likely to foster or impede the child's
this evidence is still somewhat equivocal and capacity for sustained, self-directed activity
such a strategy presupposes that those entrusted towards a goal. These are described below.
with the responsibility for pre-schoolers accept T h e zest and commitment demanded b y
and share such an educational and political ob- continuous physical and mental activity fail to
jective. W e felt that practitioners—particularly develop if, starting in utero, and in the formative
in playgroups—might well reject the idea that years, the child is deprived of a balanced,
they were in the business of providing such nourishing diet. Although, even in a relatively
'remedial' experiences. A n d w e also felt that w e prosperous society like the United K i n g d o m ,
knew too little about their problems and aspir- malnutrition is not u n k n o w n , it seemed u n -
ations to take such a strong premeditated line. likely that this particular area of knowledge
So, w e gradually came to the conclusion that would prove relevant to our work. However it
there was very little by way of compelling scien- did stand as a reminder that intellectual and
tific evidence to provide us with general goals social growth cannot be divorced from general
for joint pursuit. A s w e were moving towards standards of living.
this conclusion, one topic started to figure Adults are amongst the best and worst things
strongly in our discussions. This was the subject that happen to children. A growing body of
of concentration in children. Most members of knowledge in developmental psychology points
the seminar seemed to agree that it was likely to to the idea that adult interaction in the child's
prove a wide-spread goal, that those involved in earliest g a m e s — m u c h of it spontaneous and
both playgroups and nursery teaching would be unnoticed in daily life—helps shape and
likely to see the cultivation of children's capacity constrain both linguistic and intellectual
to work in a sustained way towards the achieve- (e.g. Bruner, 1975) as well as social growth in
ment of an objective—be this in play or in more general. Although w e are a long way from a full
formal curriculum areas—as a desirable end. appreciation of the range of individual differ-
There was a reasonable literature on the subject ences in children's responses to adults or adult
which proved a source of useful hypotheses responses to children, w e have k n o w n for some
about factors underlying the development of time that where sustained contact with an
concentration. There were also some interesting adult is not forthcoming, children tend to suffer
discrepancies between the recommendations intellectually and emotionally. T h e child's de-
which w e drew out of this literature and what sire or ability to concentrate is also influenced by
w e took to be c o m m o n practice in pre-school adult behaviour. Even the mere presence of an
institutions, so that there was room for dis- adult tends to extend the child's period of in-
cussion and development. A n d it would provide volvement in a self-selected activity. But an
us all with an opportunity to see whether pre- adult can also destroy a child's potential interest
dictions derived from this body of the exper- in an activity. Gail Zivin (1974) showed, for
imental evidence would stand up to scrutiny in a example, that w h e n a child lacks interest in a toy
real-life setting. W e seemed to have achieved talking to h i m about it, extolling its virtues, is
ourfirstobjective; a shared platform. less likely to excite his interest than simply
letting things lie. Another excellent way to de-
stroy a child's interest in a task or activity is to
obey the following simple rule: (a) find some-
CONCENTRATION
thing that he seems to be enjoying; (b) praise or
Our examination of the literature on concen- reward him for doing it for a time; (c) then stop
praising h i m or ignore him. Similarly, a good
tration suggested three main hypotheses about
515
w a y to ensure that a child continues to do some- sand, water, etc.—which permit self-expression
thing that you would rather he did not do is to and do not constrain creativity. T h e adults' role
get over-agitated and angry about it. is rather poorly defined but they are there to
H o w often, w e wondered, do w e spon- m a k e free expression possible, to provide m a -
taneously m a k e such mistakes (if indeed, our terials and a context for self-directed learning.
behaviour has such general effects outside the In fact they are by and large expected to
laboratory setting?). After all, it seems reason- be somewhat withdrawn and 'invisible' (e.g.
able to talk to the young child about the joys he Stallybrass, 1974).
is missing by his lack of interest in something O n the surface, then, there would seem to be
and to join in and praise him for something he is a mismatch between the conditions needed to
already enjoying. O r do w e soon learn not to do promote sustained, self-directed activity and
these things? certain aspects of what w e took to be prevailing
pre-school philosophy. If teachers and play-
group supervisors did wish to pursue our joint
STRUCTURED ACTIVITIES goal there might well be a need for changes.
So w e started out with three broad ques-
Although evidence here is not strong, there is tions. First, what is practice in pre-schools
some indication that children are likely to like? W o u l d w e find the characteristics of
concentrate for longer periods in activities 'child-centred' philosophy which w e antici-
which have a (for them) definite structure or pated and would this result in rather short
rule system. T h e child is likely to participate in bouts of concentrated activity in children? Sec-
variations on an already familiar theme, in ond, would the hypotheses, drawn from the
elaboration and play based on a k n o w n event literature, be borne out in the working situ-
or object and in tasks which pose recognizable ation? Third, h o w would practitioners respond
problems (Millar, 1968). S o m e psychologists to our findings? If there was a mismatch
have placed considerable stress on the part between the goal of concentrated activity and
played by 'rule-governed' games in helping methods currently in practice would this pro-
the child develop his powers of anticipation vide sufficient motivation for modifications in
and m e m o r y (Bruner, 1975). Simple turn- materials and methods?
taking games like 'peekaboo' where there are Before w e discuss our attempts to answer
quite definite rules of participation combined these questions, however, w e should spell out
with an element of surprise seem to have a more explicity what w e hoped to achieve with
natural attraction for young children (and their our emphasis on concentration. W e were not, of
parents). Structured, rule-governed interactions course, hoping to m a k e it the number one
thus seem to play an important part in develop- priority of every pre-school institution in the
ing the child's abilities to plan or anticipate, to county. Rather, w e hoped to use it m u c h as a
sustain his activity and to help h i m develop a scientist might use a tracer element, as a sig-
sense of control and power. nalling device whose charted passage through a
T h e prevailing practice in both playgroups and system helps reveal more about that system's
nursery schools in the United K i n g d o m , at least characteristics.
the stereotype held about prevailing practice, is This general interest has led us not only to
what is usually called 'child-centred'. T h e e m - interaction with practitioners but with parents,
phasis is on self-directed activity by the child, administrators, journalists and television pro-
on open access to all equipment and materials, ducers. Indeed the whole process of dis-
on the use of unstructured materials—clay, semination—the impact of information passed
516
through speech, writing or film—has become 'Target child' observations

a major focus of interest. W e have been lucky in playgroups and
in the timing of two major educational television nursery schools
ventures aimed at those working with the
under-5s, and some other interests in local T h e major research initiative taken by the group
radio. T h e television series were State of Play, in itsfirstyear was what came to be k n o w n as
aimed at nursery school teachers, and Other the 'target child' observations. Groups of re-
People's Children, which is aimed at child- search workers, nursery teachers, playgroup
minders. With our interest in h o w decisions supervisors and, what becomes an increasingly
are m a d e about h o w to convey knowledge about important group, playgroup tutors, met regu-
the under-5s to various kinds of audiences, w e larly to develop a method of observing childrens'
have undertaken case studies of both these behaviour in pre-school institutions. Three
series; one retrospectively {State of Play), work- main constraints were set on the nature and
ing mainly from documentation m a d e freely scope of this method. W e wanted to devise a
available by the British Broadcasting Corpor- tool which both m a d e sense to psychologists and
ation ( B B C ) , and the other as it happened, practitioners and which was also quick and
monitoring the reactions of groups of child- convenient for practitioners to use. A n d its
minders in Oxfordshire coming together to contents, w e thought, must not seem too threat-
watch Other People's Children. Again w e hope ening. W e did not want teachers to feel that w e
that these small case studies can lead to wider were simply evaluating their activities, although
discussions about the role of the mass media in w e did hope that they would derive insights
this field and what impact research can have about their o w n methods and practices by
on it. looking systematically at the behaviour and
Finally, to complete the data, w e are carrying reactions of their children.
out a survey of child-minders and the mothers Playgroups and nursery schools within the
w h o use their services with a view to initiating county were encouraged to use this instrument
locally based action projects. W e are also themselves and teams of trained observers m a d e
considering the problems of parents in two up of both researchers and practitioners were
ways—first, to find out what it is like to have on call for those w h o wanted them. T h e basic
children under 5 in present-day society, h o w unit of analysis is a 20-minute observation m a d e
decisions are m a d e about mothers working or of an individual child, entries being m a d e each
not working, what sorts of provision they want half-minute. A large number of coding cat-
for their children and what is actually available; egories had been negotiated and these were
and once children are in one type of group or used to summarize and interpret the free-hand,
another, to examine the question of parental half-minute recordings. T h e categories sub-
participation—currently considered an import- sumed the several factors which w e felt might
ant ingredient in successful practice. Finally w e be systematically related to the length of time
have almost completed a study of alternative a child concentrates on an activity—e.g. what
forms of day-care provision in London—since sort of material was being used, was the child
hardly any exist in Oxford. playing alone or with other children; was an
adult present at the start, during, or at the end
of a particular bout of activity, and so on. These
observations produced a wealth of data which
is still being analysed. This is not the proper
place to try and present results in a conventional
517
sense, but it is perhaps worth picking out some his twenty minute session. Someone will interact with
of the findings which have emerged. him no more than once or twice to get something
In the course of our work w e asked a group going or to change his present line of activity. H e
will see them once again as they comment on his
of aboutfiftypractitioners h o w m a n y times they
activities, more often than not to suggest h o w he
would expect a child to change his activity in
might proceed more effectively or to pass judgement
the course of a 20-minute observation. Although on his efforts. H e will see them one further time,
w e found it extremely difficult to elicit 'average w h e n the interaction will not be concerned with overt
values' from them (there was m u c h resistance activity or real objects, but, rather, will concern some-
to making abstract numerical statements—see thing in the world at large or have something to do
below) w e eventually got a consensus value of with reasons and causes which are not self-evident.
three to four times. In other words, the expec- All these interactions will tend to be quite fleeting,
tation was that a child would spend between 5 seldom lasting more than a half-minute, and there
and 7 minutes on a selected activity. In fact, will almost certainly not be any sustained dialogue or
our research (this with the eldest, almost 5-year- shared endeavour. Put another way, in seven hundred
and twenty minutes of observation w e encountered
old children) produced a value of about seven
only five cases of sustained interaction, ones which
times—with an average of between 2 and 3 min-
involved more than a passing exchange of words.
utes on each activity. S o m e children spent the
whole observation period on one activity while A s w e had expected, then, from the supposed
several others changed as m u c h as nineteen philosophy of pre-school experience there were
times in 20 minutes. substantial descrepancies between the activities
O u r observations also showed, as w e ex- and materials which would tend to promote
pected from our search of the literature, that extended periods of concentration in children
children spent longer in an activity w h e n and what actually was going on in pre-school
an adult was present. A n d while the most settings. T h e data w e have collected tend to
c o m m o n materials to be found in pre-schools confirm the hypotheses w e had drawn from the
were, as anticipated, sand, water, clay and literature. So, the first step had been taken.
painting materials, the longest bouts of sus- W o u l d practitioners n o w try to promote greater
tained activity came not with these but with concentration in their children by modifying
more structured materials. Boys, in fact, dis- their practices? W e were available to help them
played longest bouts with material which offered monitor the effects of any n e w initiatives they
the opportunity to construct something—bricks, might want to try and w e had a few suggestions
jigsaws, etc.—while girls spent longer, on av- as to experiments they might want to try in
erage, in the ' h o m e corner', involved in d o m - attempts to achieve this goal.
estic role play. W e found very few games and
organized activities.
A n analysis of adult contacts with these Feedback—its evaluation
children produced results which correspond
closely to observations m a d e elsewhere by other T h e 'traditional' research strategy, in which the
researchers (Tizard et al., 1976). Generally researcher decides the goal, frames the ques-
speaking, adults did not involve themselves in tions, designs the tools and executes the re-
the children's activities. A summary statement search as an 'external' observer, leaves h i m
from one of our interim reports illustrates the with the standard 'dissemination task'. H e must
main findings: alert his potential consumers to the importance
T h e child can expect to be addressed personally by of the question he asks, the suitability of his
an adult (in word or deed) three or four times during methods and thus get them to see the force of
518
his work. If w e had been successful with our for this research work. W e could not understand what
strategy, had involved the practitioners in set- value the outcome would have on the future develop-
ting u p joint goals, and in designing and ment of playgroups.
executing the study, then ourfinaltask should
be m u c h simpler, since the importance of the Although this is only one reaction, the gen-
questions and the validity of the methods are eral impression gained from the meetings and
already agreed. So w e hoped that feeding back odd comments subsequently heard from prac-
the results would be relatively easy with the titioners convinced us that it was reasonably
implications clearly perceived. But w e were to representative.
be disappointed, and tofindothers disappointed
in us, at ourfirstformal attempt at feedback,
w h e n the results of our observations were The failure
beginning to come through. of psychological intervention
W e were given the opportunity to organize and the reasons
a series of in-service training sessions jointly
with the Advisory Services of the Local E d u - George Miller, an eminent American psychol-
cation Authority and the local branch of the ogist, once proclaimed that the aim of the
British Association for Early Childhood E d u - psychologist should be to 'give psychology
cation. These sessions were open to all staffs of away'. But h o w do w e do it and what precisely
nursery schools, day nurseries, and playgroups should w e try to give? A n d do people really
as well as anyone else involved with provision want what w e have to offer? O u r lack of success
for the under-5s. They were held in the even- in the in-service meetings seems to be typical
ings once a week for four weeks, and regularly of attempts to intervene. Several reports (e.g.
attracted over seventy people, w h o , since they Smith and James, 1975; Woodhead, 1976) of
came from all over the county, w e hoped would British and American attempts to 'inject' psy-
act as channels back to an even larger audience. chology into everyday life give the same pic-
So w e used these four meetings to present the ture. While researchers often manage to exert
result of our joint efforts, to comment on it the effect they desire during active intervention,
and to invite suggestions as to h o w w e might as soon as they withdraw or try to hand on
n o w proceed. their activities the effect is lost. W h y should
Perhaps the best w a y of summarizing our this be the case? This was the question which
impact at these meetings is to quote from a preoccupied us after the in-service experience.
report written in a local P P A publication by It was clearly vital that w e frame some sort of
two people w h o had attended them: answer because w e were already half w a y
through our short life as a group and needed to
In February w e attended the 4 lectures given by find a more effective way of proceeding. Before
Professor Bruner's Pre-school Research Group. goint on to examine potential reasons for the
Although one could understand what the research 'failure of intervention', however, w e should
was about, m u c h of the language used was very tech- redress the balance a little and talk about the
nical, and each lecture appeared as lists of statistics. successes which the observational study m e t
O n e was left wondering which playgroups they could with.
possibly have visited. It was stated that throughout
Oxfordshire there was zero rating for organised Generally speaking, those w h o had actively
games, i.e. no child in their observations played participated in the design (as opposed to use) of
Ring-a-roses or Farmers in his Den. During the first the instrument seemed as enthusiastic as w e are
three lectures neither of us could grasp the purpose about its value. A n d it is being used for several
519
purposes by such people, purposes which w e quite possible to give people completely dif-
ourselves did not envisage but, rather, which ferent interpretations of themselves and their
were discovered by practitioners themselves. behaviour and they will find them acceptable if
First, it is being widely employed at a county they are suitably worded. Alerted to this possi-
level by playgroup tutors in the P P A (who have bility w e decided to ask teachers and playgroup
responsibility for helping to train n e w playgroup leaders at the meeting to predict for us what
supervisors). T h e y are rinding it useful as a some of our data would look like. W e did this
device for getting newcomers to look systemati- at the start of a meeting before presenting any
cally and analytically at children's activities. data—data which they eventually found rather
Individual playgroups, again on their o w n in- obvious. However, w h e n w e eventually ana-
itiative, have also used it to look at 'problem' lysed their predictions after the meeting, w e
children, helping to identify more clearly what discovered two things:first,there was a highly
is disturbing about them. S o m e have used it to significant measure of agreement between the
to monitor the effects of changes in their room fifty practitioners w h o responded as to h o w their
layout, to evaluate use of equipment, and so on. energies were deployed in the classroom—thus,
So the instrument which w e designed as a basis it makes sense to talk of them having a point of
for discussions about concentration is n o w being view or hypothesis about the distribution of
used for a variety of purposes. However, in spite their efforts; second, this 'predicted' pattern was
of such successes our main goal—of involving notably discrepant from that w e actually ob-
practitioners in our investigations of concen- served in local pre-school provisions.
tration on a county-wide basis, was clearly not So then, while ourfiguresm a d e no impact on
being achieved—our attempt at intervention practitioners because they were 'obvious' their
was not succeeding. o w n predictions about their activities were not
W e could see m a n y possible reasons for the in fact borne out by our observations. This
failure. Perhaps w e had not had sufficient face- brings us to our second point.
to-face contact with enough people. W e were
clearly wrong in thinking that a large number STATISTICAL THINKING:
would share our enthusiasm for the selected GENERALITIES AND PARTICULARITIES
topic and this m a y have c o m e about through
insufficient consultation. Also, perhaps a fail- T o people w h o are used to thinking in terms of
ure of communication occurred because of the samples, means, ranges and so on, numbers have
differences in dialect between 'research' and a certain 'inescapable' quality about them. If
'practitioner' language. But there are deeper there is a discrepancy between one's general
issues too. expectations about an event and the picture
drawn by statistics then it has force and must
C O M M O N SENSE be explained. General pictures, sketched stat-
istically, are of immense value to the social
O n e very strong reaction w e had from our audi- scientist. They provide the bases for inferences
ence was that the statistics and descriptions w e about the workings of systems and about pos-
were giving them were obvious; they already sible cause-effects relationships. If w e find, for
k n e w the score thanks to c o m m o n sense. T h e example, statistical discrepancies between a
problem is of course that there are too m a n y group of people's stated attitudes and then-
c o m m o n senses. W e have m a n y hypotheses actual performance w e see room for further in-
about ourselves and our condition and these are vestigation and experimentation. But to the
not always internally consistent. Indeed, it is practitioner, faced with an individual child,
520
means, standard deviations and the like, by 'ROUSSEAUESQUE' PSYCHOLOGY

their very nature, are of limited value. It mat-
Another, quite different problem, which
ters little that the average juvenile Oxfordian
was underlined by our subsequent research,
concentrates for an average of 2 minutes on an
concerns certain limitations in the psychological
average task. W h a t is important for them is an
literature on early development. It is basically
immediate response to a unique event—a par-
'Rousseauesque' in that it usually treats the
ticular child, with a particular problem in a
teaching and socialization process in terms of
particular situation. There is a real divide be-
the dyad and the mother-child dyad more often
tween these two forms of knowing about and
than not. Teachers and playgroup leaders face
responding to an event (Bruner, 1976). They
the problem of management, controlling their
are different in purpose. W e clearly did not
o w n time and deploying their effort so as to
anticipate the breadth of this divide w h e n w e
achieve goals with groups of children. Even
set about presenting general information to an
where teachers explicitly share our goals, there
audience that, because of its responsibilities and
still remains the problem of h o w to achieve
goals, was daily concerned with the particular.
the objective and h o w to put any research into
practice w h e n the subject is not one child but
DIFFERENCES IN GOAL STRUCTURES several. W e had little to offer them about poss-
ible solutions to such problems, nor could w e
Another possible basis for our lack of impact, find m u c h of any help in the current literature
and this was brought h o m e to us in no uncertain on development.
terms by a 'representative' of the teachers, was
the perception of us by practitioners. W e were
seen as being too 'cognitive', too m u c h concerned MAKING AND USING
with the brain and not the heart of the child. Generally speaking, people w h o helped in the
This even though our observation schedules had development of the observation technique re-
been negotiated to include social and inter- main enthusiastic about it. Its main lack of
personal factors, and in spite of the fact that appeal seemed to be for people w h o merely
one of our number (e.g. Bruner, 1971, Chap. 9) heard of it and the results to which it gave
had written extensively about the relationships rise. This is surely a quite general problem in
between social and intellectual factors. W e r e the the communication of knowledge—how to m a k e
practitioners simply misperceiving us, or do they the schoolboy share the mathematician's en-
really see children in a different, perhaps broader thusiasm for the tools of his trade, the unhappy
perspective than ourselves? There are a number demise which seems to occur w h e n a method
of attitudinal surveys which show that teachers is communicated from its inventor and his dis-
of young children tend not to see intellectual or ciples to a 'cold' public, and so on. It seems
academic goals as the most important for their that m a n y of us need a personal investment in
charges, and other researchers (e.g. Woodhead, the creation of an instrument or technique if
1976) have suggested that there m a y indeed be w e are to receive its products enthusiastically
a difference in the attitudes and child-models of or to take them as a basis for action.
the two subcultures of researchers and prac-
titioners. Clearly w e had to try andfindout
whether this was the case. THE GENERATION
OF PRODUCTIVE DISCREPANCY
According to D e w e y , the great American edu-

cator, asking an individual to think about a
521
topic withoutfirstcreating for him some sense on in Oxfordshire pre-schools, our aim here
of personal trouble in relation to it, is like asking was to develop elaborate descriptions of single
him to lift himself by his o w n bootstraps. A cases and of the goals and perceptions of indi-
sense of discrepancy, a mismatch between the vidual practitioners. W e have found that simply
expected and achieved is for D e w e y a necess- asking practitioners to tell us what they think
ary condition for the motivation of reflective and do is of little or no use for our purposes.
c
thought. Logically, w e had revealed two dis- Cold' discussions out of context are usually
crepancies; one between our data and prac- rather unsatisfactory. A n d this is not surprising.
titioners' estimates of children's concentration; So m a n y of our purposes and intentions are
and the other between what w e observed prac- fleeting, and never brought to the level of verbal
titioners doing with their time and their o w n expression. W e usually respond in context on
estimates of what they were doing. But these the basis of what w e see and recognize, acting
discrepancies had no real force, perhaps for directly and usually appropriately with little
the reasons just outlined. W h a t w e need, it mediation by full-blown language. In conse-
seems, is some way of generating more personal quence, w h e n w e try to remember what trig-
troubles, a mismatch between the individual's gered our behaviour w e are 'lost for words', for
o w n conception of his activities, intentions and the words were not there at the time. Further-
effects and that developed by an external ob- more, m a n y of the problems w e face in our
server. This is not to say, of course, that some dealings with children seem trivial—hardly the
practitioners m a y not have derived such a sense stuff of psychology. A n d yet, it m a y well be
of conflict from listening to presentation of data. such banal encounters which form the bedrock
But it seemed clear that if there really were of the child's development.
such widespread discrepancies in practitioner So, our method must give us some access to
activity w e needed a more powerful and indi- intentions and goals in context without overly
vidual technique for getting at them. disrupting the practitioners' activities or that of
the children.
Target teacher dialogues Give access to the practitioners' perceptions of

children. Generally speaking, w e felt that w h e n
W o r k with the target-child observations still w e looked at a group of children w e saw what
continues and it is proving particularly wel- was going on in terms of dyads, interactions
come as a training technique for n e w playgroup between two individuals. But what does the
supervisors. T h e local P P A has largely taken teacher or playgroup supervisor see w h e n she
it over and is developing the instrument itself looks at her classroom? Does she usually see
towards this end. At the same time, w e have X individual children or a small number of
tried to develop another technique for getting groupings of children? W e k n o w little or nothing
more 'direct' access to the goals, perceptions about h o w an adult faced with a number of
and skills of teachers and playgroup super- children actually conceptualizes her class. W e
visors themselves. Basically, the development hoped our method would enable us to start
of this n e w method of co-operative research finding out h o w teachers perceive their situation.
was constrained by four main considerations:
Enable us to identify the reason for any dis-
Give access to the goals and intentions of teachers. crepancies between the aims and perceptions of the
Unlike the early target-child work which sought practitioner and psychologist. Generally speaking,
a general, representative picture of what goes the bias which our group brings to the obser-
522
A n experiment ¡n psychological intervention
varions of children is towards an emphasis on tape recordings for us. T h e y are encouraged not
the importance of the adult's role in the child's only to record actual sequences of conversation
development. This, as w e have already said, and interaction with their children but also,
might well run counter to the beliefs of prac- where possible, to try and tell us h o w they see
titioners. W e must be able to identify any such their immediate situation, what they are m o -
discrepancies and try to isolate their cause. mentarily intending to do and w h y . They might
They might be due to (a) genuine disagree- also want to reflect on a sequence of tape, giving
ments about children's needs; (b) the prac- their evaluation or interpretation of what went
titioner's inability to intervene skilfully in the on, what they felt was important and w h y . They
child's activities; or (c) constraints imposed by are perfectly free to erase sections of tape—which
numbers of children or the layout of pre-school they often do—and as few constraints as possible
premises. W e hoped to identify whether any are put on their strategies for using the equip-
discrepancies exist at the level of intention, skillment. A s one might expect, individuals varied
or management capability. tremendously in the way they used the tapes.
O n e , for example, just let the tape run on with
Enable us to evaluate the degree of match be- little or no overt comment. Another would work
tween the practitioner1 s goals and her (short-term) on the tape after the playgroup session, adding a
achievement. W e usually assess the success of hindsight commentary, while another would
our efforts by relating ends and means—we set often take time out in situ to say what she was
out to do something and if w e achieve our goal going to do and w h y . In no sense, then, can
then w e assume that what w e did was effective. these documentary tapes be called representa-
So m u c h is obvious. But, of course, w e are tive observations. N o r can the performances of
often unable to relate means and ends in this individuals be directly compared, for their
way. If the goal is a long-term one or is to actual strategic responses to the demands of the
be achieved (or not achieved) in another time recordings varied so substantially. However,
and place, then w e are unable to m a k e the these recordings, which w e like to think of as
correlation and must proceed on the basis of 'living theories' by individual teachers, do pro-
self-confidence and hope—not in the relative vide us with a number of valuable types of data.
security of observed effects. In a classroom, W h e n the practitioner returns her 'documen-
where continual demands are m a d e by m a n y tary' tape w e undertake a series of descriptions
children, it is reasonable to suppose that the and analyses of its contents—systems which
teacher or supervisor will not have the time have been evolved and are continually being
or capacity always to observe the fate of her modified through discussions with the 'targets'
actions and, thus, to discover the match be- themselves. There is not space here to go into
tween her intentions and her actions. W e hoped detail about these systems save to say that they
that our method would enable us to help her range from a general narrative account of what
bridge this. goes on—designed to check the validity of the
picture w e derive from hearing the tape—to
extremely detailed analyses of the functions
exerted in each of the teacher's interactions with
The method children. T o give some idea of the sorts of
further research and insights w e are gaining
W e provide the target teachers and playgroup from this procedure, w e will give two examples
supervisors with miniature tape recorders and of part case histories.
small but powerful condenser lapel microphones
and ask them to make half-hour documentary
523
EXPERIMENTING WITH 'TOPICS' T. Would you like some plasticine?

C. Yes.
Each of the target teacher's overtures to her T. Which colour would you like?
C. Red.
children can be classified according to its main
T. The red one. That's the same colour as your
topic. It m a y have (a) to do with the present
jersey isn't it?
time and place (referring to the child being ad- C . Yes.
dressed, to the teacher or a third person);
(b) to do with other times, peoples and places; O n the experimental tape, one sequence went
or (c) to do with timeless topics, with logical re- roughly as follows:
lations, psychological causation (i.e. w h y people
do things) or imaginary, non-existent topics. T. Did you go to the fair yesterday?
Clearly, topics (b) and (c) above demand that C. Yes, and I w o n a scarf all on m y o w n .
the child work with images or representations of T. D i d you? H o w did you do that?
situations, for they have no concrete immediate C. Well, I . . . I reached in the box . . . and . . . and
the ticket . . . the ticket was the same as . . . the
reference. M a n y psychologists (e.g. Greenfield
prize, so I w o n it. If you get the same ticket as . . .
and Bruner, 1969; T o u g h , 1977; Olson, 1975)
as the one o n the object . . . you get the prize.
see in such demands the bases of developments And I won.
in abstract, logical thinking. A n d yet, it has been
our experience that they occur very seldom in T h e children showed a willingness to talk about
pre-school settings. Most interaction has to do past experiences and, in so doing, their language
with the here-and-now. N o w there are a number was 'transformed'.
of possible reasons for this observation. Perhaps Such experiments are helping us as psychol-
the teacher considers such activities beyond the ogists to see whether it is feasible to expect
abilities of young children, or m a y b e the chil- young children in everyday situations to ac-
dren refuse to participate; the demands of the complish certain goals, and through discussions
situation m a y not free her to spend time on such with our practitioners, w e are also gaining some
topics or she might lack the resources and skills insights into the prerequisites for such success-
to pursue them successfully. T o try andfindout ful exchanges. For example, in talking about
whether any of these hypotheses are valid w e the past or absent events it seems to be necess-
next ask the teacher to make further exper- ary to take a topic either that the child himself
imental tapes in which she deliberately tries to introduces or one that refers directly to his o w n
introduce such topics. In other words, w e de- activities and not, for example, to those of a
sign a joint experiment on the basis of the prac- friend or relative. This means that the teacher
titioners' o w n observations to try andfindout must k n o w a great deal about the child's activ-
w h y some things occur and others do not. ities out of pre-school or she must deliberately
These help us both to increase the range of set u p activities with a view to referring back
teaching/helping options open to the prac- to them at a later date.
titioner and to find out which techniques
succeed in the pursuit of particular goals. In one
such experiment, a practitioner agreed to try STYLES OF GROUP M A N A G E M E N T
and encourage children to talk about absent AND THEIR EFFECTS
events—could 3- and 4-year-old children in a
group situation be expected to do this? Conver- It will come as no surprise that w e have already
sations on her original documentary tapes were found teachers and supervisors employing a
along the following lines: variety of strategies for managing their children.
Three quite distinct methods have already been
524
encountered and w e doubt that this is anything intriguing, for it suggests that there m a y be
like an exhaustive list: some systematic relationships between very
The 'family' model. Here the adult 'owns' a general characteristics of the school régime on
number of children. In an 'open-class' school the one hand and quite specific features of the
this means that most of the time her children content and extent of interactions between
m a y be anywhere in the school but she still teacher and child on the other. If this suggestion
retains responsibility for them. is borne out by our subsequent research, w e
The 'place' model. T h e teacher owns a room or m a y eventually be able to identify some
set of activities and any child w h o enters her c o m m o n problems and limitations imposed on
space becomes her responsibility. teachers' goals by different ways of running a
The 'fire-fighting' model. T h e adult stands in school. It makes sense, intuitively, to suppose
reserve and w h e n any trouble or difficulty that school structure, teachers' activities and
flares up she rushes to the scene. children's experiences are systematically inter-
Each of these techniques for handling children woven—but it would be useful to have some
places quite different constraints on the relation- scientific evidence as to precisely h o w these
ships and likely interactions between adult and relationships operate and, if necessary, h o w
child. Consider, for example, one of our targets they m a y be changed.
w h o employed the 'family' strategy. O n e of her W e are not, then, simply doing experiments
main objectives was to involve children, on to find out whether children can be expected
occasion, in sustained interaction, exploring in to act, think and talk about specific areas of
depth some topic or activity. However, w e their experience. W e are also trying to help the
found little of this on her documentary tape. teacher and playgroup leader to discover the
W e also found that about 90 per cent of her goals, methods and materials which work best
overtures to her children were of a management for her in trying to achieve particular ends.
nature—asking them to go somewhere or do These experiments—which would be difficult if
something. M o r e revealing to her, however, not impossible to carry out in a laboratory—take
was the finding that w h e n children came to her place in context, so that w e automatically find
for assistance they too were almost always out whether the encouragement of certain
looking for management—access to activities, experiences for children is realistic in a given
asking w h e n milk time was and so on. F e w of pre-school setting. Experiment and dissemi-
their approaches were actually to solicit inter- nation are thus bound together. A n d by doing
action with her. such experiments systematically, it is also poss-
T h e practitioner in question said in effect ible that w e m a y eventually provide a suitable
that this 'discrepancy' really helped her to addition to the laboratory for experiments in
articulate something that had been troubling the care and education of young children.
her for some time. She had felt that she was not It remains to be seen, of course, whether or
always able to achieve what she wanted to do not teachers and playgroup supervisors will
with children. N o w perhaps she knew one continue in any of the joint activities w e are
reason w h y . She is currently thinking about developing after w efinishour research. H o w -
n e w ways of integrating her family management ever, w e do not intend to leave the result
technique—which she still believes in—with entirely to chance. W e are currently trying to
the goal of achieving more sustained interaction find some way of handing over the techniques
with her children. which w e are developing. W e hope, as w e have
W e find this relationship between manage- done with the target-child observations, to find
ment style and teaching functions particularly some existing organization like P P A that will
525
take over the method and adapt it for the group's work w e must clearly seek to define and publi-
ends. S o , what w e intend to leave behind us cize our o w n role in the process. T h e techniques
w h e n w e cease to operate as a group is not a of co-operative research which w e have been
changed set of priorities nor even a particular describing here are thus not simply a search for
set of n e w methods for handling children. W h a t a n e w method of obtaining more representative,
w e hope to give away are methods of self-help, neutral descriptions of the state of part of our
experiment and analysis, so that practitioners society but an attempt to seek out morally and
or those w h o train and help them will have at politically feasible ways of intruding into the
their fingertips a method for identifying and personal and professional lives of groups
investigating n e w problems and n e w possi- within that society in an attempt to help them
bilities inherent in their o w n actions. do what they do more effectively and self-
consciously without, at the same time, insidi-
W e started this article by underlining our ously usurping their responsibilities and their
recognition of the essentially political nature right to decide what the aims and methods
of psychological intervention. T h o u g h some should be.
do exist, there are few psychological prin- T h e method w e have briefly described works
ciples or facts which are politically or morally though a process of continuous dialogue be-
neutral (Shotter, 1975; Bruner, 1977) a n a a tween individual practitioners and researchers.
fundamental problem that social scientists face W e have several times laid stress—perhaps too
is deciding h o w to conduct their activities m u c h so—on the need for these discussions to
without prejudicing the outcome of democratic locate personal troubles or discrepancies for
debate and decision-making. T h e y m a y operate the practitioner as a prerequisite to any act of
within the basic sentiments of their society—on joint experiment or problem solving. Perhaps
the belief, for example, that where inequalities w e should end by saying that where such prob-
of educational opportunities exist due to econ- lems cannot be found then the practitioner is
omic or social biases in society it is their duty perhaps already 'whole' and her activities toler-
to discover and publicize effective ways of ably (for her) integrated. O r perhaps the
obtaining equality. But even such seemingly psychologist's sense of what makes a problem is
acceptable moral ends m a y result in the identi- not hers. A n d that, one might argue, is the
fication of goals which are at variance with those psychologist's problem.
held by groups with more direct responsibility
for educational or political action. For example,
if the voluntary sector organizing care for pre-
school children elects not to fulfil educational References
or remedial roles then w h o is to gainsay them?
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T h e problem, of course, is an old and hoary
Pre-School Education. London, Penguin Press.
one—who should decide what our children B O N E , M . 1976. Day Care for Pre-School Children,
need; parents, teachers, politicians, academics? Low Cost Day Provision for the Under Fives.
H o w should the debate between them be London, Department of Health and Social Secur-
conducted and policy decisions achieved? There ity/Department of Education and Science.
B R U N E R , J. S. 1971. Poverty and Childhood. The
is probably no single all-embracing formula for
Relevance of Education. N e w York, N . Y . , Norton.
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must be sensitive to the changing and evolving of Child Language, Vol. 2, p. 1-19.
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in achieving some relevance and utility in our School Project. Social Science Research Council
Newsletter, N o . 32.
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GREENFIELD, P. M . ; B R U N E R , J. S. 1971. Culture and iour in Pre-school Centers. Journal of Child Psy-
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M I L L A R , S . 1968. The Psychology of Play, London, Children. Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 1,
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O L S O N , D . R . 1975. T h e Language of Experience: T I Z A R D , J.; P E R R Y , J.; P L E W I S , I. 1976. All Our
O n Natural Language and Formal Education. Children. London, Maurice Temple Smith.
Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, Vol. 28. T O U G H , J. 1977. The Development of Meaning,
S H O T T E R , J. 1975. Images of Man in Psychological L o n d o n , U n w i n Educational Books, 192 p .
Research. London, Methuen. 136 p . W O O D , D . J. 1977. Problem Solving: T h e Nature and
S M I T H , G . J J A M E S , T . 1975. T h e Effects of Pre- Development of Strategies. In: G . Underwood
school Education: S o m e American and British (ed.), Strategies of Information Processing, L o n d o n ,
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N o . 3> P- 223-40. W O O D H E A D , M . 1976. Intervening in Disadvantage.
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T I Z A R D , B . 1975. Early Childhood Education. Slough, Z I V I N , G . 1974. H o w to M a k e a Boring Thing
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527
Audrey Stephenson
Toys for pre-school children
The age for starting school varies throughout the world, but is usually between the ages of 5 and 7 although
nursery education is sometimes provided before then. For the purposes of this article, however, pre-schoo
children are considered to be those up to the age of 5, which is the age at which schooling begins in the
United Kingdom.
Wherever an age is mentioned, in relation to a suitable toy, it is intended only as a general guide,
for children vary to some extent in their rates of development. The differing economic situations, custom
cultures and environments of every country must also affect rates of growth, physical, mental and
emotional.
' T O Y . Anything a child plays with. Something activities. True pleasure is the awareness and
of no importance. Amusing trifle.' This defi- enjoyment of feeling, seeing, hearing, thinking,
nition in m y dictionary reveals the great enigma creating and moving; and of discovery, obser-
of the toy. Toys can be all things to all children vation and experiment. All of these are fostered
and to all m e n and w o m e n . T h e baby, playing by play and playthings in the earliest years of
with a rattle, the executive with his golf clubs, life.
the toddler with pebbles discovered o n the T h e growth of interest in toys for pre-school
beach, or a wooden spoon in the kitchen—all children in m a n y countries during the past few
are playing with their 'toys'. Toys are still years has been fantastic. With the increasing
considered by m a n y to be trivialities, yet they awareness of educationists, psychologists, de-
are n o w k n o w n to be vital elements in a young signers, manufacturers and others of the value
child's learning and development. Perhaps the of play in a young child's development, toys
key to understanding the fascination and i m - have become highly newsworthy. Books, m a g a -
portance of playthings is that the toy is essen- zines, newspapers, television and radio have all
tially an object of pleasure, and young children poured forth words of wisdom o n practically
learn most through the pleasure of their play every aspect of play and toys. Choosing toys for
the right age, toy safety, toys for handicapped
children, toys specifically designed for mental,
Audrey Stephenson (United Kingdom). Toy designer. physical and emotional development and so o n
Member of the Industrial Society for Artists and and so forth. Toys have become a very serious
Designers. Presenter and adviser on BBC television subject and are n o w big business both c o m m e r -
programmes Making Toys and Parents and Children.
cially and educationally.
Free-lance lecturer and visiting lecturer to Southwark
College, on play, toys and toy-making. However, as w e all k n o w , toys are not n e w .
528

They have been enjoyed by children through- age shape recognition, and simple wooden
out history. In all places, at all times, examples of bricks and construction sets to develop manual
familiar playthings recur again and again—dolls, skills. But toys tend to defy this type of analysis,
rattles, wheel toys and m a n y others, reflecting which although true misses the more complex
the elemental, basically unchanging nature of elements of play. For one toy m a y fulfil m a n y
children's play. Afifteenth-centuryengraving purposes. Bricks m a y be for building, but will be
shows a baby learning to walk with the aid of used too as 'pretend' animals, people and even
a right-angled wooden frame on wheels; today a bombs! T h e posting box without its lid can
remarkably similar baby-walker can be found become an excellent garage for little model cars
in m a n y toy shops, the design almost unchanged, or a house for tiny dolls; for young children
except for the addition of a cart in front. In playthings are objects of imagination and cre-
Pieter Brueghel's Children at Play, painted ativity too, and can be loved and valued by
in 1560, children are playing with a barrel. A their owners (whatever their material value) as
barrel (manufactured n o w in fibreglass) is m u c h as w e value our possessions. Toys can be
currently available from most British edu- endowed with an almost magical quality of life
cational equipment suppliers. There still exists that again defies analysis. A rag doll can assume
a toy m a d e in Egypt 3,400 years ago. T h e skills a reality and character to its owner that has
of life a new-born needs to learn remain the little to do with the cloth and stuffing with
same—to learn to focus the eyes, to listen, to which it is m a d e . T o y ownership is a form of
walk, to talk, to think, to begin to discover its security to a child. Familiar playthings create
o w n unique mental and physical abilities and feelings of comfort and stability: any parent
something of the nature of the world. T h e w h o has thoughtlessly thrown out the odd
child's principal means of learning these im- cotton reel, length of string or battered model
portant skills during thefirstfiveyears of life car, to be faced with floods of tears w h e n the
remain as ever—play and toys. T o the very loss is discovered by the owner, knows this only
young, play and work are one, and toys are the too well!
tools of this play/work. All the best ideas for toy designs come from
F r o m the research of Piaget and other psy- the children themselves, from watching h o w they
chologists into child development grew the play and understanding their stages of devel-
awareness of the need to provide well-designed opment and abilities. A recent British toy, the
toys and play materials matched to the child's 'tyre on wheels', is a direct development from
stage of development and particular play needs, the abandoned car tyre that children discovered
rather than the gimmicky commercial toys in the garage and turned to their o w n play
designed to attract the parent, but often doomed purposes—using it as a hoop to bowl along, or
to bore the child. hanging it from a tree to make a swing.
These c new' toys were not essentially dif- Most of the early 'modern' toys were m a d e
ferent from those of the past, but were m a d e of wood. Natural materials are an important
bigger, simpler and stronger to match the element in children's play; they are easy to
vitality and clumsiness of young children w h o handle, with a weight and stability that provide
have not yet learned to control fully their minds a sense of satisfaction often lacking in other
and bodies. Toys were also designed to encour- materials. T h e introduction of m a n - m a d e m a -
age specific learning. For instance, the posting terials, however, has m a d e possible the pro-
box (a box with simple shapes cut in the top, duction of toys that were unthinkable before
through which the youngster 'posts' an appro- their invention. A good example of the i m -
priate matching shape), was designed to encour- aginative use of plastics is the double-sided baby
529
Audrey Stephenson
mirror which is fast becoming a n e w classic of movements. T h e cooking pans are, for him,
the toy world. Self recognition is an important valuable toys. But small children need their o w n
play event, and an unbreakable mirror that a 'special' toys, as adults' possessions have to be
baby can handle and explore is a very important returned. Whether one chooses a manufactured,
toy. Unfortunately m a n y of the plastic toys possibly expensive toy or a simple 'everyday'
available are not of high quality, and there thing, it must be matched to a child's stage of
are all too m a n y flimsy, garish, plastic toys development, mental age and physical abilities.
produced. It is obviously useless giving a young child a
M a n y modern toys in industrialized countries complicated construction set designed for an
are replacements for the freedom that children 8-year-old, with lots of small pieces that are
have lost in urban living. T h e climbing frame m u c h too complicated and could be dangerous
(a wooden or metal frame with rungs, ladders too.
and platforms for climbing and play aloft) O n e must remember too the individuality of
replaces the tree, but h o w m u c h better is a real every child, with his or her o w n very special
tree with its textured bark and leaves that make likes and dislikes. There is a play pattern
wonderful hiding places. T h e sand-pit and the through which all children progress, but it is
water tray, though valuable, are poor substi- all too easy to generalize, there will always be
tutes for a beach with rock pools to explore, wet exceptions to every rule, one child enjoying one
and dry sand, marine life and, best of all, the thing and one another. So whatever guidance
sea itself. one m a y give, there will always be some mis-
In large cities one finds adventure play- takes, thank goodness, for if every child enjoyed
grounds sometimes with sophisticated concrete exactly the same thing, at exactly the same, w e
climbing structures, swings and slides, but these would all be turning into robots.
are sadly often too overdesigned and 'set' to
invite truly imaginative and creative play. Better
play areas are those that offer rough ground, Baby play
grass, a wood, running streams and pools, hills,
secret places, logs, planks and tree trunks for Babies need toys that stimulate their senses and
building—a seemingly unorganized environ- encourage movement: before being able to
ment that tries to create the atmosphere and crawl they rely entirely on adults to offer
excitement of an undeveloped rural area. Chil- exciting, interesting and pleasurable experiences,
dren in such an environment need very few things to watch and listen to, etc. W h e n he
toys. or she has learnt to clutch, toys must be
U p to age 5 children explore absolutely small enough to hold, but obviously not to
everything within reach, and anything can swallow, and should provide a wide variety
become a plaything. If an object fulfils some of sounds, textures, weights, shapes, sizes and
play purpose (which m a y sometimes appear colours—particularly primary colours.
meaningless to the adult), it is a good toy. T h e
toddler w h o , discovering some saucepans in the TOYS TO ENCOURAGE FOCUSING
kitchen, turns one upside d o w n and bangs it
with a lid, has m a d e a splendid drum. Sorting Mobiles. Before a baby can sit, a mobile can
the lids, trying to find which fits which pan, encourage him to focus his eyes. It should hang
the youngster is not only having great fun but fairly near the baby, but not near enough to be
is beginning to learn, to discriminate between knocked d o w n or at a later stage clutched, for
different sizes, and to control and refine his mobiles, by their very nature, are fragile and
530
strictly for looking at. Chime tube mobiles First floor toys
(available in m a n y Eastern countries) are excel-
lent for focusing, as the shiny metal tubes These are toys that encourage crawling and later
reflect the light. Simple h o m e - m a d e mobiles attempts at walking. B y the time children play
can be equally successful, m a d e from empty on the floor, toys are needed that are chunky
yoghurt cartons decorated with bits of metallic and easy to hold. Small children are still clumsy
paper or brighly painted cotton reels hung on in their movements, as their co-ordination is not
strings. fully developed and large solid toys are gener-
Pram beads. These big, brightly coloured, ally easier to handle. Little children are also
plastic beads, threaded on an elastic stretched impressed by size.
across the cot (often knocked by small involun- Easy-grip ball. This indented plastic ball is
tary movements) can attract the attention of easier to grap than the smooth surface of an
quite a young baby. ordinary ball. Rolling this w a y and that, it
encourages the baby to crawl after it, and the
TOYS TO LISTEN T O , CLUTCH, child soon discovers h o w a ball behaves.
FEEL AND EXPLORE Simple push and wheel toys. These are 'classic'
toys, that will be played with for a period of
Rattles. Encourage movement and co-ordi- years—first being pushed about by the crawler,
nation, as well as listening. A variety of rattles, later, pulled along by the toddler just beginning
each with different sounds, should be pro- to walk. Wheel toys at this stage should be
vided—only one or two at a time. Babies and simple and solid, constructed of either tough
small children can be confused by too m a n y plastic or wood. T h e wheel, like the ball, is
toys. fascinating to young children; thefirstinstincts
Soft toys. Nylon fur balls, and stuffed ani- are often to discover h o w these interesting
mals (small, with safely locked-in eyes). These things work. It is these early experiments that
should always be washable with hygienic stuffing. make the need for strong, well attached wheels
Squashy plastic toys. These, with squeakers, so important. Axles too, should be securely
stimulate hand movements. attached. If the toy breaks it will destroy some of
Baby mirror. This double-sided non-glass the child's confidence. This is equally true of
mirror is an importantfirstself-discovery toy; all toys. W h e n the youngster begins to walk, he
it makes a good mobile, too. will discover that it is more difficult to pull the
Cot rail. W h e n the baby can sit up, a broom toy uphill, but that it will run quickly downhill.
handle or piece of dowling, secured across a cot, This is an important discovery that always fasci-
with a variety of'everyday' things (all chewable) nates young children and through which the
hung on it makes an excellent toy that encour- youngster begins to learn about the force of
ages a baby to reach forward, grasp and exper- gravity. Cars, lorries and animals on wheels are
iment. Suitable objects to hang are an u n - all popular at this stage.
breakable plastic m u g , wooden spoon, bunch Baby walker. This is an important toy, as
of keys and empty plastic talcum powder important as the skill it helps to develop—walk-
container. These should be securely fastened to ing. Once children can get about from place to
the rail by tapes. T h e great advantage of this place, they become more independent and the
'rail' is that the 'toys' cannot be thrown out of world widens, becoming more interesting and
the baby's reach, and can be changed from time stimulating mentally and physically. A good
to time—to make life more interesting. strong 'walker' with a little cart in front will be
used for some years for loading and unloading,
531
Audrey Stephenson
as a pram for a doll, and in m a n y other ways in enjoyed toy (clambering up it is as important as
and out of doors. T h e base should be strong, as coming down).
the first thing most children do is step in it. If Strong carts. T h e carts must be big and strong
money is in short supply, a good handy-man enough for children to get in, to give each other
can make one of these carts comparatively easily. rides. Youngsters (between 5 and 7) will often
It is basically a box on wheels with a handle (the make their o w n cart from waste materials, like
right height for the baby to lean on) at right old pram wheels and orange boxes. If they are
angles to the cart. too young to do this on their o w n , a practical
parent can lend a hand and produce a toy that
will undoubtedly be popular. A cart like the
Activity toys
baby walker will be used for some years in m a n y
Activity toys help physical development and ways, particularly for imaginative play.
promote confidence, independence, exploration Tricycles and bicycles. These are expensive and
and social play. M u c h of this equipment encour- not essential. But, propelling oneself about at a
ages imaginative play—a rocking csee-saw' is faster rate than walking is an intriguing activity
transformed into a pretend horse, car or aero- to the young, and pedalling helps physical de-
plane, a climbing frame becomes the children's velopment. There are n o w tricycles without
'house' or 'castle'. It is in this section par- pedals available for smaller children to trundle
ticularly that m a n y toys provided in urban about on.
societies are substitutes for the natural materials Sand and water. These two are among the
to be found in less-organized rural areas. most important play materials in early years.
Climbing apparatus. T h e climbing frame is n o w Does it have a 'skin'? Can you hold it? Finding
standard equipment in m a n y nursery schools. out what sinks, whatfloats,pouring it, pumping
Young children gain confidence as they discover it, are all vital learning factors for young chil-
their o w n ability to climb. Social and imaginat- dren. Sand and water toys are among the easiest
ive play develop too—the frame will become a and cheapest to provide. A small bucket and
'pretend' house, castle or ship. T h e best frames strong wooden sand tools are useful, but
have platforms that give opportunities for this wooden spoons, plastic bottles, lengths of
type of play. A climbing rope can be easily m a d e tubing, funnels and m a n y more everyday bits
with a length of strong nylon rope with a knot and pieces can be utilized. Corks, stones, pieces
at end. This can be used for swinging as well as of wood are all excellent materials for water
climbing. experiments. Yoghurt cartons make good sand
Swings and rockers. Rocking and swinging are moulds.
strangely elemental h u m a n activities that can be
soothing and mind-expanding: children often
sit and daydream on a swing. A n old car tyre Fitting and fixing
hung from a tree makes an excellent and inex-
pensive swing and a plank balanced across a This section includes m a n y toys that are multi-
fallen tree trunk is as good as a plaything as any purpose, and are amongst the most difficult to
expensive manufactured rocker or see-saw. categorize. T h e simple picture tray for instance
Slides. These can be constructed with a firm not only develops discrimination of shapes and
wide plank that has been carefully sanded d o w n co-ordination, it also encourages speech and
and polished, and set at a suitably safe height imagination.
for the particular age of the children. Even at Tunnel pegs. This is a 'first-fitting' toy, with
18 months, a low slide is a valuable and m u c h five big easily clutched pegs that fit into a solid
532
wooden base. T h e pegs will be used at about Building and construction

9 months old to bang with and roll about the
floor. Gradually, the baby learns to fit the peg First building blocks. A few large blocks in bright
into the hole, but this will not be for sometime. colours are the best first builders; these are
Learning w h e n to let go and the manipulative available in w o o d or in plastic foam. T h e foam
skill required are big steps forward from shaking ones are particularly useful, for the youngest
a rattle and towards thefinercontrol needed at a builders, as they can be thrown about without
later date to handle pencils and pens. damaging the baby or anything else. Knocking
Posting box. Recognizing the simple cut-out d o w n comes before building, and is an early
shapes on the lid, and posting the matching form of experiment and discovery.
shape through into the box is the next stage of Building bricks. These are amongst the most
co-ordination development and shape recog- important of all toys, and will be played with in
nition after the peg toy. Taking oft" the lid to m a n y ways for a number of years, from 2 on-
find the shape inside is equally rewarding for wards. A set of large, plain wooden bricks in a
young children of about 15 months old, for variety of shapes stimulates imaginative play-
w h o m seeing is believing. garages, bridges and even complete townscapes,
Picture tray. T h efirstform of jigsaw puzzle, involving other model toys (cars and ani-
with six or seven chunky 'whole' objects that mals, etc.) can be created. Well-designed bricks
can be easily taken out andfittedback into a give opportunities for children to discover
large 'tray' background. T h e simple pictures on simple mathematical principles, for instance
these jigsaws are of things familiar and interest- that two half-bricks equal the size of one large
ing to little children (those between 18 months one. It is important that the bricks are varied
and 3 years), farms, traffic, shops and houses. in shape, as cubes only are very limiting. Off-
These stimulate curiosity and language develop- cuts from carpentry, logs and tins also make
ment. There are n o w 'see-inside' versions avail- good building materials. T h e younger the child,
able with a picture underneath each take-out the fewer the bricks that are needed.
piece. T h e best versions are m a d e of w o o d or Construction sets. Three-year-olds need con-
tough plastic that will not bend or break. This struction sets with only a few pieces. These
applies to all jigsaws for children under 7. should be large and easy to manipulate. O n e of
Tray jigsaws. A more complex version of the the very best wooden sets is Connector, de-
picture tray suitable from 3 years onwards. A signed by the Danish architect William Fangel,
whole object out into eight to twelve pieces to m a n y years ago. T h e youngest children will fit
be fitted into a tray. a few pieces together and decide what they have
Interlocking jigsaws with twenty-five to thirty m a d e w h e n they have finished. It is only at a
pieces. These jigsaws have quite complicated later stage that children are ready to follow plans
shapes and realistic pictures and are suitable for and have sufficient sustained concentration to
children from 4 to 7 years old. T h e development return to their model until it isfinished.All
of a child's ability to discriminate and manipu- building and construction play is highly creative
late is clearly shown from the use of a peg toy and satisfying. M a n y similar construction sets
with a few large simple pegs at about 1 year old, are n o w available. These interlocking bricks
to the m a n y and m u c h more complex inter- offer endless play possibilities, from an early age
locking jigsaw pieces at about 5. (the 'nursery' version is extra large and suitable
from about i\, onwards), continuing to be
used until the age of 12 or more by the enthusi-
astic and serious builders. Construction sets that
533
Audrey Stephenson
involve screwing pieces together are also valu- of the grown-up world that they see and hear
able and there are m a n y to choose from for about them. They pretend to drive an imaginary
different aged children. train, telephone a friend or play at mothers and
fathers with dolls. T o w n life will be recreated,
with model toys, cars and bricks, and farms
Grading, hammering and others with toy animals. U n k n o w n worlds outside the
older child's o w n experiences will also be
Nesting toys. Boxes, barrels, dolls. A set of created, pretending to be legendary beings in-
graded boxes thatfitinside each other has enor- troduced infilmsor books that youngsters have
m o u s play value for the very young (1-3 years enjoyed. Children are often unable to express
old). T h e y discover which box fits in which, try their deepest emotions and fears—the arrival of
to balance one upon another andfinallyare able a n e w baby in the family or thefirstdays at
to recognize the right graded order and to build school, and m a y act out the problem in this
a complete tower. Sets of nesting barrels and fantasy play world with their toys, which be-
Russian dolls need more manipulative skill as come important outlets for secret anxieties.
they have to be taken apart to find the next
object inside. A good nesting toy can be m a d e Dolls. T h e doll is one of the most enduring
easily with empty tins. and important playthings ever created. For the
youngest children a tough rag doll (simple ones
Hammer pegs. A solid bench with big pegs to can be m a d e easily) is a friendly, comforting
bang backwards and forwards with a big wooden companion, w h o can be cuddled, loved and
mallet is a rewarding toy for children about dragged in the dirt at will. It is only later that
18 months old. Manipulative skills develop the doll will be mothered and tended in the way
learning to control the h a m m e r in order to hit that real mothers behave. Dolls do not have to
the peg squarely—the basics of carpentry can be expensive or elaborate, although the 5-
be seen here! to 7-year-olds appreciate a simple realistic baby
Pile-up rings. Big wooden or plastic rings that doll. In London, a doll has been found, made
thread on to a big rod make a good basic m a - from an old shoe, the heel becoming the head
nipulative toy from about 18 months onwards. with scraps of material added for eyes and
Threading toys, for older children, are easy to mouth, and the 'body' wrapped in a piece of
make. cloth. This was a poor child's plaything early
Screwing rod. A n 18-month-old enjoys screw- in this century, that was loved and cherished
ing large, easily handled nuts on to the rod, and as m u c h (and probably more) than the most
taking them off again. It's great fun, and an expensive plaything has ever been. Sophisti-
important new skill has been learned too. cated 'talking' dolls are unsuitable and limiting,
Mosaics. Large plastic or wooden geometric repeating the same words again and again;
pieces in strong colours make excellent material children prefer to invent conversations.
for 3-year-olds to sort and match; at a latter
Dolls' houses. Need not be expensive. A large
stage they can be used to make simple patterns.
wide wooden or cardboard box, the top removed
Different shaped bricks and tins can also be
and placed on its side makes an excellent, cheap
utilized as sorting and matching.
and simple doll-house unit. T w o or three of
these placed on top of the other can be used as
Imagination a block offlats,or a bigger house. Match boxes
can be used to make doll-house furniture, and
'Let's pretend play'. Imitating adult life helps pipe cleaners create the basis for doll-house
children to relate to and understand something 'families'. W o o d e n house units and furniture are
534
more suitable for younger children, and m a n u - wooden railway set from Sweden. Designed for
facturers in m a n y countries n o w produce strong the 3- to 7-year-olds, the simple wooden track
units. Manufactured, realistic dolls' houses are is easy for young children tofittogether and
very expensive, and are often fragile and badly organize in countless ways. Electric and m e c h -
designed. Older children (5-7 year olds) need anical trains are only suitable w h e n children are
more realistic toys than younger ones, w h o older and capable of understanding the m e c h -
accept decorative, almost symbolic playthings. anisms. A young child only gets bored watching
House play equipment. Discarded saucepans, a mechanical toy—he wants a toy he can control
plastic cups, brushes and other household items himself.
are better than m a n y of the toy ones available
for domestic play. Brushes must work, there is
nothing so frustrating for a child w h o really Creative play
wants to 'work' like M u m , than a scrubbing
brush that does not scrub! Collections of any Y o u n g children (3-year-olds or even a little
old clothes, shoes and hats for dressing u p are younger) are unselfconscious and spontaneous
some of the very best playthings a child can have artists, enjoying the sensuous quality of colours,
for fantasy play of all sorts. paints and crayons. They want results quickly
Cooking. Adding water to softfineflour,and and need big pieces of paper (newspaper,
turning it into dough, rolling it out, watching it wrapping paper, or old rolls of wallpaper are
being put into the oven, and seeing it come out, suitable and cheap materials for early ef-
crisp and biscuity, is an exciting and thought- forts) and other things such as big hog-hair
promoting experiment for little children. In brushes, powder paints, finger paints or large
countries where flour is an extremely valuable wax crayons. A s children grow older they ac-
commodity, and this play is not possible, playing quire more delicacy, and their pictures are
with earth, sand and water can be equally drawn more thoughtfully and become more
rewarding. W o o d e n spoons, rolling pins and recognizable—it is at this stage that smaller
pastry cutters (in countries where these are brushes and pencils will be appreciated. Model-
available) are useful for this type of play. ling with clay or other materials is another very
important activity for young children. Simple
musical instruments of all sorts, a d r u m m a d e
Transport play from a large empty tin, or marracas from plastic
bottles, foster a sense of rhythm and interest in
Model vehicles. Realistic, die-cast cars, lor- music that can often last a lifetime.
ries, etc., are basic playthings for most children Puppets. These are 'magic', with a strange
in the developed countries of the world. W h e r e 'reality' and 'life' that fascinates young children,
these toys prove too expensive, pieces of wood stimulating their imaginations and fantasy play.
can be simply fashioned and painted to take T h e best ones are those m a d e by parents and
their places. A large sheet of board painted with children together. T h e simplest form of puppet
a simple roadway, on which vehicles can be run, can be m a d e with an old sock.
and 'houses' (made from off-cuts, or building Carpentry tools. Real but smaller tools, such
bricks) can be built, is simple to m a k e and as hammers, saws and screwdrivers and others,
extends the scope of this form of imaginative can be used (with some supervision) from 5
play enormously. onwards: the very fact that adults have assumed
Train sets. O n e of the most successful of that the children are capable and responsible
manufactured toys in recent years has been a enough to cope with these grown-up tools
535
Audrey Stephenson
can promote enormous confidence in young learn to count, where formal methods of learn-
children. ing m a y have failed. These games are obviously
Games. Simple board, dice and card games only suitable for children beginning to under-
are all valuable learning material for pre-school stand numbers, usually from 5 onwards.
children. F r o m the baby happily playing on his Traditional children's games can be found all
o w n , to the toddler able to play alongside others over the world (undervalued by adults, for
(but still unable to share his toys) the child w h o m they are over familiar) which need only a
develops at around 3 the ability to play with other pencil and paper, or stick and patch of smooth
children. However, learning to stick to rules, sand or earth to scratch in, plus the ability to
to take your turn and win or lose a simple draw simple symbols, letters or numbers. O f
matching picture lotto game are difficult lessons these noughts and crosses is probably the best
to learn, and demand an emotional maturity known in the United Kingdom. All demand
that is seldom apparent before the age of 4 or 5. observation, reasoning and thought, and all are
As children learn to recognize letters and n u m - fun! M a n y are amongst the best (and cheapest)
bers, more complicated games involving reading play-learning activities of all for 5- to 7-year-
and counting are great fun, and help to develop olds.
these abilities.
Picture dominoes. This is afirst'matching'
picture game. T h e big dominoes have clear Observation and fascination
simple pictures in place of the dots found on
ordinary dominoes. Three-year-olds enjoy sort- All good toys are fun, but some have an extra
ing and matching these on their own. Recogniz- 'something' that is difficult to define. T h e y are
ing the pictures, shapes and colours is an fascinating—magic. Toys of this kind are mind-
important step to later recognition of letters and expanding, mind-jogging. Magnifying and dim-
numbers. By 4 or 5, the dominoes can be used inishing glasses reveal the world in strange new
as a game with other children. ways—larger or smaller. Seen through a trans-
Giant picture lotto. Another important match- lucent piece of coloured plastic the world turns
ing picture game that involves shape and blue. Little wooden hens that bob up and d o w n ,
colour recognition and observation and is suit- pecking at their wooden perch as it is swung
able for 4 - to 7-year-olds. T h e giant-sized, around (an old Russian toy) seem almost alive.
bright, uncluttered pictures of easily recog- T o young children, all of these are fascinating,
nizable everyday things, make this an excel- hypnotic (almost psychedelic) stimulating their
lent game for playing on the floor. imaginations and arousing unbounded curiosity.
Observing air. Blowing bubbles through a
simple twisted wire ring with soapy water, not
Ludo and snakes and ladders only demonstrates something about air press-
ure but the bubbles reflect rainbow colours that
In the United Kingdom, these simple dice are almost hypnotic as theyfloataway.
games (which have their equivalents in m a n y Balloons. These most humble of playthings,
parts of the world) are old favourites that never demonstrate the power of air pressure too as
cease to be enjoyed from one generation of they are blown up.
children to the next. T h e excitement of throw- Paper darts. Practically every child ever born
ing dice, moving along the board to the correct in the United Kingdom, and m a n y other places
number of places to discover if you must go too, has at some time m a d e one of these 'flyers'
back or forward, can give children an aim to by folding a paper square to form an aeroplane,
536
uncannily like the shape of the swept-back child's point of view, a whole n e w field of
wings of some modern planes. Turning a flat playthings opens up. A good example of this is
piece of paper into three dimensional flying the humble cardboard box. Countless parents
objects is a splendid w a y of discovering the have suffered the frustration of buying an ex-
veryfirstbasics of aeronautics. pensive toy for their youngster only to find it
Kites. These need a helpful co-operation to soon abandoned in favour of the box in which
fly—but making a kite together and then flying it was packed. But the box has great play possi-
it together is one of the very best forms of play bilities, and is an archetypal 'toy shape'. Dolls'
from 5 years old onwards. houses, nesting boxes, carts and m a n y more
Magnets. T h e power of a magnet to attract playthings are, basically, boxes. All too often
small metal objects is another form of early manufactured toys are too specific in their
scientific discovery in play—and is always fasci- design and limited to one purpose, whereas a
nating to young children. more simple toy (like the box) offers more scope
to the child's imagination.
T h e following toys cost little or nothing to
Not strictly toys make, and are all good playthings. With some
ingenuity and imagination, m a n y others can be
T h e magic of the natural world is a source of devised from the same basic materials.
wonder to small children. Natural materials of Posting box. This is m a d e from a tough box
all sorts interest and intrigue them, as do plants about 15 c m x i 5 c m x i 5 c m , with an easily
and animals. removable lid and three small different shaped
A jam jar or other suitable glass container objects (a cotton reel, ball about 4 c m diameter
makes a good observation jar for youngsters, to and a wooden off-cut about the size of a match
see this real world of nature in action. A bulb box, are ideal). Using these as patterns, draw
or onion balanced on the rim will thrust its the three shapes on the lid and cut out with
roots d o w n into the water in the jar, or cater- a sharp knife. T h e objects are used to 'post'
pillars can be seen crawling about on the leaves through the holes.
they feed on. A kidney bean on a piece of Bricks. For these, any medium-sized, strong
blotting paper will open u p and its roots and cardboard boxes are suitable. Stuff these well
leaves begin to grow as the small child watches, with pieces of crumpled newspaper and seal
impatiently day by day. securely with g u m or sticky tape. Covered with
Collecting pebbles or shells is another age- a layer of papier mâché (layers of newspaper
old activity that children enjoy. soaked in paste) and painted with emulsion
S o m e of the very best toys of all are those paint, these will be m u c h stronger and will last
m a d e by parents for their o w n children (or longer.
better still with their children). These are always Play box. This is a useful toy for a small child
successful playthings and are often treasured w h o is just beginning to play on the floor.
w h e n others are long forgotten. M a n y of the Choose a strong, fairly deep box andfillit with
easiest to make toys are amongst the most all sorts of'bits and pieces' and discarded house-
popular and useful playthings. Waste materials hold objects (none of these should have any
and discarded cjunk' of all sorts are good play- sharp edges or small pieces that could be
things in their o w n right and can often be used swallowed). Things like a bunch of keys (these
to improvise and make special toys too. rattle nicely), a large smooth stone, an old nail
If one can stop accepting objects for what brush, a cardboard tube, a tin with a lid to take
they seem to be and try to see them from a on and off, are all suitable. Playing with these
537
Audrey Stephenson
the baby learns about weights, textures and with a really long piece of string, make a work-
shapes. There are m a n y other good 'toys' that ing toy telephone. W h e n the string is pulled
can be used, tofillthe box and children will add tight one child speaking into one tin can be
'treasures' of their o w n . A box (or an old basket) heard by another w h o is using the other tin as
like this will be used for a number of years. a listening 'receiver'. This is an old idea that
Pretend play toys. Giant-sized boxes, big never cease to fascinate children, particularly
enough for children to get inside (the sort that if they are hidden from each other (in different
refrigerators are packed in, or the packing cases rooms or behind trees).
thrown out by supermarkets), m a k e excellent Using plastic containers. For younger chil-
play materials for imaginative, fantasy play, as dren's toys, always use containers m a d e of really
they can become 'pretend' cars, houses, trains tough unbreakable plastic. T h e thinner brittle
or aeroplanes. With a parent's help, a simple type (often used for yoghourt) is only suitable
puppet theatre can be m a d e with several boxes for 3-year-olds and older to use for sand-and-
stapled together. These big boxes will also be water play.
used as giant-sized building blocks. T h e hideout Rattles. Small, unbreakable, tube-shaped,
den (a large wooden box, with portholes) which plastic bottles (the ones often used for hair
is n o w standard play equipment in m a n y nur- rinses and shampoos) containing a few grains
sery schools was designed by Paul Abbatt' w h o of rice or some lentils, with the tops g u m m e d
based the idea directly on seeing children playing on securely, make very satisfying rattles. Dif-
with big boxes and getting in cupboards. ferent 'fillers' can be used (very small stones
Toys made from tins. Tins must always be or beads are suitable) but whenever the filling
checked carefully before use to see that there is non-edible the tops must be impossible to
are no sharp edges; a rotary tin-opener usually take off.
takes tops off cleanly. They should be clean Maracus. T o make these, two unbreakable
and have any paper labels removed. plastic soft-drink bottles are needed. Into each
Roll-alongfloortoys. A tin, about 10 c m high put some sand, small stones or dried beans
and 6 c m wide (or larger) makes a good toy (there are plenty of other suitable ,fillers') and
for a baby to roll about the floor. T h e m o v e - glue the tops on. These make good musical
ment of the tin encourages the baby to crawl instruments for the 3- to 6-year-olds. A number
after it. A tin of similar size, containing a few of bottles, each containing some different m a -
small stones, with a lid that is securely glued terials (thus producing a variety of sounds)
on, can make an interesting contrast to the are useful for early sound experiments. Simple
empty tin. T h e roll rattle will intrigue a small matching sound games can be devised by using
child, as the weights inside m a k e it behave in eight or ten bottles andfillingtwo with one
quite a different w a y to the simpler toy. If material, two with another, and so on; the chil-
the tins are painted, lead-free enamel paint dren can then try to match the sounds.
should always be used. Baby beads. A number of brightly painted
Nesting toy. This is m a d e with four or five (lead-free paint only) cotton reels threaded on
tins that will fit inside each other, and each elastic and stretched across the cot or pram
painted a strong, bright colour. This is an are as valuable as any 'bought' baby beads.
excellent toy for children, from 9 months to Rattle. Three or four coloured cotton reels
3 years old. threaded loosely on to a length of string, with
Telephone. T w o tins (without tops) about the the ends knotted together to form a sort of
size of that used for the 'roll along', each with 'bracelet' will make a good noise, and encourage
a hole punched in the base and threaded together a baby to clutch and m o v e .
538
Cotton-reel threader. A dozen or more painted are suitable at about 2 years old, increasing
reels and a length of plastic casing (the type tofifteento twenty pieces at about 5.
used by electricians for encasing earthing wire) Picture lotto. Collect a number of 'matching'
are excellent forfirstattempts at threading. T h e pictures from advertisements in magazines (the
plastic 'threader' is most suitable as it is fairly same advertisement often appears in several
stiff and easier to cope with than a floppy publications); mounted on board these can be
string. If this is not available a long shoe-lace used to m a k e m a n y matching picture games,
with good metal tags can be used. including lotto.
Cotton reels for sorting, matching and building. Scrap-books. Children around the ages of 4
Painted cotton reels make excellent material for and 5 love to collect things. Cutting out and
all sorts of discrimination activities—colour rec- sticking too are popular. Collecting and cutting
ognition, matching different colours to each out pictures from magazines is suitable from
other—and are useful for building too. For older about 4 years onwards. A simple scrap-book
children they can be used forfirstcounting. m a d e from sheets of tough paper sewn loosely
A simple abacus can be m a d e with four graded together at one edge with strong thread, can
lengths of dowling (a size that the reels can be be used to stick the pictures in. T h e child can
threaded on to) secured on a wooden base with choose one particular subject—like cars—and
four red, three green, two blue and one yellow cut out as m a n y as he can find to stick in the
reels to thread on. Each rod should be the scrap-book. A colour is another good theme to
length of each 'set' of reels. use—find as m a n y 'green' things as you can.
Using pictures from old magazines. For these Round-ended scissors are best for young chil-
jigsaws and games it is important to choose dren, but given some help and supervision,
really clear big pictures of things that will they can learn quite quickly to handle other
interest the children. Animals, cars, and m a n y scissors.
'everyday' subjects are popular and stimulate
curiosity. It is a good idea to collect a number Toys are not the trivialities they were once
of suitable pictures from magazines to choose considered to be—they are the most basic tools
from. of learning. Y o u n g children deprived of fun
Simple jigsaws. A large picture, mounted on and play opportunities, like those deprived of
a thick piece of board (an old cardboard box love, food and warmth, will be at a disadvantage
can be used or better still a piece of plywood) in all future relationships and learning. H a p p y ,
can be cut into the number of pieces required satisfied children are those most likely to grow
for the particular child. T w o or three pieces to be happy, creative people.
539
Julia Turgonyi
Pre-school education
and working mothers in Hungary1
Making w o m e n economically more active is in society as a whole, and partly exceed those.
the Hungarian People's Republic a social and T h e special benefits enjoyed by w o m e n provide
political programme that follows from the es- special protection against labour hazards, in or-
sence of our socialist society. der to help working w o m e n perform their bio-
W o m a n is a creative h u m a n being, and at logical function of motherhood and ensure their
the same time the biological reproduction of actual practice of equal rights with the same
any society depends on her willingness to accept chances as m e n .
motherhood. This, together with the proper T h e social programme of female employ-
care and education of children, is a paramount ment and the protection and encouragement
concern of society. It is our conviction that of motherhood can be realized only through
parents—mothers and fathers—who take an ac- an integrated economic system through which
tive part in the shaping and improvement of work is organized together with social welfare
socialist society are the mostfitto raise children and cultural development.
soundly in the socialist spirit. For this reason Society undertakes responsibility for the child
w e have created conditions under which w o m e n and the mother before birth, and its concern
are able to fulfil their role as employees and and solicitude extend over the entire period of
their responsibilities of motherhood at the same socialization.
time. Better opportunities for schooling and an im-
T h e constitution of the Hungarian People's proving occupational structure are improving
Republic, ratified in 1949 and amended in 1973, conditions in Hungary for the personality growth
ensures w o m e n equal rights and duties with of w o m e n , for their full equality in family as
m e n . T h e constitution devotes a separate pass- well as in society, and for enabling w o m e n to
age to children and the family. function as good, capable mothers.
T h e legal and other benefits applicable to T h e key to the social position of the working
w o m e n are, according to the constitution, partly w o m a n and of the mother lies in her position
the same as those provided for the welfare of within the family. Equality in employment and
in the h u m a n relationship to work form the
basis of her equality in the family—but this
Julia Turgonyi (Hungary). Sociologist and edu-
cationist, former Head of the Cultural Department of
the National Council of Hungarian Women, currently 1. This article is based on the background study written
involved in studying conditions of women and working for Unesco in 1976 in co-operation with Klara Flödesi
mothers. and Erzsébet Kósa.
54O

is only a basis. It takes m a n y other conditions is to develop democratic relations based on equal
to enable her to be a parent of her children rights, mutual respect and responsibility for
and the mate of her husband as an equal per- each other between marriage partners, and also,
son. S o m e of these conditions are ensured in as far as possible, with the children.
Hungary through an institutional system of fam- Equality is not interpreted as sameness. N o n e
ily assistance. the less, there is n o reason for family roles
Special health care of w o m e n before concep- to be rigidly differentiated between husband
tion is intended to ensure healthy pregnancies and wife, father and mother. Their tasks are
and healthy babies. T h e accent is on the pre- 'convertible', and they can—and should—assist
vention of the development of problems. each other in matters which were in earlier
All medical care and treatment is free as a family types strictly separated as being in the
right of citizenship. T h u s , employed and econ- competence of the male or the female partner.
omically inactive w o m e n are equally entitled Family and institution each must be fully
to gynaecological advice and all other health ser- aware of its o w n responsibility, which are
vices and benefits. In addition, there are some complementary.
centrally enforced aspects of the health-care of T h e basic responsibility for the child belongs
w o m e n that have to be observed by their e m - to the parents. O f course a lot of direct and
ployers. At all places of work, particularly in- indirect assistance is provided by the State—ma-
dustry, special attention is paid to compliance terially, politically, morally and educationally.
with safety rules and the use of protective In Hungary just about every social, political
equipment. and interest-protecting organization does what
Such children's institutions as crèches (from it can to help in the raising and education of
6 months to 3 years of age) and kindergartens children and to protect the interests of parents
(from 3 to 6) are important not only because they and children.
provide the most up-to-date means of social- There is—as there should be—close co-
ization but also because they help to achieve a operation between the socialist educational in-
greater equality of social opportunity. stitutions and parents. Parent-teacher associ-
T h e right to a vocation is a natural h u - ations ( P T A ) have been active for over thirty
m a n right, but it has also been recognized years in all crèches, kindergartens and schools.
that providing equal access to vocations for This is in fact a broad socialist m o v e m e n t that
w o m e n is the best possible contribution to the encompasses every family with young children.
development of children. As each family, as well as society at large, is
For the continued h o m e care of babies, work- interested in the sound personality develop-
ing mothers have the option to claim child- ment of children, parents are invited to co-
minding leave and allowance after their m a - operate on an equal basis with teachers. A t
ternity leave u p to the third birthday of each the same time the P T A provides opportunity
child. This benefit has been instituted in a in training parents in modern educational prin-
situation w h e n mothers are generally economi- ciples, which is done with educational and pol-
cally active, economic resources are not yet able itical tact.
to satisfy the extensive d e m a n d for crèches, It was in a developing and changing society
and w h e n there is good reason to encourage that female employment and the role of w o m e n
young w o m e n to accept the responsibilities of in the education of their children assumed the
motherhood. outlines w e are presenting here. T h e advances
T h e policy of support for families tries to were m a d e through deliberately planned prac-
encourage a certain h u m a n attitude. T h e aim tices, which were however, by no means free
541
Julia Turgonyi
of contradictions; in fact progress was often highly active economically, the pattern being
only achieved through the open clash of conflict- the same for them as for the entire working-age
ing methods and opinions. Up-to-date insti- group up to 55.
tutional support became possible only with As many as 67.3 per cent of all w o m e n of
the steady improvement of material resources. child-bearing age are gainfully employed. In
Moreover, in the meantime a system of in- the younger age group holding a job is taken for
stitutions had to be developed and expanded granted, and so the great majority of young
for the training of a sufficient number of mothers are economically active.
well-qualified health and teaching personnel A n analysis of demographic data indicated
capable of realizing the health and educational that out of 2,663,900 w o m e n of child-bearing
programme. age, approximately 620,000-630,000—or 2 4 -
25 per cent—have children under 6 years of age.
For salaried w o m e n the ratio is higher—about
Female employment 35-36 per cent (500,000 w o m e n ) .
W o m e n made u p 51.5 per cent of the total

population of Hungary at the beginning of 1975. Provisions for working
W o m e n of employment age constituted 48.9 per mothers
cent of the total population of employable age.
T h e economic activity of w o m e n of working N o discrimination m a y be made in regard to
age (from 14 to 55) increased at a higher rate the rights and obligations of employment on
than the number of all w o m e n in employment grounds of sex. T h e employment of a pregnant
age. N o r are the economically inactive w o m e n w o m a n or the mother of a young child must
necessarily the traditional housewives and de- not be denied on that basis. But just as there
pendents; they include also students, pensioners are special prohibitions in regard to the employ-
on their o w n rights, and w o m e n on child- ment of minors in jobs involving special hazards,
minding leave. so a pregnant w o m a n must not be employed in
Lucratively employed w o m e n numbered a job detrimental to her health or to the devel-
2,235,400 in 1975, the figure including also opment of her child. T h e jobs regarded as
about 170,000 w h o preferred to remain active hazardous are determined on the basis of central
earners even after reaching retirement age (of- health rules by the individual company. N o
ficially 55 in Hungary). T h e proportion of overtime m a y be required of a w o m a n beginning
w o m e n ordinarily working outside of the h o m e with the fourth month of her pregnancy until
but choosing to stay out of work on child- the child is 7 months old. Until thefirstbirth-
minding allowance was 8 per cent in 1970, day of her child a mother m a y be assigned to
9.2 per cent in 1973, and 11.55 P e r c e n t m !975- overtime work or asked to be on call only if she
By 1975 w o m e n made up 44 per cent of the herself has stated her willingness. Night work,
money-earning population. This was made pos- or work to be performed in a different settle-
sible by the development of the national econ- ment, must not be requested of the mother of a
n o m y , more up-to-date technical equipment baby under 1 year of age.
and also improved educational, public health, A working woman's employment must not be
and transport and trade, all of which demanded terminated by the employer (a) while her hus-
their services and at the same time facilitated band is in compulsory military service; (b) dur-
their occupational employment. ing pregnancy and the nursing period until the
W o m e n of child-bearing age (15 to 49) are end of the sixth month after birth; (c) w h e n the
542
working w o m a n is at h o m e on sickness allow- needs maternal care at h o m e even after the age
ance or on unpaid leave to care for an ill child; of 3 the mother has the right to claim unpaid
(d) while the working w o m a n is on child- leave until the child's tenth birthday, with the
minding leave; (e) if she has been employed by period taken into account w h e n her time in
a State h o m e for infants to nurse babies. employment is computed.
A single working w o m a n under 18 w h o has a Free care and supervision for young children,
dependent child can be dismissed from her job subsidies for the maintenance of children's
only on very exceptional grounds. institutions and for the prices of children's
Maternity and child care are an independent clothing and other articles needed for children
major branch of Hungarian health and medical are some of the main indirect forms of State
services. T h e various health institutions, lying- assistance.
in homes, hospitals, clinics, and the district There are also direct cash benefits. Family
physicians' and consultants' offices all help to allowances are paid for two or more children,
prevent trouble. T h e Family Planning and progressive until the third child. A single
Maternity Protection Counselling Service has working parent is entitled to family allowance
been set u p in 1974 with stations in bigger for one child. During the twenty-week m a -
centres or attached to gynaecological clinics. ternity leave, the mother is entitled to a monthly
S o m e tasks in maternity, child and family care maternity allowance depending on the mother's
devolve on the organization of medical social term in employment. She is also entitled
workers. It is their task to visit families regu- to a maternity grant payable once after each
larly from the registration of pregnancy until delivery.
the child has reached the age of 6. There are also m a n y other possibilities for
Maternity leave is twenty weeks long in providing material aid to families with several
Hungary. Four weeks are to be taken before children. It is a social and State programme that
delivery, and sixteen afterwards, but if the the cost of raising children should be borne in a
doctor certifies that he sees no danger in the steadily increasing proportion by the State.
mother continuing work until labour, the full
maternity leave can be reserved for after the
birth of the baby. In cases of critical pregnancies Early childhood education
or paranatal complications the physician rec-
o m m e n d s the extension of the maternity leave T h e rapid rate of building up-to-date children's
with an additional four weeks. institutions like crèches and kindergartens helps
A w o m a n w h o returns to work after maternity families in the care and education of children
leave receives time off for nursing with her under 6 years of age.
average pay unaffected. Only healthy infants over 5 months and
If the child is ill the employed mother (or under 3 years of age are admitted to the crèches.
single father) m a y be put on sickness allowance As they take small babies w h o need, above all,
to care for the baby. N o time limit is set for good physical care, the crèches operate under
sick leave with a baby under 1 year of age, the supervision of the Ministry of Health, which
sixty days a year are allowed for a sick baby regulates their establishment and running with
between 1 and 3, and thirty days for a child decrees and instructions.
between 3 and 6. T h e kindergarten is an independent insti-
After the twenty-week maternity leave a tution under the authority of the Ministry of
working w o m a n m a y claim the child-minding Education, for the training and education of
leave; moreover if a child is ill or weak and pre-school children between 3 and 6 w h o are
543
Julia Turgonyi
physically and mentally fit. There are special needs of each baby to ensure harmonious physi-
facilities for backward or handicapped children. cal and mental development. T h e schedule is
Attendance is until the i September following fixed separately for each age group and for every
the sixth birthday of each child, at which time season; as far as possible the same nurse remains
she or he can enrol in primary school. in care of each group throughout the crèche
A s local organs of representation and admin- years. By and large, babies learn to walk, master
istration, the councils run the crèches and differentiated motor skills, and find their way
kindergartens, but from the central State budget. around the house and garden, and learn to
There are also crèches and kindergartens main- express themselves verbally by the time they are
tained by companies, but the professional super- ready for kindergarten. Before age 4 they can eat
vision is in this case, too, provided by the alone neatly, take off their clothes and pull shoes
councils. on and off. With a little help they wash and use
There are regular crèches operating through- a c o m b and handkerchieves. Each child is able
out the year, and a few seasonal ones chiefly in to occupy himself for a longer period of time
agriculture. Regional crèches are open for four- and to pick playthings for independent activity
teen hours a day on weekdays. from the wealth of equipment, m u c h of which is
There are several types of kindergartens, with designed to develop observation and manual
day-time care and meals, those with seasonal skill. Music and literature are introduced in a
day-time care, s u m m e r kindergartens with day- playful form as early as the crèche.
time care, nationality kindergartens, six-day Since 1957 the kindergartens have been work-
boarding kindergartens, and special kinder- ing on the basis of standard programmes. T h e
gartens. n e w programme, in effect since 1971, is based on
Because of the large number of mothers w h o experience with its predecessor, and relies on
work, the kindergartens with daytime facilities the latest findings in psychology, sociology,
are the most sought after and is available for public health, medicine and education.
98.6 per cent of all kindergarten-age children. D y n a m i s m is a basic feature of the pro-
In the school year of 1975/76 out of gramme: it depends on some of the best tra-
I
5 5 J 6 O 3 first graders 111,112 had attended ditions of kindergarten practice and at the same
kindergarten, and 29,993 pre-school pro- time encourages the introduction of good n e w
grammes. In other words, 96.2 per cent of the methods. H a r m o n y is stressed between theory
first graders were prepared for school in kinder- and practice, and the fact that the programme is
garten or at courses. A s long as the kindergarten not rigid but an outline leaves room for the
facilities cannot cover all pre-school children, creativity of the kindergarten teacher.
great importance is attached to the organization T h e kindergarten programme provides a sys-
of such school-entrance preparatory courses. tematic framework for the physical care, train-
ing and instruction of children, governed by the
view that education is the process of personality
The programme of crèches development, which shapes character, mental
and kindergartens ability and emotional life and even taste. T h e
whole child is developing in the interaction of
T h e children of mothers w h o work or are physical and psychological development for
students are cared for in crèches which try to which the friendly ambience, m a n y activities
provide a homelike environment. and community life of the kindergarten give
T h e crèche nurses follow a definite pro- ample scope. T h e educational process in this
g r a m m e , but pay attention to the individual framework is not an attempt to force develop-
544
ment and change habit patterns, but the deliber- munity. T h e y adjust quickly, are self-reliant,
ate organization of environmental influence. and dependable in classwork.
T h e rhythm and schedule of activities in T h e speech patterns of pre-school kinder-
kindergarten life are built on the characteristics garteners are satisfactory and their arithmetic
of the three kindergarten age groups, but the aptitudes have been developed to a degree
demand and expectations consider individual corresponding to their age, but probably more
needs as well. C o m m u n a l group education is a could have been done to improve their ability
fundamental factor that permeates life in the for logical thinking.
kindergarten. It is also a basic principle that the T h e 6-year-olds are interested in plants and
children should be stimulated to activity and to nature and k n o w a lot about the h u m a n body
thinking for themselves. (parts of the body, sensory organs) and hygiene.
T h e development of both work and learning Their judgements of beauty and other abstrac-
activities through play is encouraged during the tions are surprisingly reliable. T h e y are well
kindergarten years and is deliberately organized informed about m a n y aspects of family life, the
to promote educational objectives. Physical jobs and workplaces of parents, etc. Their
training, community feeling, attitudes and acti- concepts of the division of labour within the
vities, and getting to k n o w the environment family and of parent-child relations are correct.
and learning to adjust to its realities are the T h e knowledge brought from the kindergarten
three principal aims of the kindergarden pro- was presented not only on a verbal level but
g r a m m e in preparation for school. m a d e part of the experience of the children and
Kindergarden provides a background in the they themselves were able to apply it.
correct use of the mother tongue, in basic math- A s a matter of fact, the social recognition of
ematics, nature studies, the arts and crafts, and the value of pre-school experience for children
in physical culture. Through teaching children is such that today most non-working mothers
to play and to be active, it gives them also prep- would also like to send their children to kinder-
aration in the technical skills which are becom- garten. Consequently the present government
ing so important today. In this way kindergarten programme calls for the expansion of kinder-
in fact helps to equalize educational oppor- garten facilities or at least school preparatory
tunities and thus contributes to socialist courses for all pre-school children.
equality. At present the criterion for acceptance to
At the same time educational policy defi- crèches and kindergartens is based on both
nitely warns against kindergartens anticipating parents being gainfully employed, the social
the functions of school and becoming 'baby significance of the mother's work and the
schools'. financial position of the family. Today 100 per
A representative national sample was taken cent of the babies accepted to crèches and 90 per
of 6-year-old kindergarteners in M a y and cent of the children enrolled in kindergarten
June 1976 under the guidance of the National have gainfully employed mothers. So, despite
Institute for Education, the results of which are the large-scale expansion of the system, the full
still being analysed. Previous smaller-scale demand for places in crèche and kindergarten
studies have shown that in thefirstgrade there placement still cannot be met, and the introduc-
was a decrease in failures proportionate to the tion of child-minding allowance in 1967 was
increase in the number of children w h o had mainly intended to palliate this difficulty.
attended kindergarten. It was also found that T h e child-minding allowance is very popu-
the groups of children w h o enter school from lar. It presupposes a certain term of e m -
kindergarten form a homogeneous little c o m - ployment, or enrolment in an educational
545
Julia Turgonyi
institution. T h e full time spent on child-minding years, come out in a large number of copies. T h e
leave must be regarded as employment and interesting themes, the well-known authors, and
must be taken into account w h e n computing the combination of professional skill and read-
any employment-relationship-dependent ben- able presentation which characterize them make
efits (length of annual leave, pensions, etc.). A the series very popular.
w o m a n returning from child-minding leave Highly sought after and often reprinted has
must be taken back into her former job or some- been the manual Mothers' Book on infant care.
thing closely corresponding to it, and her pay T h e educational journal entitled Our Child has
cannot be less than earlier: in fact it must be been likewise well received by families and edu-
raised commensurate to the average payrisein cationists alike.
her job category during the period which she All in all, m a n y publications, theatrical pro-
spent on child-minding leave. ductions, and radio and television programmes
O f all young mothers, 80 per cent avail them- help parents and educationists in their treatment
selves of the opportunity to stay at h o m e with of pre-school children. S o m e others teach the
their babies for at least part of the two and a children an appreciation of the arts.
half years after the regular maternity leave.
T h e average duration of the leave shows that
the majority of mothers do not stay at h o m e for Training personnel
the full three years allowed after the birth of the for the pre-schoolers
child but claim an average of only twenty-one
months. Health visitors, or Medical Social Workers, are
T h e average length of time mothers stay out expected to have graduated from secondary
of work on child-minding leave, and the dif- school and then receive additional training for
ferences according to social strata or occupation, three years at college. T h e training of crèche
indicate the significant influence of the material and pediatric nurses is done at the two-year
position of the mothers, the degree of qualifi- Pediatric Nurse Training School, which pro-
cation required in the mother's job, the length vides courses in the medical, educational and
and distribution of the working hours, and of psychological aspects of infant and child devel-
the local availability of children's institutions. opment, care and nutrition. Equal time is de-
Despite plans for the large-scale development voted to general and to specialized subjects.
of crèches and kindergartens, child-minding For kindergarten-teacher training, graduation
leave is expected to function for a long time yet from the four-year secondary school with m a -
to come as one way of solving the problems of triculation is the requirement for applying
young mothers. T h e leave encourages a har- to the two-year (four-semester) Kindergarten
monious h o m e environment for mother and Teachers Training College, which also has a
child during thefirstyears of life w h e n this is correspondence and an evening section. U p to
important for the emotional development of the the late 1970s Hungarian kindergarten-teacher
baby. Efforts are m a d e to encourage young training has generally met the demand, but as
mothers to use this period for reading and self- the kindergarten network continued its rapid
improvement especially in thefieldof education development, there were periods of shortages in
and child psychology. the proper personnel, and the secondary school-
T h e series 'Parents' Library' devotes separate level training of kindergarten teachers was re-
volumes to the family education of the two main introduced in 1972. Completion of the vocational
age groups of pre-school children. T h e books secondary school for kindergarten teachers with
in it, published continually for almost twenty a matriculation examination at the end qualifies
546
students for kindergarten teaching, and is at the parents and families in their responsibilities,
same time the equivalent of an academic sec- help children develop in a healthy w a y ,
ondary school education, for graduates m a y and at the same time aim to eliminate social
enrol in the correspondence school of the differences.
kindergarten-teacher-training schools or m a y T h e economic activity and contributions of
continue their studies at any other college or w o m e n promote their social integration and
university. equip them to perform their maternal responsi-
Training includes practical work at the model bilities on a high standard. T h e presence of
kindergartens and in the fourth semester in w o m e n in various posts of the economy, cultural
the form of practice teaching for a full-month life and of public life is changing the earlier
period in a regional kindergarten at the end of value judgements on the social function and
the course. contributions of w o m e n , replacing them with
Kindergarten teaching is considered an at- a different image of the ideal w o m a n that is in
tractive career in Hungary. Generally twice as harmony with the modern h u m a n ideal, one in
m a n y young people wish to enter the vocation which work and motherhood supplement each
as can be admitted. Selection is by means of other.
admission examinations. A n d , finally, there have been simultaneous
changes in the assessment of the social and
W e have presented the experiences, the results family role of m e n , whereby the role of the
and problems of a society which cherishes the father in the family becomes richer and more
principle that w o m e n have equal rights and are challenging.
to have equal chances for exercising them, with This is not to say that in our country all the
m e n . This means that w o m e n in general, and difficulties which hinder the combined per-
particularly the younger generation of w o m e n , formance of maternal and occupational duties
are given the possibility of practising gainful on a really high level have been solved. But
work and motherhood together in harmony. O u r efforts for their solution are generalized and
social observations present convincing proof the younger generation supports these changes.
that, if the proper social conditions exist, Perfecting the conditions for working mothers
motherhood and a vocation are compatible. is, however, a long process and has far from
They can be compatible even if the resources reached its completion.
for adjustment are relatively limited because of W e still have only partially achieved the goal
mediocre economic and industrial development; that motherhood—which is a natural ambition
the modification of roles and expectation within and desire of most women—should not be an
the family follow the socio-economic changes impediment but an advantage in work and
but slowly; and even though the care and edu- public life, and on the other hand a vocation
cation of children under 6 is time consuming and public activity should be considered enrich-
and ties d o w n parents, usually the mother, ment to a w o m a n ' s personality, making her a
m u c h more than at any other period. better mother. Today w e still often depend on
Motherhood and a vocation can be compat- temporary compromise solutions, which m a y
ible if society does special planning and makes bridge gaps and adjust individual and social
deliberate efforts to create the proper conditions interests in the best possible way at a given stage
of education and employment to enable w o m e n of development, though they cannot be re-
to take on work they can consider a vocation; garded as ideal in long-range perspectives.
in the same way society is building u p a sys- N e w demands and n e w requirements have
tem of interdependent institutions which assist come into being in the education of children, in
547
Julia Turgonyi
ways of family living, and in regard to the re- combine the understanding of scientific theory
lationship between people and their work. T h e y with practical skills in training; to encour-
usually precede the possibilities, the conditions age co-operation between the family and the
for their satisfaction, and so they set the never- educational institutions; to enhance the social
ending task of solving n e w problems. prestige of education as a career, in order to
O u r experiences have clearly led us to the attract the best candidates for teaching; it will
conclusion that the practical realization of the depend on adequate preparation of young
programme of social equality can be achieved people—the future partners in marriage and
only if w e are capable of long-range thinking parenthood—for family living and for raising
and vision, and m a k e our plans accordingly children.
on the basis of all component factors and in It depends on developing a good, workable
adherence to our principles, and taking into pattern of direct and indirect material subsidies
account experiences in other countries. Prin- for the raising and education of children.
cipled planning in long-term perspective is A n d ,finally,it depends on finding the means
certainly just as important for progress as m a - for developing the best possible material and
terial resources, for only a clear and progressive moral milieu for parents, for mother and child;
social programme is capable of activizing all the the means conducive to the development of
constructive forces and the financial resources social attitudes and practical behaviour which
of society. help mothers to practise w o m a n ' s double vo-
W h a t w e have accomplished so far and success cation of motherhood and economic activity
in the tasks which are still ahead, have all harmoniously for the full realization of her
depended, or will depend, on our ability to personality, for the happiness of her children,
train qualified staff for our institutions and to and in the service of social progress.
548
Juana Consuelo Ibañez Salazar
Non-formal education programmes

for children and parents in Peru1
Most Latin American countries, notably Peru, not only the education authorities but even the
Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Venezuela, are majority of the population more aware of the
in a similar geographical and socio-cultural urgency of giving priority attention to the
situation: huge areas with high population 6-year-old child. In this respect the huge de-
density and few resources, isolated rural c o m - m a n d for enrolments at teaching centres estab-
munities with inadequate means of c o m m u n i - lished for this purpose, as well as the petitions
cation, 'sprawl' developments and 'shanty continually addressed to the responsible bodies
towns' where poverty and its consequences put from all sectors of society w h o wish to ben-
education virtually out of the reach of millions efit from their services, are proof of success.
of children and adults w h o have been ignored Whereas up to 1969, in the majority of de-
for centuries by their governments and are as veloping countries, pre-school education only
a result incapable of contributing to the pro- concerned the upper-middle class, at present
ductive potential, not only of their countries it is satisfying to note that peasants from
but even of their o w n communities. communities as remote as the Quechua and
Fortunately, some of these countries have Aymara communities, from the shores of Lake
undertaken extensive reforms and, in the case Titicaca (Peru and Bolivia), or the inhabitants
of Peru, seek radical solutions by approaching of communities from the forests bordering the
the problem of education in its true setting of A m a z o n , the Marañon or the Ucayali, are de-
underdevelopment and total marginality. manding the creation of pre-school teaching
At the level w e are concerned with, that of centres for their children.
pre-school (known in Peru as 'initial' teaching), There are problems c o m m o n to the majority
the problem represents a real challenge. T h e of Latin American countries; one of them is the
unanimous acceptance of the idea that a child inadequacy of schooling provided, if one takes
should be given an all-round education from into account the fact that the children w h o
the earliest age, and the collective aspiration to benefit from this teaching represent, on average,
turn out n e w generations able to build, maintain 4 per cent of the total population under the age
and further develop a just society, have m a d e of 6, and if one realizes that the number of
mothers w h o take on paid work outside the
Juana Consuelo Ibañez Salazar (Peru). Head of unit 1. Abridged and slightly modified version of a paper given
for non-formal initial education programmes at the by the author at a meeting on pre-school education at
Ministry of Education. Unesco (January 1976).
549
h o m e is increasing daily. T h e consequence is m u c h more complex, and the overall plans and
that the population under the age of 3, which programmes drawn u p in the central govern-
used to be the exclusive responsibility of the ment departments of each country prove to be
parents, is n o w swelling the number of children inoperable in certain zones, especially if they
for w h o m supplementary or additional services are not periodically revised.
must be provided. There are, furthermore, Another factor is that the analyses under-
variations as regards the provision of these ser- taken in each country in regard to this problem
vices. In Peru, 'initial' teaching is destined for have proved that one cannot expect the parents,
children from 0 to 6 years old and even for especially in the underprivileged areas, to be
fathers, while in Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador capable, unassisted, of fulfilling their responsi-
and Bolivia, for example, all-round education bility as initial teachers with the required ef-
is only provided from the age of 3 or 4. ficiency. Dependent on the system in which
T h u s children under 3 years old stay at h o m e they lived, they have had neither the means to
or benefit only in insignificant numbers from prepare themselves for this task, nor the re-
special assistance given by various—mostly pri- sources essential for creating and maintaining
vate—institutions. the requisite living conditions for the all-round
It is not, however, merely a question of open- development of their children. H o w , in such a
ing education centres here and there, which situation, does a country like Peru set about the
would, moreover, absorb 80 per cent of the problem of pre-school teaching?
education budgets; there is also the fact that, Since 1972, pre-school teaching has been in-
given the impossibility of satisfying all needs in stitutionalized under the n a m e 'initial teaching',
this field, it would be necessary to establish and it is provided, in a n e w setting, by the
priorities in the siting of these centres, thereby centros de enseñanza inicial (initial teaching
running the risk of falling into another type of centres) (CEI)—known as crèches for children
marginality. up to the age of 3, and kindergartens for
In addition, the number of teachers special- children from 3 to 5—and by informal pro-
ized or capable of teaching at this level is grammes aimed at children w h o do not benefit
minute. In Peru, for example, u p to 1969 from the normal C E I programmes or from the
there were only two higher training centres for family education programmes aimed at parents
pre-school teaching instructors; in the other and the community.
countries mentioned there were barely three or Nevertheless, initial teaching does not come
four centres—situated, of course, in the capital within the exclusive scope of the education
cities—whose students, as soon as they were sector. In particular, the crèches, where children
qualified, were absorbed into the urban centres. are fed, their physical well-being provided for
Even n o w , while each of the countries m e n - and medical attention given, are the responsi-
tioned has, on average, four to six higher bility of bodies within the scope of the edu-
centres training instructors specialized in pre- cation sector, but also of other sectors, in the
school teaching, after two, three or four years of form of activities and programmes integrated
post-secondary studies, the number of teachers and co-ordinated with those of the health sector,
trained is scarcely sufficient to cover the needs the Junta de Asistencia Nacional (National
of the accessible areas. This is w h y there are, in Welfare Board) ( J A N ) , 1 the local authorities, the
the remote rural communities, no pre-school
teaching instructors possessing the required
professional qualifications. 1. A decentralized body whose chief task is to provide
welfare services for the children and families of the
But the problem is not only quantitative: it is 'sprawl' and marginal areas.
55O
Non-formal education programmes for children and parents in Peru
Central de Cooperativas Agrarias de Producción teaching suited to the geographical, socio-

Agrícola (Confederation of Rural Agricultural economic and cultural universe of children
Co-operatives) ( C E C O A P ) 1 and other public under the age of 6, parents and the community,
and private institutions with which agreements particularly in the remote, rural peasant c o m -
have been concluded, defining their respective munities in the forests, the urban 'sprawl' dis-
responsibilities according to the nature and tricts and 'shanty towns', where, for various
aims of the services provided. It is usually the reasons, the normal teaching services are non-
function of the Ministry of Education to appoint existent or inadequate.
suitable teaching staff, to provide technical and They then seek to see that parents, the young
pedagogical assistance and, in certain cases, to and the community in general become aware of
supply library material for guidance, and fur- the social, economic and cultural problems
niture. Medical supervision aimed at preventing which affect the overall development of children
illness and looking after the children's health, at its most critical stage.
as well as the auxiliary services, are always the T o enable the community to participate ac-
responsibility of other ministries or bodies. Fur- tively in the task of education, making people
thermore, the services provided for children understand that education is also their responsi-
under the age of 3 are improved and consoli- bility and that it is their role to work together
dated by the guidance given to parents, par- with the solution of the problems it raises is the
ticularly to the mothers w h o participate in non- third aim.
formal programmes. T h e fourth is to ensure that the community's
T h e most remarkable experiments carried o w n resources are put to optimum use in the
out in Peru with a view to promoting the spread work of education, and to obtain and channel
of initial or pre-school education are those financial aid from other sectors and from inter-
involved in implementing non-formal initial- national bodies in order to improve the living
teaching programmes. conditions of the neediest children.
T h e National Education L a w , in force T h e last objective is to experiment with
since 1972, lays d o w n that 'the suitable use of varied programmes which, having been applied
informal means of education shall be encour- to strategic areas, can subsequently be extended
aged, in order to make teaching more flexible, to other areas of a similar nature.
complete and accessible, to further the partici- For the implementation of the non-formal
pation of all sections of the community and to programmes, priority is given, on the one hand,
increase the return on the investments m a d e in to areas found to be in greatest need and where
thefieldof education'. the official teaching organization is inadequate
The non-formal initial-education pro- or inappropriate, at least temporarily, because
grammes do not come under the official teach- of cultural prejudices, and, on the other, to
ing centres in the normal way, but are adminis- places where the community feels these pro-
tered by a special system which is highly grammes to be a necessity, without their being
flexible as regards the aims, content, duration, imposed b y a higher authority, still less b y
timetables, staff, premises, etc., thus affording chance.
immense scope for creativity, initiative and a
sense of responsibility on the part of those
involved in them.
The non-formal initial-teaching pro-
grammes have numerous objectives. They seek
1. C E C O A P branches are almost all located on the former
first to increase opportunities for access to haciendas of the coastal and mountain regions.
55I
Non-formal programmes practical guidance provided by voluntary

for children staff in the centres or the children's o w n
homes.
T h e general objectives and content of the non- Pre-educational services, aiming to develop the
formal programmes for children are the same as use of language, to facilitate communication
those of the C E I programmes, but they are in general, to arouse creative expression and
selected, classified in order of priority, adapted to stimulate aesthetic sensitivity.
and distributed in the light of an analysis of
local conditions and an appraisal of the family
context of the children. ORGANIZATION
T h e aim in drawing u p these programmes is OF THE P R O G R A M M E S
thus to anticipate and remedy specific de- T h e responsibility for the organization of the
ficiencies revealed in the child or in its h o m e or non-formal programmes falls upon the executive
community background. Priority attention is bodies at each corresponding administrative
paid to basic needs which must be satisfied level and upon the staff whose task it is to apply
before any teaching work can be undertaken. these programmes. There are thus programmes
This is w h y no programme for children is which come within the scope of the regions, the
planned without consideration of the problems zones and the núcleo educativo comunal (com-
of nutrition and other questions directly re- munity education centres) ( N E C ) . Most of these
lated to their intellectual, socio-moral, etc., programmes are organized at the level of the
development. N E C , since this is a body juridically constituted
This appraisal is conducted throughout the for the particular purpose of guiding and super-
process and at the end of each stage of the pro- vising the activities carried out within its juris-
g r a m m e , which enables appropriate corrections diction, which ranks immediately after that of
and additional efforts to be applied in due time. the teaching centres.
T h u s the programmes currently in operation
It is the N E C which, after analysing the
offer the following basic services for children:
situation and taking stock of the available re-
Recuperation services, provided in co-ordination
sources, decides to apply the programmes where
with the health department, w h e n deprivation
they are found to be most needed, ensures that
has seriously affected the children.
optimum use is m a d e of the resources of all
Prevention and protection services for healthy
kinds, and sees to the necessary co-ordination
children, provided by means of the co-
with the other sections and levels of the teaching
ordinated action of the health and education
service in order to prevent possible overlapping
departments, or thanks to the participation of
in regard to the programmes applied within its
private medical institutions or mixed teams of
jurisdiction.
doctors, social workers, psychologists, n u -
trition specialists, etc., whose work is vol-
untary. MATERIAL RESOURCES USED
Auxiliary nutrition services, provided mainly in
co-ordination with the agriculture, fishery In order to put into effect the non-formal pro-
and food departments. grammes, the N E C m a y make use of school and
Spare-time, recreational and physical education communal premises, as far as work schedules
services. allow, but it also makes frequent use of the most
Early development services for children under varied resources: public parks, playgrounds,
3 years old, in the form of theoretical and sports grounds and other open spaces where
552
recreational activities and other forms of cre- Staff responsible for the
ative and physical expression take place; halls implementation of the programmes
and wards converted for this purpose in hos-
pitals and clinics, in order to work with children THE CEI TEACHERS
waiting for their parents while the latter are
visiting patients; premises adjoining detention All teachers responsible for initial-teaching
or rehabilitation centres for w o m e n ; reception classes have a statutory obligation to divide their
centres on housing estates, where groups of working time between work carried out with the
mothers, assisted by specialists from the N E C children in the framework of the official school
carry out voluntary child-minding activities for programmes and the non-formal activities for
mothers w h o work during the day; premises which they are appointed by their N E C and
adjoining markets, to work with the stall- expected to collaborate in the planning. Each
holders' children; factories, workshops and teacher at present devotes a m i n i m u m of two
craft centres, where mothers go with their and a half hours a week to looking after children
small children because there is no one to look not covered by the official teaching programmes
after them. or those organized by parents and the c o m -
T h e non-formal programmes at regional level munity, on a rota basis. In practice, a large
have a wider scope and are applied in the re- n u m b e r of teachers devote more time to these
gions declared to be strategic priority zones in duties.
the context of the overall national development Generally speaking, the direct work of the
plans. They are, like that of Puno, more exten- teachers is concerned with tasks for which
sive, both in the number of children w h o benefit special pedagogical training is essential; hence it
from them, and in the territory they cover and is they w h o provide the teaching and direct the
the range of departments concerned. other activities of the children; but their most
These programmes receive direct financial important task is to advise and supervise the
assistance from the central departments of the work of the parents, students and other individ-
Ministry of Education for their transactions at uals from the community w h o have volunteered
h o m e and abroad. T h e nature of their organiz- to help them.
ation is, given their scope, somewhat special.
For example, the experimental programme of PROFESSIONAL
non-formal initial teaching carried out in the re-
MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS
gion of Puno at present looks after 5,000 Aymara
children under the age of 6, and 3,000 families These include specialized teachers or those w h o
and other members of the 149 rural Quechua have been trained in the field of pre-school
communities, in the zones bordering Bolivia; teaching, family educators, community organ-
the Jaén-Santa María de Nieva programme is izers and other personnel responsible for co-
aimed at children and families from the lake- ordinating, guiding and supervising certain
dwelling communities on the banks of the large-scale informal programmes, such as the
Marañón, while at Tumbes-Tacna other pro- pilot programmes put into effect in strategic
grammes of the same type were providing for a zones of Peru for the benefit of thousands of
variety of activities suited to the various socio- children, with regard to which young people
economic and cultural conditions. can give voluntary assistance.
These teams, working in groups, are respon-
sible for certain tasks geographically defined at
the level of the N E C , and meet periodically at
553
professional training courses, in order to co- they wish to take advantage of the opportunities
ordinate work, prepare teaching material and for cultural enrichment which they are given to
assess the activities with which they are improve their preparation. T h e y successfully
concerned. T h e y also take part in training vol- replace teachers in places where it is almost
unteers. T h e y are responsible to the regional impossible to get specialized staff to come and
authorities, w h o co-ordinate their work and settle permanently. Finally, they increase the
advise them. return on the investment m a d e in teaching,
since even if they receive some remuneration, it
is always less than a teacher's salary—not that
AUXILIARY STAFF FROM THE COMMUNITY
this means they are exploited, since they have
These are the parents and young people w h o an opportunity to improve their cultural attain-
take part directly in the teaching work, by carry- ments andfinancialsituation in the course of
ing out tasks for which they are prepared training for their duties, and taking part in the
through periodic intensive courses, daily radio educational process which affects not only the
broadcasts and information and guidance m a - children but also themselves.
terial on pre-school teaching.
T h e auxiliary staff from the rural peasant
communities are not officially paid; they receive Programmes provided for parents
only a modest remuneration from various bodies and the community
or from the communities themselves and the
subsidies necessary to allow them to take part in T h e beneficiaries of these programmes are the
the training activities in the field of initial parents of children being taught at the C E I , as
teaching. well as the young people and adults living in
Experience has shown us that the best non- certain zones.
formal programmes are those in which members
of the communities themselves, chosen by their METHOD
groups, take part as organizers and direct collab-
orators. T h e y identify with their milieu, its T h e organization of each programme is based
customs, problems, aspirations and language, on an overall analysis of the socio-economic and
and are consequently in the best position to cultural situation of the community, assessed
carry out efficient work, since they are trusted in relation to the general situation of the country.
and respected in their communal groups; this Next, the situation of the child in its family
is not so for the teachers, w h o are often out- and communal context is studied. Once the
siders and have difficulty in integrating in the problems have been identified, a publicity c a m -
conditions of these communities. T h e auxili- paign is undertaken to gain widespread accept-
aries have no interest in emigrating to other ance for the idea that it is important to look
zones, since, being part of the community, they after the child under the age of 6, since he is
ensure the continuity and stability of the work an essential element in the lasting changes it
undertaken. Having good knowledge of their is hoped to make in society.
o w n community's resources, they are better W h e n each m e m b e r of the family and the
equipped to exploit this in inexpensive teaching community is conscious of the responsibilities
equipment and material. T h e y fulfil their teach- he has towards the child, the next step is that
ing duties with the children efficiently, after of personal training or self-education and group-
receiving suitable training for this purpose, and learning between adults, with a view to plan-
the more they come to feel motivated, the more ning and carrying out co-ordinated joint action
554
enabling the problems revealed to be tackled tens, but is also the result of life in the h o m e ,
effectively. and that it very m u c h depends on the attention
As a general rule the programmes include, and education given by the mother and the
on the one hand, guidance and training ac- influence the child undergoes in the family and
tivities concerning: knowledge of the child and communal context.
the stages of its development; the study of
legislation in force concerning the family, the FORMS OF WORK
mother and the child; medical advice and care
concerning conception, pregnancy, the pre- In the programmes for parents and the c o m -
natal period, breast-feeding, infant diet and munity, use is m a d e of techniques which en-
nutrition, etc.; and the early development and courage the active participation of all w h o are
pre-educational stages; on the other hand, pro- present. It is they w h o formulate all the ques-
motional activities aimed at obtaining better tions to be dealt with, and the action to be
living conditions for the child: facilities for carried out. For this purpose, the mountain
working in barns and family or communal communities do not need to organize special
gardens, or in workshops where teaching m a - meetings, since they already possess the c o m m u -
terial, clothing, etc., are produced, intended for nal assembly, which is an integral part of their
the child under the age of 6; organization of life and customs, so that it is there that the
supplementary feeding services for children, the questions relating to initial teaching are exam-
work being done on a rota basis by the parents ined. It is there that the co-ordinating teacher
themselves, w h o contribute according to their and the volunteer auxiliary go to motivate,
means; building and upkeep of community re- guide and advise the assembly, but not to
ception centres and other specially designated 'direct' it. Likewise in other zones, the groups
premises, such as the wawa-wasi and wawa- are convened by the teacher and the chiefs or
uta (Quechua and Aymara words respectively, other most representative members, but are
meaning the 'children's house' in the non-formal given all the responsibility and independence
programmes of initial teaching in Puno); and necessary to enable them to take their o w n
educational activities carried out under the pro- decisions.
grammes intended for children, with the help
Efforts are being m a d e to modify the tra-
of specialized teachers.
ditional forms of work which were limited to
In the work undertaken with the parents, talks and lectures. At present, family education
it is advisable, bearing in mind the most pressing provides for greater active participation in order
needs revealed and the resources available, to to take advantage of the knowledge and ex-
attempt to intensify suitable guidance for the periences of the beneficiaries themselves, in the
family in order to supplement and reinforce form of dialogues, practical demonstrations and
the effect of the programmes for children, in collective work in small groups. T h u s the work
such a way that the work done with infants is becomes a real group-learning exercise in which
directly linked to the aims to be defined in everyone is at the same time teacher and student,
the programmes directed at the parents and the which is one of the basic characteristics of the
community. informal programmes provided for adults.
Throughout these programmes, the parents O n e form of work practised in the peasant
must be aware of the fact that the educational communities of Puno is the participation of girl
process starts even before the child's birth and volunteers responsible for the practical guidance
that education is not only provided in specialized of mothers in their homes, in connection with
establishments, like the crèches and kindergar- early development and feeding during the first
555
three years of life. This step has been taken ing was 152,000, which represented an increase
because of the impossibility of creating special of 86 per cent, the quantitative projections
teaching centres exclusively for these children, for 1975-80, as given in Table I, can be m a d e .
but above all because the ideal solution is that In the estimates given, it is anticipated that
the mother herself should look after the child the main effort will be on work with the family
at this age. and the community.
In the years to come, the priority needs
LENGTH OF THE PROGRAMMES for the development of pre-school teaching are
AND TIMETABLES of two kinds. A s regards staff and extension
of the services, it will be a matter of taking
T h e length of the programmes aimed at adults steps aiming, on the one hand, at developing
and the community depends on local conditions, programmes of specialization and training for
the aims in view and the activities involved. teachers in pre-primary education and, on the
It is notfixed,and the programmes m a y stretch other hand, at attracting and training volunteers
over a whole year or be applied for discontinuous from the community and disseminating the idea
periods at any time of the year. of initial teaching. It will also be a matter of
T h e timetables are drawn u p in agree- following atfirsthand the official and non-
ment with the participants. Owing to climatic formal initial teaching activities in isolated zones
conditions, the participants' occupations and and of giving material support to the launching
the resources available, the activities are usually of non-formal programmes which will progress-
conducted on holidays or outside school hours. ively become financially independent.
In general, various alternatives are offered so A s regards the improvement of the quality
as to ensure the participation of all those of the teaching, apart from the further training
concerned. and specialization courses already mentioned,
it will be a matter of supporting research on
the living conditions, growth and development
Quantitative projections in Peru of the child, and of giving assistance for ex-
periments aimed at bringing to light n e w forms
If one bears in mind the fact that the popu- and techniques of work which would facilitate
lation aged between o and 6 is about 3,671,900, the 'creation' of appropriate methods and tech-
which represents 23.1 per cent of the total nologies. O n these different points, the exchange
population of Peru, reckoned to be 15,868,800 of experience between developed and developing
in 1975, and if one considers that during the countries with a view to seeking n e w paths
period 1970-74 the total number of children for the expansion of pre-school teaching is
between 3 and 5 years old in pre-school teach- indispensable.
T A B L E I. Quantitative projections for 1975-80
1975 1980
Programmes 0—3 Aged 4-6 Total
C E I crèches or
kindergartens 1,000 160,000 l6l,000 350,000
Non-formal programmes 3,000 47,00O 50,000 250,000
TOTAL 4,000 207,000 211,000 600,000
556
Carmen Balmaceda, Johanna Filp,
Patricia Gimeno and Howard Richards
Parents help to educate

their children:
an experiment in Chile
T h e school of Trapiche Alto is situated 600 kilo- to go to the food office to collect the milk for
metres south of the capital of Chile, Santiago. her child. In the space of half an hour, the
It is a typical little rural school beside a dirt twenty mothers w h o attend the course have
track lined with poplars. A dog is asleep in assembled. They chat, knit and await the arrival
the shade, and there are chickens and pigs of the w o m a n teacher w h o will open the meeting.
wandering about. There are children playing T h e teacher begins by asking the mothers
at the edge of the track. A little house can be about the matters dealt with at the previous
glimpsed in the distance. T h e school is built meeting. T h e mothers do not answer immedi-
of sun-dried bricks; the classrooms are dark, ately. There is a certain reluctance to speak
with earthen floors; the benches are arranged in front of a group, but then a bold mother
in straight rows, and some of them are in a reminds them that they discussed the import-
perilous state. T h e children havefinishedtheir ance of talking to children at h o m e . That dis-
day's work and go h o m e . Not long afterwards, cussion was illustrated with slides. They saw
the mothers arrive for the meeting. O n e comes that children learn by imitating, and that they
with her little boy, because there was no one also talk to themselves w h e n playing, because
at h o m e to leave him with. T h e n another mother this helps them to succeed better in what they
arrives, bringing a message from her neighbour, are doing. A few mothers mention further as-
w h o will be unable to attend since she has had pects which they remember.
Next, w e see that the mothers have split
up into small groups. O n e mother is blindfolded
and takes an object from a bag containing vari-
Carmen Balmaceda (Chile). Responsible for the pro-
duction of teaching materials and practical guides for ous things brought from h o m e : pebbles, nails,
the Parents and Children Project; infant-school teacher. sticks and boxes. T h e blindfold mother de-
Johanna Filp (Chile). Responsible for the psycho- scribes the object and the other mothers ask
logical content and measurement of mother-child interac- her questions. They are practising a game that
tions for the Parents and Children Project; psychologist.
they will be able to play with the children at
Patricia Gimeno (Chile). Works in production of
teaching materials for preschool children and creative h o m e , so as to help them express themselves
games for the home; teacher at primary and preschool and use and recognize n e w words. There is
levels. some sheepish laughter; they feel a little foolish
Howard Richards (United States of America), to be playing children's games, but they are
educational psychologist and philosopher. Lecturer at
Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, adviser to the
curious and painstaking.
Parents and Children Project. S o m e 20 minutes later, w e find the mothers
557
Carmen Balmaceda, Johanna Filp, Patricia Gimeno and Howard Richards
once again in small groups, talking and laughing. of the children w h o goes to school will be able
O n e of them is writing and the others are to read it aloud. She also encourages them to
making comments and telling the 'secretary' invent games. T o close the meeting, the teacher
what she has to write down. They are making asks the mothers to bring their pre-school-age
up a story to tell their children. Although at children to the next meeting, because they are
first they lacked confidence w h e n faced with going to play with them the games which they
this task, in the end each group proudly pro- have practised today.
duces its handiwork. S o m e mothers have re- Slowly, the mothers depart, some hurrying
told stories which were told to them, and others more than the others, because they must get
have remembered poems which the children h o m e to prepare the evening meal for their
might learn. For example: families, and especially for their husbands, w h o
like to eat as soon as they come home.
Pin Pin, the Kitten As they make their way homeward, they
W h a t is it I feel talk animatedly among themselves, while the
W h e n I recall children run beside them, picking u p stones,
M y frolics with little Pin Pin? jumping and chasing one another.
People don't know him
But I will tell you
H e is a kitten, as small as can be. Summary of the project
H e has no ears
T h e Parents and Children Project is sponsored
He's going bald
by the Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de
He's lost an eye
A n d he's lost his nose
la Educación (Centre for Educational Research
His tongue is as black and Development) ( C I D E ) in Santiago, Chile,
As a lump of coal a private, non-profit-making foundation which
A n d his t u m m y is like a drum. has connections with the Catholic Church and
receives assistance both from various Chilean
W e are already approaching the end of the churches and societies and from international
meeting. T h e teacher asks the mothers to relief agencies, such as Brot für die Welt (a
comment on their activities. ' W e enjoyed them, G e r m a n Evangelical agency) and the Ford
but w e do not know whether w e shall have time Foundation (a private United States agency).
to play these games with the children. O f course, T h e Director of C I D E is the Reverend Father
Rosita goes to school, so she could play with Patricio Carióla, a Chilean Jesuit, w h o , over the
them—she could help them. . . .' years, has become devoted to the quest for edu-
T h e mothers hand over the children's h o m e - cational innovations in Chile and Latin America
work. T h e children have drawn the flight-path which will lead to improved social justice and
of afly.T h e mothers have also told the children greater opportunities for all.
to draw in the sand with a stick. O n e mother Parents and Children affects the Uves of
has m a d e a toy from a tin and some pebbles, children of all ages, to the extent that it affects
which her child can use as a musical instrument. the community's attitudes towards education.
A n e w pamphlet is given out, containing However, the project focuses directly on the
suggestions on ways in which mothers can help education of pre-school-age children (aged 4
their children and a list of things to do. T h e to 6), toddlers (2-4) and babies.
teacher reads it out, because there are some T h e Parents and Children Project is based on
mothers w h o cannot read; later, at h o m e , one the following major assumptions:
558
This form of education for children and adults of poor rural dwellers. T h e project began
is the most economical. in 1972, and its development has been deter-
B y using this system of teaching, it is possible mined by the conditions prevailing in the
to achieve more lasting effects, both by m o d - country and by the success of the experiments.
ifying values and by improving knowledge in In the previous paragraph, w e referred to the
the spheres of education, nutrition and health. fact that the schoolteachers conduct various
Its extension and expansion to the countryside activities designed to enlist parents' partici-
and/or the town depends on the resources pation in educational processes. These activities
existing in the community, which, given its fall into the following five categories:
economic feasibility, enable the programme First, motivation of parents. W e believe that an
to cover the most needy sectors. important factor in the success of parents' and
T h e principal promoter of educational and guardians' co-operation with the rural school
social change, within the ambit of the Parents is that they should derive rewarding experi-
and Children Project, is the rural schoolteacher. ences from it. S o m e examples of activities in
Every week, he meets the parents and conducts this category are the entertainments put on
various activities designed to enlist the partici- by the pupils of the school in their parents'
pation of the parents and guardians (mainly, in honour, and the activities which highlight the
practice, the mothers) in strengthening the knowledge and skills of the parents, such as
effectiveness of those places of learning k n o w n repairs to school furniture, making black-out
as the ' h o m e ' , the 'school' and the 'neighbour- curtains for showing slides at school, and
hood'. A t regular intervals, the teachers from planting a kitchen garden for the school.
the schools taking part in the project hold In the second group come the initiatives of the
a meeting, also attended by specialists from community itself. For example, during one
the C I D E . These meetings provide them with series of meetings the mothers realized that
an opportunity to conduct experiments in group some children had difficulty in learning to
dynamics, discuss the progress of the project read because there was nobody at h o m e to
and the intentions underlying the teaching m a - help them with their spelling. They organ-
terials, circulate audio-visual materials for the ized themselves so that a literate person from
work with the mothers and circulate teaching another family could help every child w h o
materials to be used by the mothers in their had such a problem. O n the whole, it m a y be
o w n homes. W e have used the term 'circulate' said that traditional systems of educational
for the audio-visual and teaching materials, planning often spend vast sums on im-
rather than 'distribute', because w e see the plementing ideas put forward at the national
educational process not as a business trans- or international level, while thousands of
action, based on the handing out of knowledge ideas of equal or greater merit, albeit on a
from the specialists to the schoolteachers and less grand scale—initiatives taken by rural
from there to the mothers; w e see it rather as a schoolteachers or rural women—are lost for
network of communications, in which there is lack of a sheet of carbon paper, scissors, a
give and take between teacher-learners and stamp or a pair of scales.
learner-teachers. In the third category are the actual classes for
the mothers, which, as a rule, are also at-
A s a small sample of the project, and as an tended by the elder sisters w h o second their
introduction to it, w e have just given an account mothers in the household duties. In addition,
of a typical meeting held in the province of there is direct work with girls in grades VII
Curicó, where work is currently under way in and VIII w h o are the most actively concerned
various parish schools attended by the children
559
with child care in the h o m e . In our intro- which has emerged in the course of the system-
duction to this article w e described a typical atic participation already outlined, in which
class, and in what follows w e shall give fuller parents, children, teachers and specialists all
information on this aspect of the project. T h e have a say. Let us take as our example the work
subjects for discussion are chosen partly ac- done for the third thematic unit, language.
cording to a codification which corresponds T h e unit consists of four meetings. T h e first,
to the world view of rural people and the based on slides (or pictures if there is no elec-
opinions expressed by them and, partly, ac- tricity), should demonstrate the importance for
cording to the opinions and under the re- the child of verbal communication, in enabling
sponsibility of the teachers and specialists. him to cope with life at h o m e , at school and in
T o be more specific, some of the subjects the community. It is planned to give rural
dealt with so far have been language, n u - people access to the findings of scientific re-
trition, parents' participation in school out- search in thefieldof child development. In this
ings, child development, the kitchen garden, unit as in others, the influence of Jean Piaget
children's preparation for reading, their prep- and the Geneva school is conspicuous, although
aration for mathematics, discipline, h u m a n use is also m a d e of research carried out at C I D E
relationships, sex education, mechanical skills, and other Latin American centres. T h e second
affection in the h o m e and the role of the adult meeting, called a booster meeting, centres on
male in the life of the child. the same subject, tying it in with the everyday
Fourth, activities in the h o m e itself. T h e lives of the participants, and appraising the
mothers come to the meeting accompanied suggestions and opinions of the mothers. A t
by their children. At the meeting, they work this second meeting, the work done by mothers
with the teaching materials which are cir- and children at h o m e is commented upon, and
culated. Later, they can take the materials creative activities take place. For example, a
h o m e and engage in learning activities with mother is asked to put her hand into a cloth
their o w n children. T h e mothers talk about bag containing various objects (chalk, sticks,
their experiences at the next meeting. pencils, small boxes, etc.) and to try to describe
Fifth, activities which arise from the conclusions the qualities of the object which she is touching.
reached at the meetings would appear to T h e following week, she will play similar games
fall into a fifth category. For example, if with the children at h o m e .
the mothers consider, in view of the scien- T h e third meeting of the unit is a workshop,
tific background supplied by the specialists with the children present. Teaching materials
and the teachers, that access to the mass produced by the same mothers at earlier meet-
communication media is important for the ings will provide a basis for the educational
children's linguistic development, such a games which will subsequently be played
conclusion m a y lead to a campaign to acquire throughout the neighbourhood. T h e mothers
n e w batteries for radios, since most rural have already m a d e up children's stories, perhaps
families o w n a transistor radio, but one whose by recalling tales which they themselves used
batteries are flat. to hear from their grandmothers, and these sub-
jects n o w serve as a basis for all kinds of activi-
ties which help to stimulate the imagination.
Particulars of a thematic unit At the fourth meeting, the mothers learn simple
techniques of appraisal, so as to understand
Let us n o w take a more leisurely look at the their children better, observing, for example,
stage reached by one of the thematic units their ability to perform a manual task in accord-
560
ance with verbal instructions. Thus they be- care for their children, and are concerned for
come capable of gearing h o m e education to the their children and their children's future. A s
needs of each child. one mother said: ' W e must teach our children,
Let us n o w take a closer look at one of the because they do not realize that some day they
small 'bricks' or 'cells' on which the proceedings are going to want to get married.'
of a meeting are based. W e chose the method W e also k n o w that there is a kind of learning,
recommended for working with the sixth of the which Albert Bandura has studied under the
twenty-three slides shown at thefirstmeeting n a m e of 'social learning' which depends largely
of the thematic unit on language. This is the on seeing examples of things being done. In
meeting briefly described above, which aims order for this type of learning to work the
at introducing some scientific knowledge into example must be one with which the subject
teaching methods based on dialogue. T h e sixth can identify; for this reason the pictures that
slide shows on the one hand a parrot, on the w e use to motivate discussions are pictures of
other a child. T h e drill is as follows: people in situations where the parents can see
T h e teacher encourages the group to decode themselves. There is a certain parallel here with
each of the images. In other words, the m e a n - the psycho-social method: in that method the
ings of the pictures are deciphered. teaching-learner returns to the group its o w n
H e asks the group to state, on the basis of their words; in our method w e also return to the
knowledge or suppositions, h o w to teach the group pictures of themselves.
parrot to talk, and h o w to teach the child to talk. There is abundant evidence for the prop-
T h e aim is to identify the differences between osition that favourable attitudes and actions by
the parrot and the child where the use of parents are crucial for education. For example,
words is concerned, thereby discovering and the British Plowden Report found that an index
drawing attention to the fact that the child of parental attitude was a better predictor of
is able to think. In addition, he can use the school success than either family income or
objects which he names. parents' education. For another example, this
T h e teacher makes a synthesis of the group's one on the pre-school level, Olim Hess and
opinions. Shipman have found that assessments of the
T h e same procedure is followed for each of the mother's language style and of the mother's
twenty-three transparencies in the lesson, some teaching behaviour towards the child are better
of them are shown a second time for appraisal, predictors of the child's abstract reasoning score
and the lesson concludes with a general evalu- on a sorting task, than either the mother's or
ation. T h e lesson with slides sets the trend for the child's I.Q. score.1
the remaining meetings of the unit, as w e have It is also k n o w n that for attitude change to
already said. occur there must be some heat as well as some
light, that is to say, that information will never
accomplish attitude change without interper-
W h a t w e k n o w about parents sonal interaction in which one gives something
and guardians of oneself, and feels that something important
to one is at stake.
O n e of the few genuine instincts that can be
identified in the h u m a n species is the instinct i. E . G . Olim, R . D . Hess and V . Shipman, 'Relationship
to protect one's offspring. In most cultures this Between Mother's Abstract Language Style and A b -
straction Styles of Urban Pre-school Children'. Paper
instinct and the tendencies associated with it are presented at Mid-West Psychological Association Meet-
developed in such a way that parents love and ings, Chicago, 1965.
56I
O n the other hand, there is evidence that the work are that long periods of time are often
vocabulary of Chilean peasant parents is lim- necessary for a child to develop a given capa-
ited, that children are often hit by their mothers, bility for logical thinking, and that children do
that there is a high rate of alcoholism a m o n g the not simply absorb information from outside,
fathers, that there is little or no reading matter but rather process it through their o w n thought
or other cultural resources in the h o m e , and patterns—thought patterns which are to some
that the males tend to consider child-rearing to extent the same in different children in a given
be a feminine role. Piagetian stage, but which also vary to some
In short, w e k n o w that peasant parents, es- extent from child to child, with respect to h o w
pecially the mothers, are likely to be interested fast a child progresses. T h e work of Bruner and
in the subject-matter that w e are dealing others tends to reinforce the conclusion that
with, that there are feasible ways to facilitate children learn slowly and idiosyncratically.
communication, and that there are problems on It follows from these considerations that no
which to reflect. W e are also quite sure that school can compensate for an educationally
they k n o w more about those problems than w e poor environment. Even with m a x i m u m school
do, and that our main role is not to tell them attendance from ages 6 to 14, a child of 14 will
h o w to solve their problems, but to give them have spent less than 10 per cent of his waking
support where they need it and ask for it. hours in school, and none of those hours will
have been in the crucialfirstmonths and years
of life. It follows that if children are going to
What w e know about children be educated, their homes and neighbourhoods
must provide suitable learning environments.
It is well established that irreparable brain W e also k n o w that a m o n g the needs of infants
damage is done if the mother suffers from pro- are emotional security, and a rich linguistic
tein deficiencies during pregnancy, or if the environment. T h e work of C h o m s k y and other
child suffers from such deficiencies during its linguists and psycho-linguists has shown the
early years. It can also be shown that to some intimate connection between syntax acquired in
extent it is possible to secure an adequate diet infancy and reasoning capacity. It appears that
within the limitations of a peasant income, a child is a device capable of generating quite
although it is also a matter of urgency to complex rules of thought/speech, and it also
increase the incomes of the poor. T h e experi- appears that in order to fulfil this potentiality it
ence of Unicef in Africa and elsewhere shows needs proper exposure to language at the right
that one can hope to change eating habits so stage of development. 1
that a wiser use is m a d e of available resources if These brief notes on some of the main results
one begins by building on the healthy traditions of research on the nature of thought and on
which already exist in a given community. children lead to the conclusion that children
T h e work of Piaget tends to show that raised under typical peasant conditions are not
children learn during their early years through likely to become participants in the mechaniz-
physical interaction with their environment, ation of agriculture, no matter h o w m a n y years
and through the gradual formation of logical
operations through the internalization of pat-
I. T h e studies m a d e on the subject are summarized in
terns of physical interaction. His work under- Gonzalo Gutierrez et al., Educar para el Mañana,
lines the importance of a rich sensorimotor Santiago, Prensa de la Universidad Católica, 1974; and
environment for young children. Other im- in H . Richards, 'El Desarrollo Intelectual del Niño',
Cuadernos de Educación—Orientaciones, N o . 21,
portant conclusions to be drawn from Piaget's Santiago, C I D E , 1972.
562
they spend in schoolrooms. But there are also barriers that often separate the peasants from
grounds for optimism, for these results suggest the school and the teacher.
that if w e can find feasible ways to enrich the Studies of rural schools in Latin America
child's environment in the right ways, the report with discouraging regularity that such
children of peasants m a y develop mechanical, schools are not effective by any measure. 1
verbal and mathematical reasoning powers. Teacher morale is low, student achievement is
low; few students finish a five- or six-year
course, and m a n y w h o attend for a time relapse
What w e know about social change later into functional illiteracy. Most schools
and about rural schools rely on rote learning, and teach a curriculum
in Latin America that has little relevance to peasant life. Chilean
rural schools have been described as 'urban
T h e results of research on the work of social schools located in the country'.
change agents w h o attempt to promote tech- S o m e commentators judge that improvement
nical innovations, indicates that there are gen- of the rural school is either not feasible at all or
eral attitudes which constitute receptiveness to only feasible at a prohibitive cost. T h e y reason
innovation. They suggest that innovation in one that school will be meaningful to peasants only
area—child-raising in the present case—may be w h e n it opens the door to economic oppor-
conducive to the formation of modern attitudes tunity, and that schooling should therefore wait
that favour a generalized interest in acquiring until economic development creates a need for
n e w skills and techniques, and in rational evalu- more clerks and other school-trained personnel.
ation. O u r o w n experience suggests that a Ivan Illich has gone farther, and argued that the
major component of such a generalized recep- whole concept of 'school' is pernicious and
tiveness to technical innovation is a qualitative wasteful.
change in interpersonal relations, such that the T h e pessimists, w h o hold that rural schooling
peasant feels neither fear nor shame nor mis- will not work at all, or that it will only work
trust in discussing a problem with a person w h e n economic and social conditions are pro-
w h o possesses so-called 'western' or 'modern' pitious, have not persuaded any Latin American
knowledge, such as a schoolteacher or an government to close rural schools. Elemen-
agronomist. tary schooling for everyone has been under-
It is a general principle recognized b y taken as a social commitment, whether or
students of social change that in order to not it is believed that it is a good investment
gain acceptance, change must begin within the economically.
community, rather than be imposed from out- In this panorama, thus briefly sketched, the
side it. For this reason w e do not introduce Parents and Children Project approachfitsin
change agents into the community from out- as one which assumes that rural schools are
side, but rather support the local schoolteacher, here to stay, and which promises to be an
w h o is already a functioning m e m b e r of the inexpensive and effective w a y of improving
community, and often one with consider- them. W e believe that w e are improving teacher
able prestige. O n the other hand, the school-
teacher is often somewhat isolated in the very
i. See, for example, the appropriate section of the series
community where he or she lives and works. edited by T h o m a s L a Belle, Education and Develop-
O n e of the functions of the periodic meetings ment: Latin America and the Caribbean. Los Angeles,
mentioned earlier is to exchange ideas and ex- Calif., U C L A Latin American Center, 1972. For a fuller
bibliography, see the Resúmenes Analíticos en Educa-
periences with respect to breaking d o w n the ción, Santiago, C I D E , 1972.
563
morale and w e give limited support to teachers us); (e) unpaid volunteers are used (such as
for their o w n initiatives. the mothers, w h o devote themselves to their
W e hypothesize that an effective way to relate children's education as a central part of their
the school to the community is to encourage maternal duties); (f) self-teaching materials are
teachers to work with the parents, and that this used, and the learners help one another with
process will have positive side-effects in the these; (g) learning eventually becomes part of
school itself, even though our principal target an activity or project with which the local
is not the school but the h o m e and the c o m - community is constantly concerned (such as
munity. O u r approach is supported by research child rearing).
on in-service training of teachers in the United T h e same report specifies one more condition,
States, which suggests that in-service training which the Parents and Children Project does
works best where short teacher-workshops are not fulfil, i.e. producing articles for sale, and
conducted over a long period of time, and where the data on which the report is based are often
there is a close tie between training sessions and no more than analogous, not equivalent, to our
classroom practice. It is also supported by the o w n case. Nevertheless, w e believe that the ex-
history of the British infant school movement, periment conducted in that report shows that
which did not begin as a national plan, but our target is economically feasible.
rather through initiatives of small groups of T h e social and emotional development of
teachers, which were systematically encouraged children, and the emotional climate of the h o m e
by regional education officers. and school, are dimensions that should be
considered in any comprehensive assessment of
the benefits of an educational programme. W e
Costs and benefits consider it to be a merit of the Parents and
Children Project approach that it makes an
T h e evaluation of the project, both in the sep- attempt to work constructively in this area.
arate stages of training and in the overall as- It is also a merit of the project that it seeks
sessment summarizing the results, should enable to strengthen the values of family life. M a n y
an analysis of costs and benefits to be m a d e . Latin Americans feel that in the process of
It will furnish grounds for at least an approxi- industrialization some of the advanced countries
mate comparison of these with the costs and have lost traditional values associated with the
benefits of other projects and programmes which family, and in seeking to create societies in
seek solutions to similar or related problems. accord with their values they hope to achieve
Although only a mass of incomplete data is the benefits of industrialization without this
available (not included in this report), it m a y drawback. Given this value, it would be reason-
be noted that one of the fullest cost-benefit able to say that in a case where identical edu-
studies on rural non-formal education, carried cational results can be achieved either through
out by Unicef in 1974, arrived at the following the family or through other institutions, then
conclusions, which w e find pleasing.1 T h e costs the method which works through the family
of the programmes are always reduced, by and is to be preferred, just because it tends to
large, when: (a) existing schools are used; (b) the strengthen the family as an institution by help-
community helps to provide the necessary fa- ing it to function more effectively.
cilities; (c) the participants m a k e their o w n
materials as an integral part of the educational 1. Unicef, document E/ICEF/L.1304, 27 March 1974,
activities; (d) part-time staff are employed (such p. 164. See also Philip Coombs et al., New Paths to
Learning for Rural Children and Youth, which is based
as the rural schoolteachers w h o collaborate with on the same study.
564
Khady Gueye
Day nurseries in Senegal
Tendième, in the Casamance region, was the and the various maintenance tasks: cleaning the
second village in Senegal to see the establish- premises, carrying water, and preparing and
ment of a W o m e n ' s Action Centre (Animation serving the meals.
Féminine). T h e organizers trained at this centre T h e children received a midday meal, a single
have been responsible for numerous successful rice-based dish served with vegetables, meat
experiments in the economic and social domains, or fish bought out of the collective fund, some-
including the organization of a village day nur- times supplemented by a dessert provided by
sery during the 1962 winter season, a two- the Organisme de Recherche pour l'Alimenta-
month period during which the w o m e n are tion et la Nutrition en Afrique (Organization
obliged to work intensively in the rice fields. for Research into Food and Nutrition in Africa),
First of all, the w o m e n cultivated a collective a body which existed at the time. In the m o r n -
field whose yield was intended to cover part ing and afternoon, they were given a cup of
of the costs of their undertaking: a contribution milk provided by American Catholic Relief.
in the form of rice and other foodstuffs enabled T h e nursery operated in this way every day
the nursery to operate by providing a midday of the week for two and a half months, and the
meal for the children. Tendième villagers, satisfied with this exper-
T h e Tendième nursery was opened in iment, decided to repeat it the following
July 1962, with a total of n o children between year.
the ages of 1 and 5. It was established in the T h e 'rural day nursery' institution, the ex-
same premises as the W o m e n ' s Action Centre. periment introduced ten years ago at Tendième,
T h e staff of the centre, the director and her spread rapidly through the département, then
assistant, w h o had helped in the preparations throughout the Casamance region, and to the
continued to participate, but it was the peasant other regions of Senegal. At present, there are
w o m e n themselves w h o took effective charge some nurseries in the country, including about
of the organization, collecting the money necess- thirty in Casamance.
ary for the purchase of provisions, taking turns
daily to see to the supervision of the children
Aims of the day nursery
At the outset, the w o m e n regarded this nursery

Khady Gueye (Senegal). In charge of women's affairs simply as a practical means of ensuring super-
under the Secretary of State for Human Rights. vision of their children during a critical period
565
Khady Gueye
of the year. But the nursery very quickly ex- ledge, which too rarely find a practical appli-
ceeded the bounds of its initial aims. cation in the life of the village.
T h e nursery indeed lightens the women's It is with these considerations in mind that
task at a m o m e n t w h e n they need to devote action from outside the village community
themselves entirely to the work on the land, should be conceived. T h e aim is not to contrib-
and provides the children with better living ute money or gifts, or take the place of the
conditions in the winter season, w h e n certain peasant w o m e n in order to set up ideal nurseries.
diseases, such as malaria, are rife. But looking It is m u c h more a question—using as a basis
after such a large group of children (a m a x i m u m the driving force and community spirit which
of ioo per nursery) raises problems different gave birth to thefirstnurseries—of helping the
from those of the maintenance of the biggest w o m e n improve their initial achievements by
family. making the largest possible use of local re-
With this rhythm of work, in a framework sources and by training competent leaders from
of activities so different from the usual course among the w o m e n , m e n and young people of
of daily tasks, the peasant w o m e n gradually the village itself.
become aware of a certain number of require- T h e nursery should, in fact, be regarded not
ments as regards hygiene and education which as a State institution which the villagers would
passed unnoticed in the routine of family life. be invited to adopt, but rather as an enterprise
Better hygiene and preparation of children for of the village communities, particularly the
school life become as imperative at h o m e as w o m e n , to which the State provides aid.
at the nursery. T h u s the peasant w o m e n make In the urban and semi-urban milieu, as in the
the knowledge they have discovered while look- rural environment, it is the later stage of infancy
ing after the nursery part of their day-to-day (from 2 to 6 years) that has to be catered for in
family life; the nursery, for them, is a source this scheme.
of real practical training, teaching them h o w It is, indeed, from the age of 2 onwards
to draw up and manage a budget, to think that Senegalese families devote less care to the
about a balanced diet, to become aware of the older child in favour of the new-born baby. At
dangers of contagion and the effectiveness of the same time, the government puts the e m -
preventive measures, and to discover n e w means phasis, as regards education, on children from
of helping their children succeed at school. the age of 7. For children up to the age of 3, the
T h e nursery involves the whole village c o m - Ministry of Health, through the child welfare
munity. Although the w o m e n are those more services, gives assistance to mothers in a number
directly concerned, the m e n also appreciate its of large centres.
advantages and make their contribution. They It is nevertheless recognized that the child at
help the w o m e n financially, and also by ar- this age (from 2 to 6 years old) is most in need of
ranging and building the premises which house suitable educational facilities, since this is the
nursery children. period during which the child's intelligence and
T h e adolescents also make their contribution aptitudes develop most intensely. T h e chief
to this enterprise, those that are illiterate as concern of the service is therefore to help
well as others w h o continue their education parents launch this day-nursery scheme, which,
in the town and return to spend their holidays among its other advantages, is a means of pre-
in the village. Thanks to their education, the paring their young children for school life.
latter can introduce n e w activities in the edu-
cationalfieldand thus bring to the community
some of the benefits or their academic k n o w -
566
Prerequisites schools, etc.) served as day nurseries, several

for the establishment villages have, since 1966, built special premises,
of a nursery and since then the example has spread, through
opportunities provided within the framework of
First of all a certain familiarity with the c o m - local development plans.
munity education of children should already Supply of non-perishable foodstuffs, such as
exist, and there must be reciprocal trust so that rice, millet, oil, driedfish,etc., the explanations
a mother will leave her children, without and practical instruction given concerning food
anxiety or hesitation, to be minded by any other and management during the training courses for
w o m a n from the village or quarter. communities responsible for nurseries, allow
It is not desirable, w h e n the scheme is the rations required to be reckoned without
launched, for rural nurseries to be set u p separ- difficulty.
ately in each quarter, except in the case of very A stock of foodstuffs m a y be set u p for the
large villages. It should, on the contrary, be the whole duration of the nursery, or m a y be
achievement of the whole village. Concern for renewed periodically. At the beginning of the
the well-being and interests of the children m a y experiment, the children sometimes brought
help to overcome certain objections, and there their individual rice ration each morning. T h e
has been at least one example of a nursery village or quarter can choose the system which
bringing about the reconciliation of a divided suits it best. W h a t is important at the prepara-
village. tory stage is that the villagers realize what their
In the case of large villages, or even w h e n the obligations will be.
number of children at the nursery exceeds ioo, T h e collection of cash is necessary to pur-
it is desirable to extend the premises to the chase fresh foodstuffs and to replenish the
different quarters of the same village. medicine-chest; whether this m o n e y is the prod-
T h e day nursery is not a prestige project; it uct of the collective field or of individual
demands from the population, and especially contributions, the amount required varies ac-
from the w o m e n , a considerable effort which is cording to the size of food-stocks already
only sustained if it is rewarded by the service accumulated and the practical possibilities of
provided. T h e nursery must, therefore, serve a renewing stocks of fresh food. A n analysis of
real need, felt as such by those concerned, the food consumption returns for previous years
m e n , w o m e n and young people from the same allows increasingly precise statistics to be col-
locality. A s the nurseries spread, the provision lected in order to improve the operation of the
of external aid will be increasingly confined to nurseries.
educational assistance (specialized courses), but Right from the preparatory stage, the c o m -
the population will be entirely responsible for munities must take concerted action to reach
the organization of the nursery. joint decisions, gather material resources, count
T h e nursery is not intended to relieve mothers and enrol the children, organize preventive
of their natural responsibilities, but should help vaccination sessions, delegate representatives to
them to fulfil their role more effectively. the courses for communities responsible for day
These various requirements should be trans- nurseries, recruit assistants for the nurseries,
lated into practical terms by means of an under- and so on.
taking from the village or quarter to provide a W h e n the nursery opens, the w o m e n must
number of supplies and services. come to an understanding for the child-minding
Whereas, at the outset, buildings intended for shifts, so that every day, without fail, a group of
other uses (youth centres, community centres, w o m e n (three at least) sees to the supervision
567
Khady Gueye
and hygiene of the children, cleans the premises communities has been considered essential for
and cooks the meals. the normal operation and success of the day
F r o m the organizational point of view, it nurseries, is precisely because the latter provide
is essential that one or two w o m e n of undis- an ideal setting for the full development of
puted authority should b e responsible for community life, by means of the joint under-
overall supervision and liaison between the takings which offer numerous opportunities for
different teams; they should be full-time workers developing a sense of responsibility, and, more
at the nursery, whose usual work at this par- especially, of creative imagination in the face of
ticular period is taken on by the village c o m - the problems to be resolved each day.
munity. N o less important is the fact that the day
nurseries are also nuclei of development, offer-
ing ideal opportunities for participation by the
Two main lessons people: indeed, assuming responsibility for nur-
sery activities develops a sense of initiative and
In these few pages, I have tried to describe the willingness for endeavour a m o n g the c o m m u n i -
development of day nurseries in Senegal, first at ties, and makes them realize the fact that
the outset, and then in the course of their evol- external aid can, and must, only be a temporary
ution. T w o noteworthy features can be seen contribution. In addition, it seems particularly
throughout this evolution. detrimental to the communities that the tech-
First of all, the nursery is essentially a nical assistants helping in the running of the
people's institution. Indeed, not only have m a n - day nurseries should lose sight of this essentially
agement and operation been entrusted to the educational purpose, by supplanting them in
sole responsibility of the communities, but, their functions through their excessive n u m -
what is more, the initiative as regards every type bers, or by providing too m u c h material, thereby
of activity to be undertaken lies with the people making operation of the nursery seem easier
themselves. Even w h e n suggested, such activi- than it is and threatening to weaken the sense of
ties have always been left to the judgement of effort and responsibility.
the community in the light of local resources at In addition, since such an approach m a y cause
their disposal, and the aims which they set the communities to lose interest, it is important,
themselves. in m y opinion, that the action of the technical
This course of action has only been possible services called upon to provide aid should be
thanks to the discretion of the supervisory ser- confined to well-defined activities within the
vices, which, prompted by respect for the per- educational framework established under the
sonality of the communities, have always acted structure of the scheme.
with tact and judgement. Only thus can collaboration develop smoothly,
Respect for this independence, regarded as a enabling the day nurseries to be truly nuclei of
major priority, has given rise to repeated re- development and education in the service of the
minders to W o m e n ' s Action personnel, giving communities.
particular emphasis to the need to avoid any act In the end, the effectiveness of the action of
which might in any way lead the peasants to feel the nurseries will be ensured not so m u c h by the
that they were not entirely responsible for the improvement of the surrounding material
functioning of the day nurseries. conditions as by the opportunity given to the
In the second place, the institution of day communities to assume real responsibility for
nurseries has a multiple educational purpose. the conduct of the operations.
T h e fact that respect for the authority of the It goes without saying that the efficient oper-
568
ation of the nurseries requires, above all, very work which must necessarily be done before a
close collaboration between the services seeking nursery is opened.
to ensure their success: the community work T h e Ministry of National Education and that
which brings a sense of awareness to the popu- of Higher Education send, respectively, trainee-
lation; the health services which undertake vac- teachers studying pre-school education and
cinations before the nurseries are opened, medical students, into the various Casamance
and provide medical supervision; the w o m e n départements, so that both groups m a y take part
teachers in h o m e economics and social work, in the operation of the nurseries. T h u s , not only
w h o , during the training sessions for girl assist- do they acquire experience but they also help
ants at the nurseries, help to draw u p menus and effectively in medical supervision and see to the
rations according to the regions; the w o m e n in- cleanliness and hygiene of the premises and the
structors in rural h o m e economics w h o teach children, the organization of games and the
village mothers and thus facilitate the training drawing u p of budgets.
569
Meera Mahadevan
Face to face with poverty:

the Mobile Crèches in India1
Poverty is a vicious circle. Beginning with the of his family and community. O n this under-
child, not only is he affected but also his standing the services in Mobile Crèches evolved
parents, the family and community and it is and developed.
reflected in the state of society as a whole. With W e started the programme with a crèche, as
limited resources in hand, Mobile Crèches that was our priority as w e saw it. T h e m o m e n t
went forward to tackle this problem by taking w e took in the baby, the older children w h o
the child on the construction site as its priority. were looking after them had nothing to do and
By child, I m e a n a baby of the 0-3 age group. they also came into the centre. Most of them
This is the most vulnerable group. For cen- had never been to school because of their
turies this child has lain by the roadside while nomadic w a y of life and because they were
his parents have helped to build magnificent looking after their siblings. Today, instead of
cities. W h e n you pass by a bundle of rags you having only a crèche, our programme consists
do not realize that there is a baby inside until of a crèche, school centre covering the entire
you hear it cry. This is a state of affairs not only gamut of 0-12 years. There are n o w three
in Delhi but all over India. Not only do the sections: a crèche for the 0-3 group; nursery
construction labourers leave their babies on the classes for the 3-6 group; and elementary
roadside but for that matter every poor mother classes for the 6-12 group. But this was not all:
w h o is compelled to work has to leave her as w e gained experience, w e found a great need
young to fend for themselves. T h e older chil- for contact with parents. Although the mothers
dren are left in charge of the babies and the were constantly visiting the crèches and were
household. A girl of 6, for example, w h o needs in touch with our staff w e felt the need for
attention herself is forced into a position where more time with them. It was on this basis that
she brings u p her baby brothers and sisters. w e launched our adult-education programme.
O u r focus is, and always has been, the little Since both parents work, all our adult-education
one. Even today the children under 3 form our classes are held in the evening. W e have realized
most cherished age group, and around them w e h o w impossible it will be to cater only to this
have drawn u p a large circle of activities and
services without which our aims cannot be
1. This article is an edited version of a paper written for
achieved. T h efirstlesson w e learned in our Unicef and currently being published in the fourth
experiment was that the child cannot be iso- issue of 1977 of Assignment Children by the late
M r s Mahadevan, founder of Mobile Crèches. It is being
lated either from the family or from the used by Prospects with the kind permission of Unicef
community. H e is very m u c h a part and parcel and of Mobile Crèches.
570
Prospects, Vol. V I I , N o . 4, 1977

or that age group, and have taken the whole Crèches have basic equipment like cradles,
community as our target. mats, a crèche table to change babies' clothes,
Mobile Crèches specializes in working with to keep medicines, etc., plates, glasses, spoons
the poorest sections of our society. T h e u n - and linen. T h e accommodation allotted to us is
skilled labourers, the rag-pickers, coal pickers usually drab. It m a y be housed in a basement
and others like them are our clients. W e have or on the eighteenth floor of an unfinished
decided to concentrate on this group, as very skyscraper. With the work going on in full
few agencies work with them and they form swing all around us and dust floating, w e do
the bulk of our population. F r o m its inception our best to keep the place pleasant. T o mellow
w e have realized that the best way to get closer d o w n the harsh surroundings, the staff decorates
to the community was to keep our centres as the place with the children's colourful drawings.
close to their homes as possible. In India, there T h e cradles and cots of the babies have lovely
is a tradition of beautifying simple huts by mobiles hanging on them and there are m a n y
plastering them with m u d and cow dung and things around which could be called toys in
decorating them with various indigenous m a - conventional language. A n average budget of
terials. W e adopted this method and kept our io rupees is enough to replenish our supply of
centres cheap, simple but beautiful. T h e equip- toys for a section of say fifty children.
ment was also simple and familiar to the T h e babies w h o come to us from the age
mothers. For example, the cradle that w e use in of 3-4 weeks and are generally malnourished
our crèches is typically Indian and versatile. receive an initial medical examination and are
Throughout rural India this kind of cradle is prescribed a diet by the visiting doctor. Most
used and it costs next to nothing. T h e cloth of the babies get milk, vitamin drops and other
h a m m o c k in which the baby sleeps is easy to high-protein food according to need. Although
wash. In case of a sudden rise in the number of the doctor visits a centre only once a week, the
babies to be accommodated additional h a m - supervisors and nutritionists keep a close watch
mocks can be tied between two cradles. T h e on the children's progress.
staggering number of children that India has Since the child receives very little attention
to cater for, calls for a cheaper and local model. from the mother w e try to make our crèches a
Anything sophisticated will not only defeat our h o m e from h o m e . Every effort is m a d e to
purpose but it will also be a useless exercise develop the child physically as well as emotion-
since it would not be possible to copy this ally, intellectually and socially. T h e crèches
model on a large scale throughout the country. resound with the traditional songs familiar to
India is developing fast in everyfield.T h e the children. A conscious effort is m a d e to
country is mobilizing every resource to accel- converse with the babies in order to develop
erate its transformation from the bullock cart their vocabulary. Working in unhygienic sur-
age to the space age, but w h e n are w e going to roundings without sanitation, Mobile Crèches
find a solution for millions of our people w h o has a gigantic task to maintain hygienic stan-
live in dire poverty? T h e vast potentiality of dards in its centres. W e had to improvise little
our h u m a n resources still he untapped. T h e places which babies could use as toilets and then
majority of our children are stunted physically find methods of disposing the waste in a hygi-
and mentally because basic opportunities are enic way. Almost everything that is undertaken
denied to them. Only when this situation can be in the crèche programme for the children is
rectified can our country truly progress. something that can be practised at h o m e .
At this point a short description of the Mobile
Crèches services would not be out of place.
571
Meera Mahadevan
Nursery school tunities. In the absence of crèches older children

usually look after the babies and also attend to
Nursery schools are considered a luxury in any household chores. This naturally rules out any
poor country mainly because a conventional schooling for them. But even if their parents
nursery school has elaborate equipment which decide to educate their children there are too
is costly and out of reach for any group with m a n y difficulties which need handling. Let m e
limited resources. In India, even today, w e have explain.
thousands of nursery schools aided by welfare In Delhi, primary education is free and
departments running on most unimaginative children from the lower socio-economic level
lines for lack of equipment. T i m e and again are entitled to get free books and uniforms.
people have raised doubts if such a nursery Unfortunately, the poorest sections of our so-
school helps a child at all or whether the child ciety w h o are completely illiterate and out of
would learn more from nature if left to itself. touch with the civic urban life are not even
With these hazards in our minds w e skirted the aware of these opportunities. T h u s , in spite of
pitfalls and used our imagination to have some best intentions, the government fails to reach
of the cheapest indigenous material and methods the poorest population in the country. This is
to provide necessary stimulation to the child in where the role of an agency like Mobile Crèches
the age group of 3-6 years. In the nursery becomes very vital. W h e n w e take care of the
section the material that you find is cardboard, babies and the nursery-age children, w e prepare
chart paper, glazed paper, kite paper, wooden the older children in our elementary sections to
beads, scissors, blackboard, stones, leaves, join the local elementary school. F r o m the
flowers, potters clay to replace plastescine, rag beginning Mobile Crèches decided not to run
dolls, old saris, wooden blocks and several such parallel elementary schools but only help the
local items which cost next to nothing. children to enter them and continue.
All the local customs and festivals are used T h e child needs some basic knowledge of
for story-telling and dramatizing folk songs are numbers and alphabets to join in classes given
worked into nursery rhymes. T h e result is that by Mobile Crèches; w e send hundreds of chil-
the teacher learns to go from one experiment dren to the local elementary schools. For the
to another because of the cultural familiarity children in the 8-12 age group an intensive
of the methods and is always surrounded by education programme is provided so that they
a group of happy children. There is nothing are admitted in suitable classes according to
foreign in our nursery section for either the their age. It will not be out of place to mention
child or the teacher. Every scientific method here that the children are most eager to learn
is translated into Indian experience. and they are marvellous students. T h e y make
our task m u c h more enjoyable by remaining
at the top of their classes in the elementary
Elementary school schools.
W e faced some opposition from parents w h o
Once you have accepted the fact that with or with- were reluctant to send their children to the
out resources every child has a right to a happy municipal elementary schools. But by coaxing
childhood, you come to the question of h o w to a little w e found a few parents to start with w h o
provide it. Having found our answer to the were willing to send their boys. T h e girls were
problems of 0-6 years w e realized h o w imposs- still a problem and continue to be so. W h e n the
ible it would be not to cater to the 6-12 age first such batch prepared by us was sent to the
group which is equally deprived of oppor- elementary school w e invited the parents to
572
bring curds (yoghurt) and feed their children Let m e give a few examples. W h e n w e
on that day at the centre, to wish them good started working on the sites w e had to depend
luck in a traditional way. It was a touching on the contractors to give us accommodation
sight to see the proud parents beaming at their for our centres. W e were invariably given
children. Once the barriers were broken and a places without doors, windows orfloors.It m a y
few children started going to the elementary be a bit ridiculous but it is true that an engineer
schools, the fear subsided and n o w it is part of on the building site could not conceive that
our programme to prepare children to join the 'these children' needed a proper room to be
elementary local schools, twice a year. accommodated. T h u s w e had to change our
Our other problem in India is that of school definition of accommodation to the structures
drop-outs. About 80 per cent of the children as—a lockable room, a washablefloorand non-
w h o join elementary schools drop out for leaking roof. T o this day Mobile Crèches is
various reasons, the most important being fighting this battle and at times w e start a
poverty. W e find that the child with illiterate centre in a doorless room and persuade the
parents and a bare atmosphere at h o m e lags contractor to put a door in for us.
behind in his studies. Mobile Crèches decided Contractors w h o are obliged to give a water
to continue special coaching to elementary facility to the labour on the work-site by law
schoolchildren. Every year w e organize schools never fulfil the condition. Since w e could never
during s u m m e r vacation in order to help the operate the crèches without water w e make it a
child keep up with the rest of the class. Several big issue and somehow convinced the contrac-
methods are used in order tofillin the gap in tors to provide us with the water facility. Here
the knowledge of the child due to poverty. again w e felt that they were a little more willing
Visits to historical places, m u s e u m s , post offices, to give water facilities for the crèche rather than
railway stations, etc., are included in the to their labour. Mobile Crèches, of course,
curriculum. never kept the water tap inside the centre but
W e also had to contend with the elementary insisted on a c o m m o n bathroom. There are a
schoolteacher's prejudice which hampered our number of examples like this which can be
child's progress. This teacher had her pre- quoted.
conceived notion that a slum child was dirty, W e had to educate our o w n staff. T h e train-
used bad language and would steal things from ing starts for everyone in a way that helps them
the school. They failed to see the child's eager- to change their attitude. W e addressed the child
ness to be part and parcel of the school. Mobile endearingly and respectfully so that the crèche
Crèches worked on this front as well. W e had workers could follow our example. T h e first
invited the local teachers several times to come lesson for every worker was to treat the child
and be our guests so that they would see the as her equal. For example, early morning
methods w e used in our elementary sections. cleaning is normally done by the children and
It was not enough for us to accept these teachers together. T h e training also gives the
children as our priority and work out methods worker an idea as to h o w to identify our clients.
to help them, but w e had m a n y battles to fight For example, in the slums of Delhi w e have
to achieve our goal. T h e most difficult battle mixed populations. T h e families which are a
was that of attitudes. T o our great dismay w e little well-to-do easily befriend the teachers and
found that our children were always an outside their children come to the school cleaned u p .
entity. They did not form part of our society This becomes a great temptation for the teacher
according to most of us. T h e stamp of a 'these to neglect the poorer child whose mother m a y
children' was too glaring for us to ignore. not bring him to the centre. Although w e do
573
Meera Mahadevan
not reject the child w h o comes to the centre to laugh and sing with the children w h o wear
cleaned up, constant surveys are m a d e to check torn clothes. In the last seven years, w e have
if w e are not neglecting our real client. consistently watched a pattern that has emerged
T h e other group whose wrong attitudes in our recruiting system. If the girl can survive
bothers us m u c h more is the professional group thefirstone or two days with us, she can be one
in our country. Unfortunately, the unimagin- of our staff. There is a large number of needy
ative professional tries tofitin everything in the applicants w h o onfirstvisit decide they cannot
definition they have learned in the textbooks. work in our centres. M a n y of them have left us
W h e n a person has higher degrees in social work feeling a little sorry for us. For thefirsttwo or
and relevant subjects, she or he often becomes three weeks, a new applicant is allowed to work
completely remote from field activities. If w e under experienced teachers and absorb the
are to evolve our theories out of practical work, situation. Unless the trainee volunteers to do all
a lot of experimental work will have to be the work in a centre, she is not taken on for
undertaken in thefieldwith the people in order training.
to arrive at solutions to our problems. Unfor- Mobile Crèches has n o w evolved its o w n
tunately, the rigours offieldwork are so great training programme. In early years, w e tried to
that our professional friends m a y not be able to take girls trained by other institutions but they
stand it. Normally non-professionals like myself could not stand the rigour of work that Mobile
undertake experiments like Mobile Crèches Crèches has before it. T h e unfortunate part of
while our professionals are hunting for solutions any training w e found was that a teacher will
outside the country. There has to be a meeting only teach and a nurse will only bandage.
point as it is a great loss to both professionals Mobile Crèches needed teachers w h o will first
and non-professionals. attend to a child's sores, bath and earache before
settling in a classroom. W e also needed teachers
w h o will convince the parents to send their
Training children to the school. T h u s , the duties of a
worker in Mobile Crèches were many-sided.
T h e crèche worker is the main pivot around She has to be a social worker, a teacher and a
w h o m the programme blossoms. She is the mother to the child.
heart and soul of the project. She is the insti- O n the face of it, it sounds too idealistic and
tution and therefore she has to be one w h o rather an impossible proposition. Even w e can-
shares all the aspirations of the institution. not claim to have found an answer to all the
W h e r e does one get a person of that calibre, training problems. But w e have with us today a
w h o will share the aspirations and ideology of large group of people w h o are not just the paid
an institution? Basically, all the workers Mobile employees of Mobile Crèches, but m u c h more
Crèches employs come to us out of their econ- than that—they are, as mentioned earlier, the
omic need. T h e y belong to the lower-middle main pivot of the programme.
classes and are educated through the Hindi W e took our lesson in our training from some
m e d i u m . M a n y of them are members of large of the senior conventional social work organiz-
families and have had no opportunity for higher ations. T h e usual pattern is that the field-level
education. worker and the policy-makers are so remote
Belonging to the lower-middle classes and from each other that both parties are not aware
traditionally brought u p , the girls are hard of each other's difficulties. Not only is the field
working and lively. Since most of the girls are worker in any welfare work, be it government
between 18 and 25, they are optimistic, ready or voluntary agency, the lowest paid person,
574
but she has no status or voice in the policies of could go and get a toy early for himself.
the project. W e also m a d e Ufe easy for the staff by making
Mobile Crèches tried to avoid this pitfall by a comfortable kitchen with a gas burner and
drastically changing our constitution, making it proper storage bins.
compulsory to have only active workers from But the most important thing that w e achieved
the field, administration and fund-raisers to was to produce model nursery equipment suit-
form the governing body. This also helped us able to a country like India that has to think of
to keep the so-called élite committee ladies away children in millions. With little variations, the
from our governing body. same model can be copied in rural nurseries.
Mobile Crèches set before it a training which T h e greatest disadvantage of this socio-
gave its staff not only the skills to operate a economic level is parents' inability to help their
crèche, nursery and elementary classes, but child, but with our grooming in the nursery
also a rigid training in decision-making and class the disadvantages of a bare h o m e back-
dealing independently with local problems. T h e ground can be taken care of to some extent.
first part of the training is easier than the later Although our children come from economically
part and it also takes a longer time for any deprived backgrounds, they have an abundance
trainee to mature to this role. But it certainly is of parental security and love. These children,
not an impossible task. given an opportunity, learn very fast; and that,
Most of our training takes place in the field perhaps, is our main strength.
with some classroom lectures. After the initial Once a crèche worker has gone through the
screening of the candidate in thefieldunder a formal training in all the aspects of work at a
senior worker, she starts attending weekly work- Mobile Crèche centre, she then is given further
shops at our training centre. Every candidate orientation in nutrition, community work and
goes through the training for all these sections, medical social work. T h e candidates selected
namely crèche, nursery and elementary. In for such further training are usually the ones
India, there is no crèche training as such and w h o have shown initiative in their work. At a
Mobile Crèches had to evolve its o w n syllabus. senior level, most of the staff are encouraged
T h e emphasis in the crèche training had to be to discuss their problems intelligently during
very basic and simple. W e had to spell out small their monthly meetings. Normally, w h e n a
details in dealing with crèche babies. particular problem is brought up by one director
A simple routine of baby's bath, feed and of a centre, it is put before all the directors to
medication had to be standardized and equip- discuss. Out of these discussions w e have m a d e
ment provided accordingly. T h e role of the all our rules to be followed at the centres. I feel
dustbin had to be dramatized, disposal of dirty that this practice of group discussion has given
cotton was formalized. our crèche workers m u c h more confidence and
Whereas w e could make our crèche workers initiative that helps us to carry on our work
accept m a n y n e w standards in this training efficiently.
there are always small problems that keep Again, there are some local problems with
aropping up all the time. For instance, having which w e have to live. W e encourage our
separate towels for each child is one long battle workers to find whatever solution they think is
one has tofightwith our crèche helpers. W h e n best for the centre. In one of the slums near a
w e found that the toys for the little ones are power station in Delhi, at least once a m o n t h
brought out only w h e n all babies are bathed due to a change of wind, the smoke would settle
and ready, w e changed the arrangement of d o w n on the whole slum, including our centre.
crèche furniture in such a w a y that the child T h e in-charge got into a habit of calling m e u p
575
Meera Mahadevan
and asking for advice. I told her if she would their o w n problems successfully with only a
like to close d o w n for the day, she was free to little guidance from us. Workshops, although
do so. She knew I had no way of controlling w e call them workshops, are m u c h more than
this situation. But after putting d o w n the phone that. They are sessions for planning, for evalu-
she got a brilliant idea. They packed up their ating and also at times periods of introspection.
lunch and took all the four classes to the zoo W e have several categories of staff. Higher sec-
which was only a io-minute walk from the ondary school girls w h o form a bulk of our staff
centre. T h e youngest were taken by the crèche are the teachers, crèche worker and community
workers to the next centre which was near by. workers. W e have also started recruiting boys
F r o m that day on, the children always waited for the past 3-4 years to work in crèches. They
for the wind to change its direction so that they bring a different atmosphere with them and
would have their classes in front of the duck children love to have a male teacher around.
pond in the zoo.
T h e m o m e n t you raise the status of the field
worker, their involvement is increased. But w e Community's role
must also be prepared to let them make a few
mistakes—and you cannot buy involvement. It F r o m the beginning, Mobile Crèches had whole-
can only come from the ideology of the insti- hearted support from the children on construc-
tution of which she is a part. tion sites as well as slums. Mobile Crèches
workers became part of all the big construction
sites. Seeing their children so happy with our
Senior supervisors staff, parents also accepted us, although they
were a little suspicious at the beginning. But
Each capable worker is given training broadly from the beginning w e were very conscious that
in crèche work, pre-school, elementary school our role was to give the community equal treat-
and community work. During training, apti- ment. W e wanted to keep away from a chari-
tudes of each worker are observed and encour- table approach. This was not easy to achieve
aged in that direction. For example, a girl as the community had nothing to give us for
m a y be poor in a classroom with children but the services.
excellent with parents and vice-versa. Today, T o begin with, w e identified a few families
w e have trouble-shooters in everyfield.Prob- as our contact point and asked them to do
lems in community, poor attendance, staff dif- small chores for the centre. In a place where
ficulties—you n a m e it—and w e have our ex- water was difficult to obtain, each family would
perts trained by us. Very often I feel that help the staff to get enough water for the day.
because they are unaware of the wonders they Each child was charged a nominal fee. They
are doing as social workers, they are unassum- all had to buy slates, notebooks, pencils, erasers
ing. T h e turnover, surprisingly, is quite low and any other item needed by him at sub-
and the reason is that they are themselves sidized rates. Each time children were taken
involved in this work. out on local trips, parents were asked to give bus
In a very old fashioned way, w e are highly fares and some snacks. Here again let m e explain
disciplined in our duties. Most of the staff that it took a lot of convincing for parents
argues out their point of view. They are allowed to agree to buy a slate or a notebook for their
to make a few mistakes and learn very fast. child. Again, there are always a few families w h o
W e put too m u c h responsibility on each worker decide to remain unconvinced for a long time.
and as a result m a n y of them have dealt with In the crèches, m a n y babies are given half
576
an egg as a special diet. Once the child shows Mothers' meetings

progress, mothers come forward to share the
cost of an egg. There are some slums where Although mothers' meetings are a very c o m m o n
m a n y mothers give us small donations on cer- feature in Mobile Crèches activities today it
tain festivals which w e accept. This gives them had an interesting beginning. In 1969/70, when
a sense of prestige. w e were n e w in thefield,w e tried to get the
W h e n the idea of charging fees was intro- mothers together but they were always busy
duced, m a n y mothers refused to pay for the nur- in their household chores. They avoided coming
sery children as there was nothing but playing to the centre and m a n y of them preferred to
and singing in this age group. It was quite watch from a distance. T h e n w e tried cooking
understandable and w e decided to get a mothers' demonstrations and the group got together.
meeting organized to explain all our nursery Within a few months, they took part in dis-
activities with the children. This meeting was cussions and m a d e fun of the crèche workers
a great success and w e n o w always hold this w h o were younger than them and soon their
type of meeting when a new centre is opened. shyness and suspicions vanished. They looked
During the winter, Delhi is very cold and forward to the monthly get-togethers. So m u c h
most of our children have inadequate clothing. so that the mothers would not allow our workers
W e had a problem before us and did not know to bring the ingredients for cooking d e m o n -
h o w to solve it. Woollen clothes were too ex- strations. They also helped to get the utensils
pensive, but w e did not want to distribute and the ingredients from their o w n homes. F r o m
clothes. W e decided to let the children come nutrition education, w e went to other topics
dressed in their o w n way but to have a charcoal in child care, health hygiene, weaning foods,
stove as they have in their o w n houses. This diet of the pregnant and lactating mother, etc.
again was a point on which w e received a lot T h e malnourished child was our main worry
of co-operation from parents. They took turns in our crèches and w e decided to pay more
in providing the charcoal stoves. During the attention to the diet of pregnant mothers. Here
winter months, most of us are wearing woollen again, w e had tofighttheir age-old prejudice
clothes but some of the workers, w e noticed, against powdered milk. Whenever a mother had
would remove their cardigans while they were a healthy baby of 6-7 pounds after taking iron,
with the children. It was a beautiful sentiment folic acid and milk diet at our centre, the
but w e never discussed it. Mobile Crèches workers had the child's naming
Today, our main point of contact with the ceremony done at the centre with all the tra-
parents is through our Adult Education Pro- ditional p o m p of singing and dancing. This
g r a m m e . In fact, w e took u p adult education advertised the story to the other mothers and
programmes to strengthen our services to the w e gained one more step towards our goal of
children. It has helped us a great deal in bring- mothers' education.
ing efficiency in our services to children. Before W e tried the same tactics in introducing
undertaking immunization, B C G vaccination or solids at an early age to babies. In India, in
oral polio vaccine, parents' meetings are held m a n y states, there is a small ceremony w h e n
with the help of film shows, flash cards and the child is given hisfirstsolid diet. Leaving
other methods. This way w e do not lose their out the religious parts, w e just had a special
goodwill nor does it look like a high-handed diet cooked for the whole centre, like rice cooked
programme imposed on them. This m a y be in milk and introduced the babies to solids.
a slow process, but as education of the entire T h e mothers were always present and thrilled
community w e find it is the best method. at the fuss w e were making over their babies.
577
Meera Mahadevan
W e also included in our education programme through songs and dramas. From time to time,
political topics like m o c k elections, inviting im- Lok-Doot also produces children's plays based
portant guests, etc. M a n y labourers from other on stories from Punch Tantra and Hitopadesh.
states w h o lived without their families in Delhi T h e skits for literacy are taken from some of
took keen interest in our cooking demonstrations the incidents that happen on the work-sites.
and were always ready to ask intelligent ques- T h e artists use the language spoken by the
tions as they cooked their o w n meals. site workers and thus endear themselves to the
Although literacy did not draw enough crowds audience. W e get the local leaders to invite
at our adult literacy centres, our general meet- the troupe and most of the arrangements of
ings are more popular. D r a m a groups per- organizing are left to the community leaders.
forming Ram Leela is the most popular enter- T h u s taking the child as our mid-point, our
tainment. F r o m the religious themes, w e bring compass has gone in a circle to cover the
our adult to social and political themes. Here child's family and the whole community. This
again, the slum population advances faster than circle would have remained incomplete if w e
our migrant labour. I can go on giving so m a n y had failed to carry with us the authorities
examples of h o w w e tried to solve our problems concerned.
of getting closer to the community. Community For instance, contractors are required by law
involvement is perhaps the most discussed jar- to provide crèches on work-sites if they employ
gon in social work. W e took the simple Indian more than twenty w o m e n . Neither the contrac-
tradition of hospitality and got the involvement tors nor the contracting parties (government
of the community. W e went to their slums and or non-government) ever paid any attention to
worker camps but w e went as their guests. In this welfare clause of crèches in our contract
the worker camps w e went with the blessings conditions. T h e bureaucrats were quite satisfied
of the contractor and the Works Ministry as that there are beautiful welfare sites for children
well, but in the slums w e insisted on being of construction workers in the country. W h e n
invited. This at once m a d e them feel important w e appeared on the scene, this law was a dead
and responsible for our crèche workers. B e - letter. N o n e of the officers in the Public Works
cause of their poverty, they do not offer their Department or the Labour Ministry were fully
hospitality unless they are sure w e will welcome aware of the law or its implications. W e took
it. W e banked on this simple thing and got up the matter at the ministerial level and wrote
their full co-operation. letters to ministers concerned, including the
Prime Minister of India. Our dialogue with the
government continued for three or four years
Lok-Doot and, in the end, w e received an assurance that
in future all government contracts would be
Lok-Doot, the cultural troupe of Mobile m a d e known to Mobile Crèches. T h e govern-
Crèches, was launched this year to motivate ment could not help us more than this. This
and educate people in various aspects of our did not make our task any more easier for our
literacy programme. Most of the artists are meetings with the government officials which
the talented staff of Mobile Crèches. Apart had annoyed some of the contractors to some
from staging entertaining programmes, L o k - extent. But w e continued to work consistently
Doot produces skits and small plays empha- on building sites trying to make crèches a reg-
sizing the importance of education and its use ular feature at least in Delhi and B o m b a y .
in day-to-day life. It has met with tremendous In the early years of its expansion, contractors
success in getting the message to the people supported Mobile Crèches with a c c o m m o -
578
dation, water facilities and monthly contri- W e failed miserably to bring a healthy environ-
butions. Our problems with contractors started ment in the worker camps as well as in the
after a few years of our work with the migrant slums. T h e authorities had to be reminded all
labour. T h e crèches had m a d e life m u c h easier the time about their o w n duties. Sanitation is
for the mothers, and the community benefited still our problem in most of the areas.
on the whole from our services. A time came W e are also aware that the economic level
when the labour started looking for a Mobile of each family matters a lot and yet w e were
Crèches centre at every work-site. This was not effective as far as helping them improve
a turning point w h e n the contractors blamed in that direction. W e have worked so hard to
us for spoiling their labour. Although w e tried change the attitude of our people towards chil-
to point out that the mothers would be m u c h dren and yet I do not think w e have convinced
more efficient if there was a crèche on the them. It is always charity that is lurking behind
work-site, the contractors were always doubt- every individual donation, and w e are termed
ful. W e tried not to precipitate matters. W e as Mahathmas (great soul). N o one looks upon
m a d e friends with contractors and tried to be- this work as part of India's development. Fi-
friend government officials in order to be able nally, there is a preconceived idea that welfare
to set u p as m a n y crèches as possible on the work is w o m e n ' s job.
big building projects. Today, w e are definitely In training, also, there are plenty of frus-
a familiar but a little troublesome group on trations. T o prepare a good, solid crèche worker,
the work-sites and m a n y contractors comply it takes a great deal of effort. If Mobile Crèches
with our requests only to get us out of the would want to expand and multiply its ac-
way. A m o n g the government officials, there are tivities, it will be difficult mainly because of
friends w h o inform us unofficially about forth- a lack of workers.
coming big contracts. In the fifth plan, the I have tried to make a point that you need
Government of India gave a priority to crèche very little by way offinanceto make a happy
programmes and Mobile Crèches n o w receives centre. A country like India which is poor and
a substantial grant from the Welfare Depart- lacks resources, cannot afford to sit back and
ment. This has enabled us to work at cer- do nothing. W e have seen little girls improving
tain sites even if the contractors refuse to in health only by washing their hair regularly.
contributefinancially.O u r aim is to educate T h e joys of childhood are simple and should
the community through our work. W e want not be denied to any child. Every country will
the contractors and the authorities concerned have to solve its o w n problem locally without
to be convinced that there is no ulterior motive, importing sophisticated models from developed
and our focus is the child. countries. Unless w e decide to manage with
Throughout this article, it m a y sound as if little, w e will not be able to bring every child
Mobile Crèches had nothing but success in its the basic services it needs. Personally, I d o
work. It has been, however, an uphill task to not think money would be a problem. If only
build u p this chain of day-care centres for the w e can create a cadre of workers w h o will
poorest urban child. At every place w e worked, accept this challenge w e m a y be able to achieve
half the things there were beyond our control. the goal.
579
Trends and cases
World public expenditure: education

and armaments, 1965-74
Gabriel Cárceles
A statistical analysis of the latest available data into consideration, so that the conclusions must
concerning public expenditure on education make allowance for a fairly wide range of
and a comparison between them and those variation.
concerning military expenditure show that, un- Table 1 below gives a general picture of
til about 1972/73, world military expenditure the world situation in 1965, 1970 and 1974.
was greater than expenditure on education, but F r o m this table it will be seen that in 1974,
that the trend has changed since then, so that for the world as a whole, governments devoted
the latter is n o w at a higher level than mili- $295,000 million to education and almost
tary expenditure. This is only true of the devel- $274,000 million to military purposes, or 5.5 per
oped countries, however, for in the developing cent and 5.1 per cent respectively of world G N P
countries, taken as a whole, military expendi- (or 15.6 per cent and 14.5 per cent of the total
ture was lower than expenditure on education s u m represented by national budgets). W e shall
until 1973 but has since overtaken the latter. first summarize the situation for each group or
This article attempts to summarize the major region in 1974, and shall then proceed to ana-
trends noted since 1965 for the world as a lyse the trends since 1965.
whole, 1 the developed countries and the devel-
oping countries. It is useful to show certain
In 1974
facts and data separately for North America as
well as for Europe and the U . S . S . R . , on the It was the developed countries that were con-
one hand, and for Africa, Latin America and tinuing to devote the largest proportion of
Asia, on the other. It is also worth while in their G N P to military purposes (5.2 per cent as
some cases to refer separately to the Arab States, against 4 per cent for the developing countries).
which have already been included with Africa North America, Europe and the U . S . S . R . ac-
and Asia respectively. counted between them for 85 per cent of total
As the analysis is based on work currently world military expenditure, with 5.7 per cent
being carried out in Unesco's Office of Stat- of their G N P . Furthermore, the range is seen
istics,3 it has obvious limitations: the conversion to be very wide within the developed countries
of national currencies into dollars and the group- group w h e n they are looked at individually. For
ing by region often have the effect of concealing example, Japan devoted only about 1 per cent
substantial disparities between countries. In of its G N P to the military budget, whereas
view of the internationalfinancialdevelopments Israel exceeded 31 per cent.
that have marked the period under review, the T h e developing countries accounted for only
structural changes observed and the other modi-
fications they have entailed ought to be taken
1. For lack of data the People's Republic of China, the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Social-
ist Republic of Viet N a m are not included.
2. R . L . Sivard, World Military and Social Expenditures,
Gabriel Cárceles (Spain). Chief of the Division of Leesburg, Va, W M S E Publications, is the source for
Statistics on Education, Unesco. the military expenditure.
58I

Trends and cases
T A B L E I . Gross national product ( G N P ) , military expenditure and public expenditure o n education, 1965, 1970
a n d 197s (in millions of U . S . $ at market prices)
Per- Per-
Military centage Public centage
expen- of expenditure of
Major regions Year GNP diture GNP on education GNP
T h e world 1 1965 2,107,980 I34>707 6-4 103,270 4-9

1970 3,183,460 I95>925 6.2 171,700 5-4
1974 5,408,100 273>9I5 5-1 295,000 5-5
Developed countries 1965 1,847,410 127,797 6.9 95,340 5-2
1970 2,806,870 184,815 6.6 159,050 5-7
1974 4,695,880 245,663 5-2 266,960 5-7
Developing countries 1965 260,570 6,910 2.7 7,930 3.0
1970 376,590 11,110 3.0 12,650 3-4
1974 712,220 28,252 4.0 28,040 3-9
North America 1965 747,170 53,362 7.1 40,050 5-4
1970 1,086,030 74,735 7-3 71,530 6.6
1974 1,554,130 88,834 5-7 102,310 6.6
Europe and U . S . S . R . 1965 967,110 71,970 7-4 50,030 5-2
1970 1,452,720 100,385 6.9 77,o8o 5-3
1974 2,559,350 145,280 5-7 137,870 5-4
Africa 1965 48,360 I,3IO 2.7 1,450 3.0
1970 71,570 2,190 3.1 2,520 3-5
1974 142,080 5,933 4.2 5,890 4.2
Latin America 1965 105,560 1,777 1.7 3,270 3-1
1970 162,920 2,930 1.3 5,500 3-4
1974 283,030 4,901 1.7 12,020 4-3
Asia1 1965 210,510 5,337 2-5 7,400 3-5
1970 365,630 9,250 2.5 13,070 3-6
1974 768,710 26,813 3-5 30,540 4.0
(Arab States)2 1965 23,590 1,253 5-3 980 4-2
1970 35,840 2,484 7.0 1,640 4.6
1974 95,36o 7,893 8.3 4,570 4.8
1. China, the Democratic Peop e's Republic of Korea, and the Socialist Republic of Viet N a m are not included
2. Already included with Africa and Asia.
10 per cent of total military expenditure, with America; on the other hand, Europe and the
4 per cent of their G N P . This percentage was U . S . S . R . devoted about 8,000 million more
higher for Africa1 and the Arab States. In dollars to military expenditure than to expendi-
contrast, Asia devoted to military expenditure ture on education.
only 3.5 per cent of its G N P and Latin America In the developing countries, public spending
1.7 per cent. on education, which was higher than the mili-
For the world as a whole, public expenditure tary budgets until about 1972, thereafter ex-
on education exceeded military expenditure by ceeded the latter by about $200 million (or
about $21,000 million (representing a 7.7 per 0.7 per cent) (see Fig. 1).
cent increase). This situation, which was true
of the developed countries as a group, was
South Africa alone accounted for 18 per cent of the
attributable primarily to the trend in North continent's total military expenditure.
582
Trends and cases
Expenditure on education CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION

____ Military expenditure BY MAJOR REGIONS OF G N P ,
MILITARY BUDGETS AND
Developed
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE O N EDUCATION
countries
Table 2 indicates h o w the share of the develop-

ing countries has increased. This growth is
m u c h more obvious in the case of military
100,000
expenditures (5.2 points gained during the
period, particularly after 1970), than under
the headings for expenditures o n education
(1.8) and G N P (0.8). North America's share
Developing in overall world military expenditure declined
countries
considerably between 1970 and 1974: from
40.7 per cent of the total it fell to 32.4 per cent.
T h e increase in military spending in the Middle
East explains w h y the relevant figure rose for
the developing countries. A s regards expendi-
10,000 tures on education, the developing countries'
share in the world total (1.8 points) increased in
all regions, but the trend was most pronounced
in Asia, followed by Latin America (whose
share in military expenditure continued to lag
far behind its share in expenditure on edu-
cation), and lastly Africa.
However, it must be borne in m i n d that,
because of the very different starting points, the
1,000 growth of the developing countries' share in
total military expenditure represented an ab-
* , 5 A« AN VV A'b AV
& & •
&&
N-
&
^ & & & solute increase of $17,000 million between 1970

and 1974. In contrast, although the share
F I G . I . Expenditure on education and military expen- of the developed countries decreased between
diture (millions of U . S . S at market prices).
those years, their military spending rose by
$60,000 million.
From 1965 to 1974

AVERAGE G R O W T H
W e shall analyse trends during this period from T h e growth rate calculated at market prices
four main viewpoints: (a) changes in the distri- between 1965 and 1974 for the three items
bution by major regions of G N P , military under review was very irregular in the different
budgets and public expenditures o n education; regions. For example, the developed countries
(b) average growth rates of those three items; multiplied their G N P by 2.54, while military
(c) relation between the military budget and expenditure multiplied by 1.92 and expenditure
expenditure o n education; and (d) per capita on education by 2.8. T h e developing countries
expenditure. (while starting from m u c h lower levels and
583
Trends and cases
T A B L E 2 . Percentage distribution of G N P , military expenditures and public expenditures on education, 1965-74
Military Expenditure
GNP expenditure on education
Year (%) (%) (%)
World 1 1965, 1970, 1974 IOO IOO 100

Developed countries 1965 87.6 94-9 92.3
1970 88.2 94-3 92.6
1974 86.8 89.7 90.5
Developing countries1 1965 12.4 5-1 7.7
1970 11.8 5-7 7.4
1974 13.2 10.3 9.5
1. China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Socialist Republic of Viet N a m are not included.
having to provide for larger and rapidly expand- education (22 per cent as against 26 per cent).
ing populations) saw their G N P multiply by Table 3 shows the pattern of the growth
2.73, their military spending by 4.09 and their rates in each major region. T h e general rise in
expenditure on education by 3.53. growth rates relating to expenditure on edu-
However, the growth rate was not uniform cation stands out quite clearly. T h e table also
for the two periods 1965-70 and 1970-74. Thus, indicates that those growth rates have been
in the case of G N P , the world growth rate was overtaken by the growth rates relating to mili-
distinctly higher between 1970 and 1974 th311 tary spending in Africa and Asia since 1970.
between 1965 and 1970. This applies par-
ticularly to the developing countries. RELATION BETWEEN
T h e growth rate of military expenditure in THE MILITARY BUDGET
the developed countries—lower than that of AND EXPENDITURE O N EDUCATION
GNP—declined after 1970. In the developing
countries, on the other hand, that rate, which It emerges from Table 1 that in 1965 world
was distinctly higher than the G N P growth rate military expenditure was 30 per cent higher
between 1965 and 1970 (10 per cent as against than expenditure on education. This means
7.7 per cent), still kept well ahead between 1970 that for every dollar spent on education $1.30
and 1974, rising to 26 per cent while G N P rose was allocated to arms procurement budgets.
on average by only 17.3 per cent. That ratio changed to $1.14 in 1970 and $0.93
T h e developed countries' expenditures on in 1974. It should be pointed out, however, that
education, which rose at a higher rate than the ratio was strongly influenced by the situ-
G N P between 1965 and 1970 (10.8 per cent as ation of the developed countries which, as
against 8.7 per cent), slightly exceeded the a group, weigh very heavily on the world
latter's growth rate between 1970 and 1974 average (1965,1.34; 1970,1.16; I974> 0.92). For
(13.8 per cent). T h e developing countries, for their part, the developing countries which were
their part, took steps between 1970 and 1974 spending $0.87 on military budgets for every
to raise the growth rate of their expenditure on dollar on education in 1965, maintained the same
education, which has always been higher than ratio in 1970 but raised it in 1974 w h e n $1.01
that of their G N P , but saw the growth rate of was allocated to military spending for every
their military expenditures surpass the rate for dollar allocated to expenditure on education.
584
Trends and cases
T A B L E 3. Average annual growth rates of G N P , military expenditure and public expenditure on education,
1965-74
Average annual percentage increase
Major regions Period GNP expenditure on education
World 1 1965-70 8.6 7-7 10.7

1970-74 14.2 8.8 14-5
Developed countries 1965-70 8.7 7-7 10.8
1970-74 13.7 7-4 13.8
Developing countries 1965-70 7-7 10.0 9.8
1970-74 17.3 26.0 22.0
North America 1965-70 7-7 8.4 12.3
1970-74 9-4 2.8 9-4
Europe and U . S . S . R . 1965-70 8-5 6.9 9.0
1970-74 15.2 9.7 15.6
Africa 1965-70 8.r 10.8 11.7
1970-74 16.7 28.0 24.0
Latin America 1965-70 9.1 10.5 ir.o
1970-74 14.8 13-7 21.0
Asia1 1965-70 11.7 11.6 12.0
1970-74 20.0 30.0 24.0
(Arab States)2 1965-70 8.7 14-7 10.9
1970-74 28.0 33-0 30.0
2 . Already included with Africa and Asia.
PER CAPITA EXPENDITURE school-age population is about 50 per cent larger

than that of the developed countries. If w e took
Table 4 summarizes the per capita military this factor into account w h e n calculating the
expenditures and educational expenditures for per capita expenditure ratio, the developing
the period under review. T h efirstpoint to note countries would be shown to be in an even
is the relatively low level of per capita ex- weaker position.
penditure on these two items in the developing
countries. In general, it represents 4-6 per cent
of the developed countries' military expenditure Conclusions
and 5-6 per cent of their expenditure on edu-
cation. T h efiguresvary widely between regions. A good deal of criticism is being heard today
In 1974, per capita military expenditure ranged about the squandering of resources to the det-
from $16 in Latin America to $378 in North riment of essential sectors and the allocation of
America; expenditure on education ranged from the said resources to purposes selected in an
$23 in Asia to $436 in North America. ever less rational way. T h e chairman of the
A s regards expenditure on education, it is World Bank recently called for a review of the
essential to underline the fact that, because of present system of priorities in thisfieldduring
the demographic structure of the population, a conference at the Massachusetts Institute
the relative size of the developing countries' of Technology which highlighted the size of
585
Trends and cases
T A B L E 4 . Military expenditure and public expenditure on education per capita, 1965-74 (in U . S . S )
Year expenditure on education
World1 1965 53 41
1970 70 62
1974 91 98
Developed countries 196S 125 93
1970 172 148
1974 221 241
Developing countries1 1965 5 6
1970 7 8
1974 15 15
world expenditure on defence systems and ance Committee, 2 that percentage—which was
the facts about the world arms trade. There 0.52 in 1961-62—fell to 0.34 in 1969 and 0.33
are solid grounds for calling for such a review. in 1974. T h e United States of America, which
N o n e the less, it would be inaccurate to at- provided a volume of aid in 1974 ($3480 million)
tribute the 4 per cent of G N P spent on ar- equivalent to almost one-third of the amount
maments by the developing countries as a provided by the D A C countries, went from
group to all the countries in that group. In 0.56 per cent of their G N P in 1961-62 to
fact, 13,000 million of the $28,000 million 0.32 per cent in 1969 and 0.25 per cent in 1974;
spent on arms are spent by the countries of whereas Japan ($1,100 million in 1974), which
the Middle East (11 per cent of their G N P ) . had an aid percentage of 0.17 in 1961-62, went
T h e African continent—with the exceptions of to 0.26 per cent in 1969 and 0.24 per cent
Rhodesia and South Africa—does not spend in 1974. 3
more than $2,700 million (out of the region's There can be no doubt that it is necessary,
$4,900 million), representing 2.6 per cent of in order to discuss the question of rational
its G N P . Lastly, out of the $26,800 million allocation of resources, to undertake a thorough
spent on armaments by the Asian region, only re-examination of the data, at both the national
$5,700 million are accounted for by that conti- and the international levels. It would be par-
nent's developing countries, representing 3.2 per ticularly interesting to know what margin to
cent of their G N P . W e see, then, that w e must allow for the practice of underestimating mili-
beware of any diagnosis that does not take into tary expenditure and also to compare foreign
account the different situations prevailing in the aid for military purposes with development aid.
countries of the Third World. Lastly, w e must not forget that two-thirds of
T h eflourishingstate of the world arms trade
is a well-known fact, as is the drop in the per-
centage of G N P represented by the net amounts Excluding the U . S . S . R . and Eastern Europe, owing to
absence of data.
contributed by governments1 and multilateral Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Federal
bodies to development aid for the developing Republic of Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden
and the United Kingdom.
countries. For example, to take the case of the
Handbook of International Trade and Development Stat-
countries composing the Development Assist- istics, 1976, U N C T A D .
586
Trends and cases
Expenditures on education
FIG. 2. Distribution by major region of total population G N P , military budgets and expenditures on education,
shown as a percentage of the totalfigurefor each item, 1974.
the world's population live in the developing forget that those countries have the heaviest
countries (this article, I repeat, does not in- social burden to bear, because of the predomi-
clude figures for China) but account for only nance of very young people in their d e m o -
13 per cent of world G N P . N o r should w e graphic structure.
587
Trends and cases
A n experiment in the use of low-cost

teaching materials
José Francisco Nereu
One of the objects of this section of the review is to give an account of any experiments or innovation
going on in certain Member States which may be suitable for carrying over or adapting to others. The
experiment need not necessarily have been entirely successful and the innovation need not have been fina
introduced into the educational system: what we want to do is to show, through the description of a par-
ticular case, possible new ways of dealing with a problem and to draw the attention of teachers and admin
istrators to the spirit rather than the letter of the venture described. Apart from this, the experiment h
described by José Francisco Nereu, which has at present stopped, seems to us to be deserving of attention
for two further reasons:first,thefinancialcost was low; second, the experiment was closely in line wit
one of the concerns and activities of particular interest to Unesco: encouragement of national productio
of inexpensive educational materials, particularly in developing countries.
T h e idea of the experiment described here came in class, m y pupils learned about the poverty
to m e quite by chance, about 1968, w h e n I was a and suffering of children in what w e call the
very young teacher in a private primary school developing countries. A great number of pro-
in Lisbon. posals and suggestions for helping such children
T h e school in question had all the basic equip- were immediately put forward. M a n y of them
ment required, the children's parents being, for were dropped as impracticable; others, however,
the most part, members of the liberal professions were put into effect, one being the sale of things
or senior technical personnel. But I soon noticed m a d e , or m a d e over by the children.1
that m y pupils had a predilection for everyday T h e inventive spirit shown by these children
things that would be thrown away: empty bottles gave m e the idea that the waste products of a
which theyfilledand emptied; packaging from a consumer society might be used to alleviate
variety of products which they played with or shortages of teaching materials. I was thinking
used for cutting out letters and pictures; cotton mainly of the provincial public schools where
reels which became toy cars or simple gear m e c h - living and working conditions were m u c h more
anisms; old newspapers and magazines and ice- difficult than those w e enjoyed in our city
lolly tubs and sticks, which they used most school.
creatively and ingeniously. I then got into touch with some business
O n e day, through the reading of a short story friends working in advertising and marketing
and explained m y idea to them. They did not
think it had anything to recommend it commer-
José Francisco Nereu (Portugal). Works with the
Educational Action Service (primary teaching) and is
cially. In a society like ours, at a time w h e n
a subeditor of Escola Democrática, the journal of the campaigns to encourage consumption were
Directorate of Basic Education. He is President of beginning to spread in our country and w e were
the General Assembly of the Modern School Move-
ment—Freinet Pedagogics—in Portugal and has been
responsible for a number of educational experiments 1. From the sale of these objects, w e were able to send a
concerned with children's spare-time activities and cheque to Unicef. T h e money, w e later learned, was
handicapped children. used for Biafran children.
588

Trends and cases
being beset on all sides by advertising, I re- O n e of m y 'marketing' friends and I agreed at
alized what dangers might have arisen if the afirstmeeting that it was absolutely necessary
idea had been accepted straightaway: it might to m a k e the project k n o w n to as m a n y people as
well have been used for ends quite contrary to possible. These people should be, primarily,
m y intentions—to manipulate children and those professionally concerned with advertising
adult consumers more easily on the pretext of and marketing. Only with the help of such
serving a national need. people should w e be able to win business firms
W h e n , in October 1974,I w a s asked to work over to our scheme.
in the Directorate of Basic Education at the A first meeting was held in N o v e m b e r 1974.
Ministry of Education and Scientific Research There were ten of us at it, all in our capacity as
( M E I C - D G E B ) , I got to k n o w the full extent private citizens. O u r agenda included the fol-
and gravity of the problem of the shortage of lowing points: (a) information concerning the
school materials affecting all the schools in the actual situation with regard to school materials
country; even today, most of them consider that in Portuguese primary schools; (b) definition of
priority should be given to such things as objectives; (c) dehmitation of thefieldof action;
moveable letters and figures, measuring rules, (d) choice of packaging materials which might
sets of rubber stamps, m a p s , sets of geometric be of interest and suggestions as to their use;
figures and liquid measures. (e) resolutions.
T h e far-reaching changes which have oc- O n thefirstpoint (a), it became clear from
curred in Portugal since 25 April 1974, both in the discussion that the overwhelming majority
political and economic structures and in social of the 15,000 primary schools in Portugal
and cultural organization, have given the (24,000 classrooms) did not have the most ur-
country a n e w sort of dynamism. gently required teaching materials. In the
Despite governmental instability and the schools which were rather better off, the equip-
manifold problems to be solved if w e are to ment was of doubtful value or little used, since
transform an archaic, elitist educational system, the 35,000 or so teachers had not the necessary
it has been possible to overcome a number of funds to replace damaged equipment or to buy
bureaucratic hindrances and to start up again a expendable supplies. Over 1 million Portuguese
few projects which had earlier been dropped. children were affected by the situation.
T h e 'Packaging Useful to Schools Campaign' In this connection, I m a y mention that, prior
was set on foot in this way. to 25 April 1974, each primary school child had
been entitled to an annual amount of less than
$0.10 for the purchase of miscellaneous m a -
The launching of an innovation terials. This s u m , administered by the 'school
district'1 managements, was often not spent b e -
I went back, still informally, to some friends cause of the difficulties involved.
with w h o m I had been in touch in 1968. This O u r objective was to try to alleviate the most
time, I had a scheme instead of merely an idea to serious deficiencies in the schools' teaching m a -
put before them. I k n e w that there was in the terials by recovering some of the packaging
marketing world something k n o w n as 'pro- flooding on to the market, after incorporating
motion', which was meant to increase the sale of into it ingredients of educational and teaching
products by giving customers the idea that they interest.
were getting some benefit or advantage: there Our field of action, for the time being, w a s
was to be no advertising, promotion or manipu-
lation, however, in m y scheme. 1. Regional administrative division.
589
Trends and cases
confined to the primary schools (children from 6 this purpose, the packs concerned were to be
to io years of age). distinguished by a special stamp; (d) to establish
Given the enormous amount of packaging official relations immediately between the M i n -
material on the market, w e found it necessary to istry of Education and the group of people
begin by making a selection of packaging as- interested in working for the campaign, whether
sociated with widely used products available all in their private capacity or as representatives of
over the country (since w e were aiming to reach agencies and companies.
a million children throughout Portugal) but not I have dwelt at some length on thisfirstmeet-
directly consumed by children or likely to ening because it was, in fact, the starting point for
danger their health in any way. all the work that followed.
I then m a d e a few suggestions which were
agreed on, as a working hypothesis, by the
people attending the meeting: Development
O n e side (or more) of parallelepiped packs
might show, in place of the customary in- In December 1974, a formal proposal was sub-
structions for use or advertising matter, let- mitted to the State Secretariat for Educational
ters,figures,work-cards, maps, games, etc. Guidance and adopted; it hadfirstbeen ap-
T h e tops of large cylindrical packs might carry proved by the Director of Primary Education
compass cards, protractors or clock faces; Services and by the Director-General of Basic
smaller cylindrical packs might have on their Education.
labels instructions for making them into lan- T h e proposal took up the resolutions w e had
terns, microscopes and kaleidoscopes. adopted and laid emphasis on the need to enlist
With slight alterations, ice-lolly sticks could be the help of the national radio and television
converted into rulers, capillary tubes, knitting network, to secure m a x i m u m publicity for the
needles; cones or spherical packs could be campaign, and of the Juntas de Freguesia, to
used to m a k e globes of the earth and the facilitate the central collection and distribution
moon. of the material to schools.
Liquid containers (bottles or jars m a d e of glass T h e 'Packaging Useful to Schools Campaign'
or plastic) might include capacity measuring officially began in January 1975. A n appeal was
scales. launched through the press and the radio, and
Chess-men, letters orfiguresmight be stamped by circular, to secure support from all business
on bottle caps. firms. T h e response was immediate and mass-
Plastic and cellophane wrappings might be pre- ive, even some multinational companies ex-
pared in such a w a y that they could be used pressed their willingness to take part.
for slides,film-stripsand transparencies. T h e problems of the economic situation at
At the end of the discussion, the following de- the time, restrictive legislation as regards adver-
cisions were taken: (a) to secure the support of tising and the general uncertainty about the way
business firms and advertising and marketing Portugal was likely to go, m a y all help to account
agencies for the scheme; (b) to encourage par- for the support given to the scheme.
ticipation by instituting a prestige prize to be Well-attended meetings were held at the
awarded to the team responsible for the best and D G E B once a week. These took place outside
most popular packaging; (c) to awaken the normal working hours and no one attending
interest of the general public and the Juntas de
Freguesia1 so that civic campaigns might be or-
1. Juntas de Freguesia—the smallest administrative div-
ganized to get the used packaging to schools—for isions with executive power.
590
Trends and cases
them was paid. Between January 1975 and teachers, most of w h o m were either friends or
January 1977, about sixty meetings in all were acquaintances of mine. I did, of course, appeal
held, representing a total of 200 working hours. to teachers, by way of radio and television inter-
F r o m the outset, two items on the original views and through the press, to send in their
proposal were dropped at the suggestion of the suggestions to the directorate. Unfortunately,
participants themselves: the institution of a very few suggestions were received. This prob-
prize for the team designing the best and most lem, which was of prime importance for the
popular pack; and the issue of a special stamp, success of the campaign, was discussed at our
at the expense of the D G E B , to be affixed to weekly meetings, and it was decided, in order
the packs. Participants felt that merely sharing to deal with certain shortcomings, to set up a
in such a significant civic campaign would pro- 'support committee' in the Directorate of Basic
vide sufficient incentive and that a symbol, Education.
which would be the sort of trade mark of the
campaign, was preferable to a stamp.
It should also be mentioned that the condition Implementing machinery
that the 'educational' part of the packaging was
never in any circumstances to carry any refer- The Support Committee, which was a purely
ence, explicit or otherwise, to the make of advisory body, consisted of volunteers and was
product or the manufacturer was immediately entirely independent of the ministry's set-up.
accepted. It was laid d o w n by m e m o r a n d u m that the
The Ministry of Education, however, being main purpose of the committee was to use the
fully occupied with the manifold problems in- professional experience of its members to help
volved in the reform and democratization of the in the campaign and to co-ordinate the work
educational system in Portugal, did not support necessary for carrying it out successfully. T h e
the campaign as it should have done. N o n e the m e m o r a n d u m dealt with such matters as the
less, the campaign was, at the express desire of organization of the Support Committee; its
the minister, included in the Programme of the relations with the D G E B ; relations between
Ministry of Education and Scientific Research the D G E B and the participating companies;
for 1976. relations with advertising agencies, design and
While I was able to count on m y superiors' marketing executives; and relations with other
trust and was accorded great freedom of de- unspecified partners in the campaign.
cision and initiative, I a m sure that the fact that Working parties were set u p within the
I was practically alone was detrimental to the committee to deal with 'contacts with those
publicizing of the campaign and hampered taking part in the campaign', 'ideas devel-
efforts to launch and expand it. opment' and 'advertising supervision'. Others
The choice of the instructional matter to be were later added: 'liaison with outside organiz-
printed on the packaging, for instance, was ations' and 'design support for small and
determined solely by m y own previous experi- medium-sized businesses'. S o m e of the latter,
ence, m y knowledge of existing needs in our while anxious to assist in the campaign, had
schools, and m y brief study of the Primary difficulties because their scale of operations did
Education Curriculum which followed. N o other not warrant their using the services of adver-
study was carried out, nor was any survey tising agencies and design teams for the prep-
conducted among primary teachers. All I was aration of their packaging materials.
able to do was to obtain the advice of some I was responsible for liaison between the
primary school inspectors and about thirty Support Committee and the ministry, as well
591
Trends and cases
as for contacts with outside bodies, including or on behalf of the agencies or design studios
the mass media. After hearing the committee's where they worked.
advice on technical questions, I was involved in Lastly, the m e m o r a n d u m provided that any-
decision-making on activities, prototypes and one wishing to help with the campaign and not
finalization. T h e circuit ended with the issue falling into one of the above-mentioned categ-
of an authorization to the firm concerned to use ories, should be received by the Support
the campaign identification symbol. Apart from Committee and subsequently given guidance.
familiarizing people with the campaign's symbol
and publicizing the campaign itself by other
possible means, I was also responsible, as the Teaching materials and packaging
ministry's representative, for providing detailed
information to teachers and for the arrange- T h e participants shared out the themes by
ments for the reception of teaching materials in agreement, after being given details of the
the Juntas de Freguesia, which, in their turn, priorities fixed. T h efirms'representatives and
distributed them to the schools. people from advertising and marketing agencies
As regards relations with participating firms, thus agreed on the themes they preferred, or
the Support Committee had drawn u p a ques- could take on, having regard to their type of
tionnaire which the firms had to complete at a packaging, the number of colours they used and
first interview and to which they had to attach the extent of their market.
samples of the packaging they proposed to use. In this way eleven different teaching material
T h e committee would then suggest ways of projects were developed during thefirststage
using the packs, or consider the proposals put of the operation, and came onto the market
forward by reference to the list of priorities between November 1975 and November 1976.
previously established; a decision was then m a d e Considering the time needed and the various
and thefirmfilledup a 'proposed-action' form. phases of work involved in launching a n e w type
It should be stressed that the symbol could of packaging, this was quite a highfigure.S o m e
only be used with prior permission from the of these projects were carried out in co-operation
ministry and in accordance with terms and by two, three or even four competing firms,
conditions laid d o w n . Wherever firms wished including some multinationals.
to include a reference to their collaboration with T h e following is a list of the educational m a -
the ministry and the D G E B in their usual terials produced, and the types of packaging
advertising campaigns, they hadfirstto secure used to carry them: detachablefiguresand
the ministry's approval of the advertising m a - mathematical signs (packaging for toothpaste);
terial concerned. detachable letters and punctuation marks (pack-
W h e r e advertising agencies and marketing aging for toothpaste); maps showing cereals
and design specialists were concerned, a ques- grown in Portugal (packets of washing powder);
tionnaire had also been drawn u p , because of miniature marionette theatre (kitchen-sponge
their particular competence and special techni- boxes); clock faces (kitchen-sponge boxes);
cal knowledge, asking for information about miniature television set m a d e of cartridge paper,
their professional specialty and the type of co- with twofilmstrips (kitchen-sponge boxes); six
operation they proposed. Their main task was strip cartoons on the history and use of the
to help the committee with the development of following fruits—oranges, lemons, raspberries,
ideas for the use of the packaging materials of mint, pineapple and maracuja1 (sweet boxes);
the participating firms. S o m e specialists took
part in the campaign in their individual capacity 1. Maracuja: a Brazilian fruit.
592
Trends and cases
compass cards (washing-powder barrel covers); Interest aroused by the campaign

io-centimetre rulers and protractors (washing-
powder barrel covers); the eleven Portuguese As a contribution to the packaging campaign,
provinces (washing-powder packet); the h u m a n and as a means of publicizing it, the M E I C -
body: its organs and systems (washing-powder D G E B secured the co-operation of the Institute
packet). of Educational Technology, which m a d e two
I must mention specially one case illustrating films free of charge.
the civic spirit shown by the firms taking part O n e of the films, lasting a few seconds,
in the campaign. In the sweet boxes—the only simply represented the campaign's symbol,
instance in our campaign in which the packaging with a voice saying:
did not go direct to the consumer—the m a n u -
W h e n you see packaging with this symbol, don't
facturer inserted a short circular addressed to throw it away. This symbol means that the packaging
retailers, reading as follows: is useful to schools. Children will benefit from it.
Dear Client, They cut out the maps; make up the solid figures;
T h e boxes for [name of the product] are different write words with the letters; work with the figures.
from usual this time: on each side of the box w e have T h e y make games. Thousands of children will thus
printed an illustrated history of the fruit which gives have more school materials available. Give the empty
{product] its flavour. packages to the school nearest to you or to the Junta
This is not for purposes of advertising or pro- de Freguesia.
motion, but a small service rendered free of charge The second film, lasting 30 seconds, was an
by [name offirm]to our country's schoolchildren and appeal to housewives. A housewife, in her
teachers, in response to an appeal launched by the
kitchen about to throw away an empty box
Directorate of Basic Education. W h e n the boxes are
empty, they will be used in the schools for studying
marked 'Packaging' (a generic term for all
oranges, lemons, raspberries, mint, pineapples and packages bearing the symbol), was reminded by
maracuja, so helping millions of Portuguese children a voice: ' N o . . . don't throw away packages
to learn where these fruits come from, h o w they are with that symbol. It is time to make everything
grown, h o w they benefit health, etc. For this to be you do a civic action.' T h e n showing a class-
possible, w e need your help; please do not throw room where children were cutting-up and work-
away the empty boxes; hand them in to the school ing with some of the packaging already included
nearest you or to the Junta de Freguesia. W e and, in the campaign (but without showing the brand
above all, the children, count on your co-operation, names) the voice went on: 'These packs are
for which w e thank you in advance. useful to a million school-age children. A million
T h e above material was distributed throughout children in w h o m w e should take an interest.
the country and amounted to a total of 22 million Help M E I C in its campaign for the recovery of
Tinits. Unfortunately, w e know very little about packages. Give any that bear this symbol to the
the percentage of this material which was actu- Junta de Freguesia or to the school nearest you.'
ally used as prescribed. In particular, so far as Although these two very useful films were
arrangements for the collection and distribution available, and I did all I could to get them
of the packaging materials were concerned, the shown on television, I only succeeded in having
support of the Juntas de Freguesia was not as thefirstscreened once, despite the fact that w e
effective as it might have been, since the local had the approval of the Co-ordination of P u b -
authority elections had started and neither the licity Group in the Ministry of C o m m u n i -
outgoing members nor the prospective candi- cations, which considered our campaign of
dates were able to give serious attention to the interest to the government and of eminent civic
matter. value.
593
Trends and cases
Broadcasting time had been booked for 'spots' new participants so as to give them a better
publicizing the campaign, but w e decided idea of the problem and to bring h o m e to them
it was counter-productive to use the radio the purpose of the campaign and the civic spirit
w h e n the visual aspect of the campaign was behind it.
decisive. W h e n reviewing the results of our activities
Nevertheless, the work was by no means a up to December 1976 with the members of the
waste of time, w h e n the number and calibre of Support Committee, w e came to the conclusion
those w h o took part on a voluntary basis in the that the campaign was likely to be limited to
preparation, distribution and publicizing of the the eleven projects already operating through
materials are considered: seven private firms, commercial channels. T h e Support Committee
five advertising agencies and more than a dozen therefore felt it necessary for the continuation
professionals were involved. of the campaign that the situation should be
Four State organizations also co-operated: considered at ministerial level, since w e did not
those already mentioned (the Institute of E d u - k n o w what percentage of the millions of pack-
cational Technology and the Co-ordination of ages distributed were actually recovered; w e did
Publicity Group in the Ministry of C o m m u n i - not think the support promised by the ministry
cations), the Press Section of the Ministry, for publicizing the campaign and its symbol
which had advertisements for the campaign, had proved very effective; and, finally, some
showing the symbol and containing an appeal, firms were already beginning to lose interest
inserted without charge in the Lisbon and while others could not be brought in because
Oporto dailies; and the Posts and Telecommuni- they did not think the prospects good.
cations Department, which put a special post- I submitted to m y superiors a factual report
mark on mail passing through the main post to help in considering in detail h o w useful the
offices of the major cities. campaign was, its nature and aims, together
Other bodies and institutions showed interest with a scheme of practical measures and an
in the campaign. S o m e members of the Support estimate of their cost.
Committee and I, for instance, in answer to in- In that document I proposed, inter alia,
vitations addressed to us, visited the Portuguese that an evaluation be m a d e , through primary
Marketing Society and the Evora University teachers, of the quality and use of the material
Institute. T h e idea was very favourably received already in circulation, that the same material
and the people w e spoke with displayed great be tested in schools where it might not have
interest in what w e were trying to do, h o w w e chanced to come to notice and that a new list
were doing it, and what w e had achieved. T h e of suggestions for the launching of n e w m a -
Evora University Institute even put some of its terials be drawn up. I also proposed that there
scientists at our disposal to help with certain should be wide publicity for the symbol and
aspects of the campaign in which they were the campaign through the mass media. Another
specially competent. line of action would be to bring in n e w partici-
A working party from the Gulbenkian Sci- pants and to make the campaign better known
ence Institute's Educational Research Centre to teachers and a specific public (parents, school
was also ready to help us in the work if asked children, educators and others responsible for
to do so. primary education) by special briefing sessions
It m a y be well to mention at this point that in firms andfixedand travelling exhibitions in
the ministry had to spend only 800 escudos schools, in the ministry and in other places
(about U.S.$2o) for the production of a collec- visited by teachers; the distribution of self-
tion of slides for the project, to be shown to sticking labels bearing the symbol to primary-
594
Trends and cases
school children was to round off this series of together on a joint project of civic interest,
measures. though, of course, still in keen competition.
So long as the specialists continued to give T h e support of senior officials and others,
their services free, and firms and advertising including some of the best educationists in
and marketing agencies collaborated on a vol- Portugal, the favourable reactions of school-
untary basis, the cost of the proposed boost teachers and primary-school inspectors, the
for the campaign was not, according to our co-operation given by some official bodies and
estimates, to exceed some 80,000 escudos (about by the Evora University Institute and the re-
U.S.$2,ooo); and this included computer studies, search team from the Gulbenkian Science Insti-
the preparation of material for the exhibitions, tute, all confirmed that w e had started out o n
and the manufacture of 50,000 self-sticking the right lines, that our intentions were under-
labels. stood and supported, and our project a worthy
Last February, the ministry decided to with- one.
draw its support for the commercial promotion F r o m a social point of view, it was clear that
of teaching materials, giving the following of- the campaign could test the possibilities of
ficial explanation: recovering and using available resources—an
experiment in line with the need for austerity
A scheme has been submitted to the Minister of in the country's economic life.
Education and Scientific Research for continuing In addition, the fact that the campaign awak-
measures to recover commercial packaging for use in ened parents and the community in general to
teaching. T h e ingenious presentation of m a p s , pro- the shortcomings of the schools and appealed
tractors, rulers and other designs on commercial for their assistance in solving a problem helped
packaging leads, in practice, to a form of pressure to to bring school and community into closer
buy the products concerned. If the acronym of M E I C touch, which is, incidentally, an explicit goal of
(the Directorate of Basic Education) appeared on such
the primary school curriculum and indeed of
packages, the ministry would find itself involved in
propaganda campaigns not in conformity with its
the Constitution of the Republic of Portugal.
purposes. M E I C has no objections to legal advertis- F r o m the strictly educational standpoint,
ing; it merely declines to be a vehicle for it. T h e there was no doubt at all that the campaign
recovery of a variety of materials for teaching pur- materials, being adapted to and providing sup-
poses is a c o m m o n practice, but this should not be port for the various objectives of the primary
associated with strengthened advertising to benefit school curriculum and also being novel, offered
commercial firms. . . . manifold possibilities and could be put to a
variety of uses as circumstances might require.
Finally, as the materials were unfinished and
S o m e conclusions exercised both the intellectual and the manual
capacities of the children using them, pupils and
Our initial purpose, it should be remembered, teachers might thereby be prompted to devise
was to alleviate the shortage of materials in the other materials for themselves.
schools, when—so far as w e knew—nothing had A scheme of the kind described here has not
been done to solve that problem. the slightest chance of success without decisive
Our experience showed us that it was possible support from the government, especially in
to interest private firms in co-operating with the countries where the educational system is cen-
State. It also showed that firms which were tralized. O n the other hand, if the project does
generally engaged in what is called 'commercial not stimulate the interest and enlist the partici-
espionage', might quite well be prepared to work pation of teachers and the co-operation of local
595
Trends and cases
authorities and various other institutions—in achieved are anxious to make the results of our
short, if there is not a firm commitment on the work and thinking during this one-year experi-
part of the whole population—it is likely to fall ment available to the international community,
far short of what it might produce. so that the 'Packaging Useful to Schools C a m -
Most of those w h o worked on the campaign paign' m a y be studied, developed and m a d e
and helped to bring about what little was truly effective wherever it m a y prove useful.
596
Notes and reviews
1977 international literacy prizes
T h e jury appointed by the Director-General of Colombia, for the large n u m b e r of illiterate m e n

Unesco to award the M o h a m m a d Reza Pahlavi and and w o m e n reached by this project; for the adoption
Nadezhda K . Krupskaya prizes for meritorious work of educational programmes integrating literacy with
in thefieldof adult literacy noted in thefirstplace socio-economic subjects and the daily problems of
that, despite the remarkable efforts being m a d e and the participants; for the w a y in which the courses
the wealth of experience gained at national level in are geared to the formal education system; and for
promoting literacy, the absolute n u m b e r of illit- the development of promotional activities in industry,
erates continues to increase and that the gravity commerce and banking with a view to finding n e w
of the situation calls for a n e w impetus to be given sources of finance to enable the project to carry on
to the literacy drive, which must be accelerated its work for a longer period.
considerably and m a d e an integral part of national Equality of Access to Education for Women and
development plans. Girls Project, Upper Volta, for having adopted an
Considering that the importance and extent of endogenous approach and appropriate methodology
the work to be done in the present situation require in the identification of educational needs at the basic
the strict application of the criteria for awarding the community level; for the large n u m b e r of w o m e n
prizes, the jury unanimously decided to defer the taking part in its programmes; for its contribution
award of the M o h a m m a d Reza Pahlavi and Nadezhda to the elimination of obstacles which impede the
K . Krupskaya prizes for 1977 and if appropriate access of girls and w o m e n in rural areas to edu-
to award the amount of the prizes in the form of cation; for having m a d e it possible for w o m e n and
supplementary prizes in future years. girls to participate in the country's development; for
T h e jury hopes that this decision will help to having produced teaching material in three national
create a climate that will stimulate n e w initiatives languages; for having improved local agricultural pro-
and even more effective action and at the same time duction and for setting an example of co-operation
m a k e it possible for a larger number of institutions between different national, international and bilateral
and individuals to m a k e k n o w n their achievements. assistance institutions.
T h e jury decided, however, to award honour- Professor Roberto Abadie Soriano, Uruguay, for his
able mentions of the M o h a m m a d Reza Pahlavi and untiring literacy work, especially during the national
Nadezhda K . Krupskaya prizes to the following in- literacy campaign carried on from 1954 to 1964;
stitutions, projects and persons: for his significant contribution to the production
of teaching material suitable for literacy and post-
literacy work; for having established a literacy and
M o h a m m a d Reza Pahlavi Prize basic-education school for the blind, b y adapting
the teaching material to Braille, and for his numerous
Frontier College (Basic Education on the Canadian contributions to the improvement of education in
Frontier) for the efforts it has m a d e since its creation his country.
in 1899, first in teaching migrant workers in those
regions to read and write and, more recently, in
meeting the needs of such indigenous groups as the Nadezhda K. Krupskaya Prize
Indian, Metis and Inuit (or Eskimo) peoples living in
impoverished circumstances in those often neglected Bernard Sero Gauthier, People's Republic of Benin,
regions; for the community education programmes for his many-sided contribution to the launching
run by full-time volunteer educators; and for the and implementation of a functional literacy pro-
programmes provided for m e m b e r s of the indigenous g r a m m e linked to the marketing of agricultural prod-
peoples incarcerated in the country's correctional in- uce; for his help in the philological research on the
stitutions in order to assist their rehabilitation in Bariba language which culminated in the launching
society. of the rural newspaper KB ARO; for the development
Functional Literacy Pilot Project at Risaralda, and production of reading materials for the newly
597
Notes and reviews
literate; and for having trained hundreds of young reached a large number of w o m e n and girls; for
rural community leaders at both the national and having used the teaching of reading, writing and
subregional levels. arithmetic as a basis for vocational training and
Telimele Regional Centre for Improving the Status encouraged artistic and cultural activities connected
of Women, Guinea, for having m a d e literacy work a with work; and for the value of its achievements
part of economic development by organizing literacy as a national example.
courses for w o m e n and girls and, thereby, improving T h e jury expressed the hope that all governments,
the production and marketing of agricultural produce Unesco, the other organizations of the United Nations
and favouring the development of craft activities in family, intergovernmental, regional and bilateral as-
the region; for having trained newly literate people sistance institutions and non-governmental bodies
as mass-education teachers; and for having actively will m a k e a greater effort to identify literacy works
involved the people concerned in the literacy work. deserving of reward.
Seva Mandir (a centre for the development of adult It urgently invited the governments and organiz-
education), Udaipur, India, for having organized and ations concerned to take exceptional steps to join
carried out literacy projects for farmers in tribal the support of public opinion, at national and world
regions, young school drop-outs, and villagers and level, for the fight against illiteracy, and to increase
w o m e n of modest means; for having established a the exchanges between those engaged in it.
vast network of rural libraries with reading materials Finally, it emphasized the need for a massive m o -
for the newly literate and semi-literate, reading rooms bilization of h u m a n ,financialand material resources
and a mobile home-delivery system; and for having on a par with this major task of our century, the
disseminated, through its Publications Department, resources available so far having proved insufficient
a monthly bulletin in the local language and a to provide every m a n and w o m a n with the m i n i m u m
quarterly in Hindi. of education to which they are entitled, in accordance
General Union of Women of Yemen, People's Demo- with the appeal launched by the General Conference
cratic Republic of Yemen, nominated by the W o m e n ' s of Unesco at its nineteenth session to intensify the
International Democratic Federation, for having struggle against illiteracy.
Book reviews
A view of early childhood education

in the U . S . S . R . through s o m e recent books
T h e nursery school is thefirstelement in the general considers the mental development of a child as the
system of education in the Soviet Union. It must be result of the assimilation of the social experience
emphasized that it is one of the most crucial elements of mankind. In his pre-school years, a child assimi-
because early childhood is such an important period lates the simpler aspects of this experience, using
in the mental development of the individual. N u m e r - the objects around him, acquiring elementary k n o w -
ous studies in educational psychology have established ledge and skills, and grasping certain moral and
that the rate of mental development in pre-school aesthetic norms. This assimilation of knowledge and
children is very high in relation to older children. skills can occur in random fashion, in the course
T h u s , errors which are committed during the edu- of the child's daily life and his contact with adults,
cation of pre-school children cannot be rectified at and also in the course of purposeful instruction in
a later stage. the nursery school. N u m e r o u s studies in educational
T h e problem of the all-round development of psychology have shown that organized instructions
pre-school children is approached by Soviet scientists produces very substantial improvements in the child's
on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist theory which mental development.
598
Notes and reviews
A n important role in the evolution of the theory T h e findings showed that each of the aptitudes
of Soviet pre-primary teaching has been played by studied represents a specific operation of perception.
the work of the well-known Soviet educationist T h e analysis of the structure of this operation makes
A . P . Usova, w h o has worked out the content and it possible to develop the relevant aptitude in any
methods for a programme of education which takes normal child.
into account the general pattern of child develop- In discussing their data, the authors come to
ment. T h e content of the course is defined in a several general conclusions about the genesis of both
'nursery-school education programme'. This reorgan- sensory and other types of aptitude. T h e y throw a
ization of teaching has led to a significant rise in n e w light on the basic theoretical aspects of the prob-
the level of children's overall development. lem of aptitudes—the criteria for the separation and
T h e ideas of A . P . Usova have been further differentiation of aptitudes, the relationship between
developed in the work of the Soviet educationists aptitudes and knowledge and skills, the reasons for
N . P . Sakulin, N . A . Vetlugin, V . N . Avanesov, individual differences in aptitudes, and the relation-
N . N . Poddyakov and others. ship between the development of general and specific
In recent years, scientists have been particularly aptitudes.
interested in the study of problems of educational psy- T h e practical importance of the research described
chology concerned with the sensory and mental devel- in this book is that it raises the question of h o w to
opment and training of children in the pre-school age increase the effect of pre-school education on develop-
group. W h e shall n o w examine some of these studies. ment and h o w to introduce content and methods
T h e book The Genesis of Sensory Aptitudes1 is a which are directed towards the purposeful develop-
collection of papers, edited by L . A . Venger, which ment of children's aptitudes.
describe the results of studies carried out by a group T h e collection of papers edited by N . N . P o d -
of workers in the Laboratory of the Psychology and dyakov and entitled The Mental Training of the
Physiology of Early Childhood of the Scientific Pre-school Child2 presents and analyses a large
Research Institute for Pre-School Education, Acad- quantity of experimental and theoretical material
e m y of Pedagogical Sciences of the U . S . S . R . This which makes it possible to m a p out n e w approaches
work is an extension of the previous studies m a d e in to the problem of the mental training of pre-school
the laboratory on the general characteristics of the children. T h e papers published in this reader have
development of perception in children from birth to a c o m m o n methodological basis and discuss the de-
the age of 7. A theory of the development of per- velopment of the subject matter and methods of
ception has arisen out of this work and has been nursery-school teaching. T h e book uses and analyses
used to produce a detailed analysis of the develop- a wide range of theoretical and experimental studies
ment of particular aspects of perception which mani- which have been carried out in recent years in the
fest themselves as specific aptitudes in the fields of field of early childhood education and psychology.
music and art, such as the feeling for rhythm in T h e authors pay special attention to laying the
music and art, the perception of proportion and of theoretical foundations for n e w principles for the
the changes in the shape and size of objects due to selection and systematization of the subject matter of
perspective, the kinaesthetic perception of the par- pre-school education and to the results following
ameters of one's o w n movements as expressed in the from the application of these principles to the design
control of one's hands in the act of drawing. of content and methods for mental training in pre-
T h e researchers have concentrated on the possi- school institutions. According to these principles, it
bility of purposeful development of aptitudes. In is important to select as the central element in the
contrast to the overwhelming majority of studies on systematization of pre-school knowledge about some
problems related to aptitudes, which attempt to area of reality (animate or inanimate nature, social
reveal already established abilities and to observe the phenomena, etc.) the kind of basic relationships
changes which take place with age or under various which children can grasp by means of their visual-
kinds of educational influence, the authors of this operational or visual-image modes of thinking. T h e
book study the very earliest stages in the formation general idea that the external structure of an animal's
of the corresponding qualities. T h e fact that these body depends on the conditions under which it lives
studies were conducted on pre-school children whose
abilities were either non-existent or existed only in
an embryonic state meant that it was possible in the
fullest sense of the word to 'develop' them, to carry 1. Genesis Sensornyh Sposobnostej, Moscow, Pedagogika,
out developmental research showing h o w aptitudes 1976.
arefirstformed. 2. Umstvennoe Vospitanie Doskol'niha, Moscow, Pedago-
gika, 1972.
599
Notes and reviews
was, for example, used as a basis for the systematiz- tative evaluation of the successfulness of the solutions
ation of pre-school knowledge about living things. In and the calculation of indicators for the discrimi-
the children's constructional activity, use was m a d e nation, reliability and validity of the methods.
of the fundamental idea that the structures which T h e book sets out the underlying principles for
they m a k e from building blocks or other components a system of indicators of mental development in
will depend on the conditions under which they are children. These have been derived from a concept
to be used. which has become established in Soviet child psy-
These n e w principles of systematization can chology and which sees mental development essen-
be used to develop a basically n e w content for a tially as the successive assimilation of different types
mental training programme, and correspondingly n e w of mental operation (perceptual and intellectual), the
methods for teaching this material to children. aim of the methods used being precisely to reveal the
T h e book by N . N . Poddyakov, Thought Processes degree to which the principal types of operation have
of the Pre-school Child,1 deals with the question of the been assimilated.
development of pre-conceptual forms of thought in A n appendix to the book contains material for the
pre-school children. T h e work describes the principal investigation of mental development and instructions
results of the experimental and theoretical studies and tables for evaluating the results. T h e book can
which the author has m a d e over a n u m b e r of years. therefore serve as a handbook of psychological
Poddyakov develops the idea that a special role in diagnosis. A s the authors point out, the proper use of
the mental progress of a child is played by pre- the proposed methods can only be ensured if the
conceptual forms of thought: 'visual-operational' and tests are performed in the presence and under the
'visual-image' thought. These have their specific guidance of a specialized psychologist.
functions in the overall mental development of pre- T h e book by A . M . Leushina entitled The For-
school children and are of great importance in mation of Elementary Mathematical Ideas in Pre-
the formation of a n u m b e r of aptitudes which school Children3 makes a significant contribution to
evolve throughout the life of an individual. Visual- the problem of mental training in the nursery school.
operational and visual-image thinking in pre-school T h e book makes use of the results of the latest
children function in close connection with each other, studies in educational psychology relating to the
thus enabling the children to m a k e important gener- development of mathematical skills of pre-school
alizations and creating a basis for the assimilation of children. T h e author has worked out a programme of
more complex forms of conceptual material. mathematical knowledge and skills to provide for the
T h e book Diagnosis of the Mental Development of overall mental development of children as well as for
Pre-school Children? edited by L . A . Venger, is the the development of their mathematical aptitudes.
result of m a n y years of work in the Laboratory of the In outlining the range of mathematical knowledge
Psychology and Physiology of Early Childhood, Scien- which nursery-school children should acquire,
tific Research Institute for Pre-School Education, A . M . Leushina singles out as her starting point the
A c a d e m y of Pedagogical Sciences of the U . S . S . R . knowledge of sets. She gives a detailed analysis of the
T h e laboratory has developed a system of methods of ways in which this knowledge m a y be acquired by
diagnosis aimed at establishing the level of mental pre-school children of various ages and describes the
development in children from three tofiveyears old. teaching methods which are most effective in enabling
Unlike non-Soviet specialists in thefieldof psycho- children to assimilate the material being taught. T h u s ,
logical diagnosis w h o attempt to find methods of the author emphasizes the necessity of developing in
determining a child's C IQ' without reference to his young children the idea of a set as a structurally inte-
living and educational conditions, the authors of the gral unit inside which they must be able to see each
present book consider mental development as a m e m b e r of the set. T h e assimilation by children of
process which is organically related to education and knowledge about sets lays the foundation for the sub-
instruction, and regard psychological diagnosis mainly sequent study of arithmetic.
as an instrument for determining the effect which they Methodological hints are given in the book for
produce. organizing the instruction of children of all pre-school
In developing their methods of diagnosis, the
authors started out from a qualitative approach to
diagnosis—its orientation towards the identification 1. Myslenie Doskol'nika, Moscow, Pedagogika, 1977.
2. Diagnostiker Umswennogo Razititija DoskoVnikoi),
of meaningful indicators of mental development and
Moscow, Pedagogika, 1977.
the allowance which it makes for the ways in which 3. Formirovanie Êlementarnyh Matematiceskih Predstazl-
children perform diagnostic tests. T h e statistical Unij u detej Doskol'nogo Vozrasta, Moscow, Prosves-
approach was also used, for example, in the quanti- cenie, 1974.
60O
Notes and reviews
ages in elementary mathematical knowledge and skills. T h e hypothesis from which the authors proceed is
Very important factors in the problem of pre-school that as soon as children show a desire for various
education are the development of speech and the kinds of activity, it is essential to provide them with
learning of the mother tongue: correct pronunciation, the artistic skills which are the essential prerequisite
the learning of n e w words, grammatical improve- for artistic creation.
ments in the spoken language, the development of Special attention is paid in the book to the relation-
connected speech and instruction in story telling. A ship between teaching and creation, their interdepen-
special and important part of speech work in the nur- dence and their differences and, correspondingly, to
sery school is the teaching of reading and writing the relationship between methods of teaching the dif-
habits (particularly reading to older children). ferent forms of artistic activity and of guiding the
T h e book Development of Speech in Pre-school Chil- creative proclivities of children and developing their
dren1 edited by F . A . Sokhin and written by m e m b e r s creative aptitudes.
of staff of the Institute for Pre-School Education of T h e book presents information about the content of
the A c a d e m y of Pedagogical Sciences of the U . S . S . R . programmes of creative exercises used in art, music
and the Departments of Pre-School Education of the and speech activities. It shows the ways in which works
M o s c o w and Leningrad Institutes of Education, sets of art can be used to develop a child's creativity and
out the main methodological principles of speech de- explains the correlation between imitation and cre-
velopment in pre-school children in nursery schools ation. In accordance with the hypothesis mentioned
and gives methodological recommendations and above, the authors have attempted, in determining the
instructions to teachers. T h e authors base their programme of creative exercises, to stimulate children
work on recent educational, psychological and psycho- to create artistic images by systematically showing
linguistic studies, relate children's acquisition of the them the significance of the various media of artistic
mother tongue and the development of speech to their expression.
mental development and emphasize in particular the T h e overall conclusion of the studies presented in
importance of acquainting children with the formal this book is to prove the validity of combining in-
and semantic aspects of speech and language. struction with a system of exercises directed towards
T h e problem of teaching pre-school children to developing the artistic skills of children in order to
read forms the subject of the book Reading and foster incipient creative aptitudes. T h e book also
Writing in the Nursery School2 by L . E . Zhurova. T h e raises the question of the individual approach to
author bases her ideas on the theoretical principles children in the guidance of their artistic proclivities
worked out by Professor D . B . Elkonin (Correspond- and suggests that consideration should be given to the
ing M e m b e r of the A c a d e m y of Pedagogical Sciences idea of the children being grouped according to their
of the U . S . S . R . ) , w h o defines reading as the process of interests and the level of their ability.
reconstructing the sound form of a word from its W e have given a short account of a n u m b e r of
graphic model (letter composition). T h u s thefirstand studies in which pre-school education is discussed in
fundamental task in teaching children to read is not to close relation to the general problems of the psycho-
establish relations between sounds and letters (as is logical development of children. These works are but
presupposed by all the traditional methods) but to a small part of a wide range of studies which are
reveal the phonemic composition of the word and to currently providing the basis for a substantial i m -
define the sequence of sounds in it. This approach not provement in the effectiveness of education in nursery
only makes it possible to develop reading skills suc- schools.
cessfully but also orientates children towards the p h o -
nemic system of the language. T h e author gives a LEONID ABRAMOVICH VENGER
detailed description of the method she has evolved for
and N I K O L A Y P O D D Y A K O V ,
teaching pre-school children to read.
heads of laboratories
T h e collection of papers Artistic Creation and the at the Scientific Research Institute for
Child,3 edited by N . A . Vetlugina, deals with the prob- Pre-School Education, A c a d e m y of
lem of guiding the artistic and creative aptitudes of Pedagogical Sciences of the U . S . S . R .
children in the spheres of music, art and literature.
T h e book is the result of a series of studies carried out
by the Laboratory for Aesthetic Training in the 1. Razvitie Reci Detej DoSkol'nogo Vozrasta, Moscow,
Prosvescenie, 1976.
Scientific Research Institute for Pre-School Education
2. Gramota v Detskom Sadu, Moscow, Pedagogika, 1974.
of the A c a d e m y of Pedagogical Sciences of the 3. Hudozestvennoe Tvorcestvo i Rebënok, Moscow, Pedago-
U.S.S.R. gika, 1972.
60I
Notes and reviews
N a n c y Parkinson, Educati onal Aid and National Development, An International

Comparison of the Past andRecommendations for the Future, London, T h e Macmillan
Press, 1976, 411 p.
T h e book is a collective work of a team of writers w h o increasingly heavy burden of education o n the
have, under the general guidance of the principal government budget.
author, examined the contribution of external assist- T h e role of foreign assistance in respect of both the
ance to educational development in Kenya, Senegal, main achievements and the central problems of the
Tunisia, India, Turkey and Chile. T h e writers have educational system has been, o n the whole, marginal
also reviewed briefly the stated policies, procedures in terms of funds, technical assistance and ideas,
and record of external assistance by France, the Fed- though in m a n y specific projects foreign assistance
eral Republic of G e r m a n y , the Netherlands, the certainly has been the dominant factor. Even in these
United K i n g d o m , and the United States of America specific cases, the m o r e 'successful' ones have had
and have included a sketchy description of develop- strong indigenous inputs in both ideas and resources.
ment assistance by the United Nations family of Foreign aid in education, therefore, has a limited
organizations and some other international organiz- capacity for good or evil. T h e basic problem of edu-
ations (such as the Organization for Economic C o - cational development is not h o w m u c h aid is avail-
operation and Deveolpment ( O E C D ) , the European able, h o w it is administered, and what terms and
Economic Community ( E E C ) and the C o m m o n - conditions are laid d o w n , but whether the host
wealth Secretariat). T h e book ends with a chapter of government has been able to put its o w n house in
general conclusions and recommendations which some order regarding the national development goals
summarizes the salient points m a d e in the earlier and priorities and whether the nation has the deter-
chapters. mination to resolve the socio-economic contradictions
T h e six country reports (Kenya by Mustafa T u q a n , arising from the legacy of a colonial and feudal past.
Senegal by Adri Kater, Tunisia by Robin Ostle, India T h e recipient country has to discover and shape a
by L . S. Chandrakant with assistance from Muriel model for national development which meets the
Wasi and K . Rangachari, Turkey by Paul Stirling, basic h u m a n needs of all the people, makes the best
and Chile by Harold Blakemore) constitute the sub- use of the nation's resources and potential and ensures
stance of the book and are both interesting and in- just sharing of the benefits of development. O n c e
formative. Following a c o m m o n outline, each report s o m e progress is m a d e in this effort, it might be dis-
provides a general historical and socio-economic covered that it is feasible to offer a certain level of
background of the country, a sketch of the edu- basic education to all citizens, that there are alterna-
cational situation, a brief account of total foreign aid tive ways of meeting high-level specialized m a n p o w e r
received for educational development, description of needs other than the prototypes of higher education
selected projects benefiting from foreign assistance, institutions in industrial countries, and that the usual
the writer's o w n judgement about the performance of educational ideas and models available from the in-
the projects, and a general assessment of the role dustrial countries have only limited applicability in
played by foreign aid in the country's educational the developing countries.
progress. A part of the problem is that the policy-makers
Considerable educational progress can be recorded and managers of education and the negotiators of
for the decade of the 1960s in each country. Enrol- foreign assistance, themselves being the products of
ments at various levels have increased spectacularly the conventional educational system and forming the
in some cases, n e w types of educational institutions ranks of the relatively privileged in a socio-economic
and programs have been established and m a n y kinds structure propped up by the existing educational sys-
of high-level specialized manpower are being pro- tem, do not as a group have the intellectual vision or
duced in all of the countries. At the same time, the the inclination to forge ahead in n e w directions.
litany of complaints about the educational systems has Professor Blakemore writes in the report o n Chile
remained unchanged: large proportions of children (p. 339) :
and youth still unserved by education, growing press-
ure on successively higher levels of formal education, The situation facing Chilean education in the early 1960s
high unemployment a m o n g the educated, unequal was not, then, simply a matter of devoting more resources
to correcting deficiencies of both a quantitative and quali-
distribution of educational opportunities, poor qual-
tative kind; it was no less a question of devising appropriate
ity of instruction and its lack of relevance to the machinery for creating an educational system which, from
student's environment and life prospects, and the top to bottom, would be more appropriate for a modern,
602
Notes and reviews
developing democratic state, than the existing outdated, India have been better off to lay m u c h greater stress
regressive and socially divisive structure which was increas- on agricultural and rural development, creating a firm
ingly unrelated to Chilean reality. base for sustained and self-reliant development, than
O n the contrary, the problem with the Chilean edu- to emphasize industrial growth during the early
cational system was that it faithfully reflected the decades of her independence?
Chilean reality! T h e educational system in any Questions can be raised about the relative effective-
country can hardly avoid reflecting the reality of the ness of the institutional training approach (in contrast
existing power structure. to an approach combining apprenticeship, on-the-
Given this general context in most of the Third job training, and short-duration, flexible institutional
World countries, it is not surprising that there is often training that shifts the major burden of appropriate
a scramble for any form of external assistance; there skill development to the employers) for middle-level
is an uncritical acceptance of foreign advice, experts, skill training followed by the industrial training insti-
equipment, p r o g r a m m e designs, and funds; and tutes and polytechnics in India and (at least partially)
careers are m a d e and performances are rated o n the by the I N A C A P in Chile. Similarly, in the case of
basis of h o w m u c h aid is attracted and negotiated. Haceteppe University in Turkey, one wonders if it
Foreign assistance never comes as pure financial was necessary or appropriate to send all professional
and technical resources to be put to the best use as staff abroad for training and whether the sophisticated
seen fit by the recipient government. It is always facilities and the products of these facilities were the
accompanied by particular perceptions, assumptions, most suitable ones for improving the health and well-
attitudes, values, and preferred solutions embodied in being of the Turkish masses.
the project design, the equipment and materials, the It would be presumptuous, even with the benefit of
training programmes, and the particular technical ad- hindsight, to suggest that the right course of action
visers selected. It takes a high level of self-confidence, in each instance w a s beyond doubt and the course
a clear sense of purpose and direction, and well- followed w a s invariably wrong. But it is clear that
articulated policies and programmes for self-reliant there are alternatives, the consideration of which are
development on the part of the host government to per- foreclosed b y the national decision-makers' incli-
mit a synergistic integration of the external inputs into nation to adopt the conventional pattern inspired b y
the national development process and to prevent the familiar Western examples—a tendency strongly re-
reinforcement of values and norms inconsistent with inforced by external assistance.
national needs, misallocation of national resources, and These uncomfortable thoughts are only hinted at
the continuation of a dependency relationship. A here and there in the country reports. T h e conclusions
fundamental irony of foreign assistance is that those in each country report and the general conclusions in
w h o are in most need of it can use it least effectively. the final chapter deal mostly with operational prob-
Even those aid-supported projects regarded as lems of organizing training programmes, recruiting
relatively successful—such as the Indian institutes of experts, arranging language instruction, co-ordinating
technology, training of technical teachers in India, aid and so o n within the existing framework of
Haceteppe University in Turkey, and I N A C A P in national development policies and the role of external
Chile—can be considered successful only within the aid. In doing so, the book concentrates mainly o n
limited frame of reference of the projects themselves. bilateral assistance, touching only lightly the policies,
T h e y have been successful in terms of what they have m o d e of operation, and projects of the major inter-
set out to do. In each case, legitimate questions can national donors—the W o r l d Bank and the United
be raised about the basic rationale and assumptions Nations Development P r o g r a m m e ( U N D P ) .
of the project and the propriety of the approach in T h e emergence of the W o r l d B a n k in the 1970s as
relation to the overall development needs of the the single largest external donor in m a n y sectors,
country. For instance, it can be asked if there were including education, along with its relatively large
in the case of India other ways of developing special- professional staff, elaborate project identification and
ized technologies than the formal institutional ap- appraisal procedures and a conscious effort to develop
proach with wholesale importation of technical staff, and pursue a strategy for development assistance
equipment and educational models. ( A n alternative (note the sector policy papers and the voluminous
might have been the applied research and develop- country economic reports and sector reviews) signals a
ment approach combined with on-the-job training n e w chapter in external assistance for national devel-
in close collaboration with public and private sector opment, with various implications for national pol-
industries making efficient use of the considerable icies and appropriate national responses. Within the
scientific and technical m a n p o w e r pool India already United Nations family, U N D P ' s co-ordinating role
possessed.) A prior question might have been: W o u l d and country programming exercises represent an
603
Notes and reviews
effort to integrate external assistance with national reports, profitable reading if he is willing to draw his
goals and programmes. O n the whole, in recent years, o w n conclusions and lessons from the account given
multilateral assistance has grown in volume and for the half dozen countries.
significance—a trend bound to continue and intensify
in the context of the debates on the N e w Inter- MANZOOR A H M E D
national Economic Order. But these developments International Council
have been too recent to be included in the book. A for Educational Development, Essex,
reader will stillfindthe book, particularly the country Connecticut (United States)
Börje Holmberg, Distance Education, A Survey and Bibliography, London, K o g a n

Page; N e w York, N . Y . , Nichols Publishing C o m p a n y , 1977, 167 p.
It is evident that interest in distance-education ing materials, and associated physical production
methods amongst educational planners, economists and distribution methods.
and researchers has increased enormously in the last Holmberg's book unfortunately says next to nothing
few years. T h e reasons for this increasing interest about the economics of distance-education methods.
are m a n y . Research over the last decade or so into, T h e chapter on organization, administration and
for example, individualized instruction, educational planning is three pages long, whilst that on course
broadcasting and group study methods has had a creation contains only nine pages. Little is said about
profound influence on the design of n e w and inno- physical production and distribution of materials.
vative distance-education institutions which bear Other important aspects are also given fairly s u m m a r y
little resemblance to the more traditional correspon- treatment (e.g. a chapter of three and a half pages on
dence colleges. T h e success of some of these insti- evaluation).
tutions in terms of the quality of their teaching and T h e cursory nature of the text would matter less
their cost effectiveness—the British O p e n University had the book included an annotated guide to the
is a case in point—has contributed to the establish- bibliography (the latter takes u p nearly one-half of
ment of committees and working groups on open and the book's 167 pages). References are given at the
distance education in almost every Ministry of E d u - end of each chapter, but with hardly any guidance
cation in the world. T h e potential contribution of as to the scope, level and content of the different
distance education in developing countries, in in- items. For example, the references in the chapter
creasing educational output at reduced recurrent and on evaluation list seminal theoretical and research
capital cost levels, is enormous. works like those of Scriven, Bloom, and Gagné
In the reviewer's experience, over the last few years, alongside minor articles and descriptive notes of a
of meeting and working with planners and educators few pages' length. There are also some strange omis-
from over thirty different countries interested in the sions in the bibliography—for example, one of the
potential of distance-education systems, there is a most recent comprehensive works on distance/open
real need for both introductory and specialist publi- education—Open Learning, by MacKenzie, S c u p h a m
cations in this field. This is true regardless of the and Postgate—is not mentioned. These factors would
teaching objectives and target audiences of the system not be a problem for somebody already reasonably
envisaged, which m a y range from degree-level studies familiar with thefield,but the text itself is obviously
for school-leavers to functional-education programmes intended as a brief introduction and overview for
for dispersed rural populations. Three areas in par- newcomers. However, such readers would need to have
ticular come to mind where the need for information access to a large specialist library, and a lot of time to
seems most acute: spare, to get m a x i m u m value from this publication.
T h e relative costs of distance and open-education T h e book tries hard, in a limited n u m b e r of pages,
systems compared with more conventional sys- to do two very different things: introduce n e w readers
tems, the nature of these costs (e.g. course-based, to the field of distance education, and provide a
student-based, fixed costs) and factors which in- guide to an extensive specialist literature. Unfortu-
fluence them. nately, it does not totally succeed on either count.
T h e various possible organizational frameworks and
administrative subsystems suitable for distance ANTHONY KAYE
education projects. Assistant Director
T h e procurement, adaptation, and creation of learn- O p e n University Consultancy Service
604
Notes and reviews
George Sullivan (ed.), A Reason to Read: A Report on an International Symposium

on the Promotion of the Reading Habit, Paris, Unesco, 1976.
The issue of reading motivation is of vast importance. a formal and a non-formal nature, should be recorded,
It touches virtually every nation. analysed and compared.
Non-reading literates and lapsed literates should be
T h e book in question contains a report o n the studied to ascertain why they do not read.
different possibilities of promoting the reading habit. Studies should be made of h o w people's reading needs
T h e work is of particular importance for all those and interests change throughout their lives.
Unesco and other international organizations should
w h o are active in the field of reading instruction.
make every possible attempt to encourage the study of
T h e report starts by showing the importance of and reading motivation. These groups should also use every
the reason for reading ( W h y read?), and suggests possible means to disseminate the results of such studies to
m a n y measures that can be taken for its enforcement. government officials, educational administrators, teachers,
T h e chapter on practical problems touches on ques- parents, librarians, publishers, writers, and those involved
tions which are of interest to anyone working in this in special reading programmes.
field: education for reading, availability of reading
T h e appendix, with the help of 'case studies', pro-
materials, the effects of non-print media.
vides the reader with an insight into the reality
Following this are 'recommendations' as to h o w and the practical side of the book-work. Iran and
one can help to alleviate or solve the problems that Malaysia are quoted as examples.
occur in m a n y countries. W i t h reference to research A comprehensive list of persons w h o concern t h e m -
s o m e of these recommendations are: selves with the problems of reading instruction and
Literacy and reading programmes should be examined and literature for young people, and an extensive cata-
evaluated in terms of the effectiveness of their approaches logue of 'microfiche collections' complete the report.
to reading promotion. T h e sharing of experiences is particularly signifi-
Comparative studies should be undertaken in order to cant in times like these, where international co-
define the problems and current solutions in co-ordinating operation is so very important for the education
extracurricular reading with formal education. of young people. In this sense this book can be
Drop-outs from special reading programmes of all types r e c o m m e n d e d to any reader w h o m a y be interested.
(ranging from formal school to adult literacy programmes)
should be studied in order to determine why people drop
out, and how their initial expectations relate to their actual RICHARD BAMBERGER
experience. Director, International Institute
In contrast to drop-outs, the reading habits of those w h o for Children's Literature
successfully complete various reading programmes, of both and Reading Research
S o m e recent Unesco publications
Moving Towards Change Youth Institutions and Services:

(Arabic version) Present State and Development
S o m e thoughts on the n e w international (Educational Studies and D o c u m e n t s , 23)
economic order 5 1 p . , tables
139 P . 1977 ( I S B N 9 2 - 3 - 1 0 1 3 9 8 - X )
1976 (ISBN 92-3-601365-1) Already published in French and
Also published in English, French, Spanish 8F
Russian and Spanish 12 F
605
Notes and reviews
Formas Actuales Evolución L'Économie des Nouveaux Moyens

de las Instituciones d'Enseignement
y los Servicios de Juventud État Présent de la Recherche et Orientations
(Estudios y Documentos de Educación, 23) (Méthodes et Techniques d'Éducation, 1)
61 p., tables 215 p . ,fig.,tables
1977 (ISBN 92-3-301393-7) 8F 1977 (ISBN 92-3-201423-8)
Also published in English 36 F
La Planification de l'Éducation: Super 8: The Modest M e d i u m

Options et Décisions by Jonathan F . Gunter
by John D . Montgomery (Monographs on Communication Technology
(Principes de la Planification de l'Éducation, 22) and Utilization, 1)
73 P- 92 p., illus.
1977 (ISBN 92-803-2074-2) 1976 (ISBN 92-3-101368-8)
Already published in English 12 F T h efirstin a series of studies of mass communication
techniques, this booklet gives the history of 8 m m
as it developed from an amateur gadget into a
Le Planificateur et l'Éducation Permanente growing professional tool. It also contains a review
of available equipment. T h e author, a well-known
by Pierre Furter
film expert, describes the advantages and disadvan-
(Principes de la Planification de l'Éducation, 25) tages of this small-format m e d i u m which, depending
68 p . on what is needed, can be economical, highly portable,
1977 (ISBN 92-803-2077-7) versatile and easy to operate.
Unesco/IIEP This review of developments in 8 - m m film, of
T o appear in English particular relevance to the needs of the developing
This publication approaches continuing education world, should provide a handy reference for audio-
from three standpoints: first, as a set of guiding visual production centres, for film and television
principles; then, as an influence with a noticeable schools seeking economical training equipment, for
impact on reforms and innovations in thefieldof television organizations wishing to augment their pro-
education; and lastly, as the basis of practical rules grammes with less costly inputs, and for communi-
suitable for use in the planning of training. cation planners. 10 F
Pierre Furter is professor of educational planning
and of comparative education at the University of
Geneva (Switzerland). 12 F Planning for Satellite Broadcasting
T h e Indian Instructional Television Experiment
by Romesh Chander and Kiran Karnik
(Reports and Papers on Mass Communication, 78)
Manual de Evaluación Formativa 71 p . , figs.
del Curriculo 1976 (ISBN 92-3-101392-0) 8F
by B . Bloom, Z . Bathory, B . Choppin,
W . Harlen, W . Kemf, H . Kim,
M . Leyton, A . Lewy, G . Leide, N . Postlethwaite, L'Innovation
C . T o w and A . Yoloye dans l'Enseignement des Sciences:
398 p . ,figs.,tables Synthèse Mondiale
1976 (ISBN 92-803-3073-X (Unesco)) by Albert V . Baez
(ISBN 84-8270-010-3 (Voluntad Editores)) 279 p., figs., tables
Exclusive distribution in Colombia: 1977 (ISBN 92-3-201331-2)
Voluntad Editores Ltd a, Already published in English 40 F
Cía S . C . A . , Carrera 13,
N o . 38.99J Bogotá 2, D . E . Tendances Nouvelles
Exclusive distribution in France: Unesco de l'Enseignement de la Physique
Other countries: either Voluntad Editores Vol. III: 1976
or Unesco' distributors Director of publication: John L . Lewis
T o appear in English and French 30 F
606
Notes and reviews
Senior Science Master, Malvern College brought actively into the process of developing
Malvern, Worcs., United Kingdom teaching materials so that in-service teacher training
(L'Enseignement des Sciences Fondamentales) was combined with curriculum development. T h e
322 p., tabl. author concludes by indicating factors militating
1977 (ISBN 92-3-201410-6) against total success of the project and lessons to be
Already published in English 38 F learned from the experiment.
Market: This pilot project will be of interest to
mathematics teachers, teacher trainers and edu-
Tendances Nouvelles cational administrators, particularly in other develop-
de l'Enseignement Intégré des Sciences ing countries. 10 F
Vol. III: L a Formation des Maîtres
Edited by P. E . Richmond
Senior Lecturer in Education, Science and Technology
University of Southampton, in the Development
United Kingdom of the Arab States
(L'Enseignement des Sciences Fondamentales) (Science Policy Studies and Documents, 41)
235 p., fig., tables, illus. 327 p . , figs., tables
1976, already published in English 30 F 1977 (ISBN 92-3-101494-3)
T o be published in Arabic
This publication is based on the Conference of
Nueva Tecnología en la Enseñanza Ministers of Arab States Responsible for the A p -
de las Ciencias plication of Science and Technology to Development
Programas y Métodos de la Enseñanza) ( C A S T A R A B ) , organized by Unesco with the co-
437 p.,figs.,tables operation of the Arab Educational, Cultural and
1975 (ISBN 92-3-301143-7 (Unesco)) Scientific Organization ( A L E C S O ) in Rabat, M o -
(ISBN 84-307-7366-5 (Editorial Teide)) rocco, from 16 to 25 August 1976.
Co-publication: The first part consists of the final report of
Editorial Teide/Editorial de la Unesco the conference, giving highlights of the debates and
Exclusive distribution in Spain: the texts of the Rabat Declaration and the resol-
Editorial Teide S.A., utions adopted. The main working document of the
Viladomat, 291, Barcelona 15 65 F conference is published in the second part of the
book. 30 F
The Caribbean Mathematics Project:

Training the Teacher Agricultura y Proceso de Desarrollo
as the Agent of Reform Ensayo de Orientación Pedagógica
by H . Martyn Cundy, by L . Malassis
formerly professor of mathematics, 308 p . , figs., tables
University of Malawi 1977 (ISBN 92-3-301053-8 (Unesco))
Study prepared for the International (ISBN 84-7353-005-5
Educational Reporting Service (Promoción Cultural))
(Unesco: IBE Experiments Co-publication: Promoción Cultural,
and Innovations in Education, 32) S.A./Unesco
72 p., figs. Exclusive distribution in Spain:
1977 (ISBN 92-3-101503-6) Ediciones de Promoción Cultural,
A n evaluation of the Caribbean Mathematics Proj- S . A . , Rocafort 256-258, Barcelona 15
ect initiated in 1971 by Unesco, the University of the Already published in English 32 F
West Indies and the (British) Centre for Educational
Development Overseas. T h e project, involving eight
island territories of the West Indies, was designed for La Innovación en Alto Volta:
pupils in the newly developing junior secondary Educación Rural y Enseñanza Primaria
schools for w h o m no suitable curriculum or syl- by R a y m o n d Lallez,
labus in mathematics had yet been designed. T h e Director del Centro de Investigación
case study shows h o w local serving teachers were y de Formación en Educación ( C R E F E D ) ,
607
Notes and reviews
Escuela Normal Superior de Saint-Cloud, Francia Innovations Scolaires en Suisse:

(Unesco/OIE Experiencias Particularités et Tendances
e Innovaciones en Educación, 21) by Emile Blanc and Eugène Egger
105 p., tables Étude préparée pour le Service International
1977 (ISBN 92-3-301381-2) 12 F d'Information sur les Innovations
Éducatives (IERS)
(Unesco/BIE Expériences et Innovations
Recherche en Éducation en Europe
en Éducation, 33)
Première Conférence Pan-Européenne
118 p., fig.
pour les Directeurs d'Instituts Nationaux
1977 (ISBN 92-3-201504-8)
de Recherche en Éducation,
T h e wide variety of Swiss educational innovations
Hambourg, 26-29 avril 1976 and their steady development originate in the
Compiled and edited by Diño Carelli country's geographical location and in its complex
and Peter Sachsenmeier political and cultural structure.
(Études Pédagogiques Internationales, 35) T h e authors of the inventory have had to deal
158 p . , figs. with twenty-five cantons, that is to say with twenty-
1977 (ISBN 92-280-2010-X) five educational systems all of which maintained
A Unesco Institute for Education among themselves an emulation favourable to cre-
(Hamburg) publication ativity and innovation. In addition to the interest
Includes articles on structure and co-ordination of which the multiplicity and diversity of the ex-
educational research by György Agoston, Hungary; periences this inventory presents, it will be all the
co-ordination of educational research at the national more welcome by educational policy-makers in that
level by Sixten Marklund, Sweden; contribution it focuses on secondary education.
to the problem of interdisciplinary research in the Contents include: complexity andflexibilityof
field of education by Ryszard Wroczynski, Poland; educational policy in Switzerland; global inventory
impact of educational research on school teach- of Swiss school innovations during the last ten
ing; problems at the institutional level, by Alfred years (1965-75); analysis of some innovations; place
Yates, United Kingdom; influence of educational of Swiss educational innovations within the inter-
research on the development of school teaching national educational movement. 14 F
by Mikhail Petrovich Kashin, U . S . S . R . ; continuity
between kindergarden and primary teaching: a cog-
nitive example by Gilbert de Landsheere, Belgium;
example of controlled innovation: evolution of sec- El Centro Universitario de Roskilde:
ondary teaching colleges (.collèges expérimentaux d'en- Una Interpretación Socio-económica
seignement secondaire, C E S ) , by Louis Legrand, de une Innovación en Dinamarca
France; polytechnical teaching and training with by Pichel Cartón, Facultad de Psicología
special reference to the link between general and y de las Ciencias de la Educación,
vocational education, by Günther Dietrich, D e m o - Instituto de Estudios del Desarrollo, Genebra
cratic Republic of Germany. 21 F (Unesco/OIE Experiencias e Innovaciones
en Educación, 29)
119 p., tables
La Reforma Educativa Española 1977 (ISBN 92-3-301415-0)
y la Educación Permanente T o appear in English 12 F
by Ricardo Diez Hochleitner,
Joaquin Tena Artigas and Marcelino García Cuerpo
Estudio preparado por el Instituto Formación Postuniversitaria
de la Unesco para la Educación de los Docentes:
en colaboración con el Servicio Internacional Una Experiencia nueva en Nigeria
de Informacinó sobre las Innovaciones by H . W . R . Hawes, Profesor del Instituto
Educativas (IERS) de Educación de la Universidad de Londres
(Unesco/OIE Experiencias e Innovaciones y A . O . Ozigi, Catedrático del Instituto
en Educación, 31) de Educación de la Universidad
116 p., tables A h m a d u Bello, Nigeria
1977 (ISBN 92-3-301434-7) Estudio preparado para el Servicio Internacional
T o appear in English 14 F de Información sobre las Innovaciones
608
Notes and reviews
Educativas (IERS) educators, school psychologists, social workers and

(Unesco/Oficina Internacional parents of handicapped children, which very often
de Educación—Experiencias e Innovaciones constitute pressure groups eager to improve the
en Educación, 20) condition of their children at school and in society.
63 p . , tables 36 F
1976 (ISBN 92-3-301320-0)
Already published in English 6F
Buildings for School and C o m m u n i t y Use:
Five Case Studies
Pre-vocational Education in Sri Lanka (Educational Studies and Documents, 26)
by W . Diyasena, Circuit Education Officer 122 p., figs.
Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka 1977 (ISBN 92-3-101441-2)
Study prepared for the Asian Centre
Contents include: community educational facilities in
of Educational Innovation for Development
Australia—some examples of community schools and
(Unesco/IBE Experiments and Innovations a proposal for a remote aboriginal settlement; inte-
in Education, 28—Asian Series) gration of educational and communal facilities in the
50p. Federal Republic of G e r m a n y and Berlin (West)—an
1977 (ISBN 92-1-101404-8) evaluation of existing community schools; educational
T h e last in a series of six studies on the major edu- facilities serving a Greek island community—adapting
cational reforms carried out in Sri Lanka in 1972. an old historical building to local educational and
This study describes the most important element of communal use; a multi-service community centre
the reforms: the introduction of pre-vocational in Kenya—the needs and problems of communities
studies in the general curriculum for schools. in transition from rural to urbanized settlements;
Contents include: background; denning pre- urban community schools in the United States of
vocational school; general objectives of pre-vocational America—educational facilities as a resource for
studies; development of the pre-vocational cur- community-wide education and service.
riculum; facilities for teaching; in-service education; Market: Intended primarily for architects and edu-
main innovative features of the programme; evalu- cational planners, the subject should also interest a
ation of the Pre-vocational Studies Programme. wide non-specialist public. 12 F
Market: Educational administrators and planners,
secondary and pre-vocational level teachers, par-
ticularly in other developing countries. 6F Education and Training
of Users of Scientific
and Technical Information
Integration of Technical and Vocational U N I S I S T Guide for Teachers
Education into Special Education: by A . J. Evans, R . G . Rhodes, S. Keenan
Austria, Colombia, Iran, Tunisia Loughborough University of Technology,
120 p.,figs.,tables, illus. United K i n g d o m
1977 (ISBN 92-3-101438-2) 143 p . , figs.
Also appears in French 1977 (ISBN 92-3-101452-8)
T h e aim of special education is to prepare the young In most countries there are a number of libraries and
handicapped for a normal life within the community. documentation centres, and to various degrees, a
Unesco has tackled the problem of the technical and certain amount of modern technology for storing and
professional training of the handicapped. In 1974-75, retrieving information. Users have to be trained to
careful surveys were carried out in four countries: utilize these facilities.
Austria, Columbia, Iran and Tunisia; among these This publication will serve as a basis for preparing
countries, some have acquired a long experience in training programmes both in the form of a basic
special education whereas others are only beginning education course for students at university level and
in thisfield.This publication contains the results of as a training workshop for practitioners. It provides
these four inquiries concerning the appropriate role information based on the knowledge of the state
for technical and professional education within special of the art of teaching information retrieval to scien-
education structures. It is aimed essentially at edu- tists and technologists. This information includes a
cation policy-makers, authorities concerned with methodology as well as course content which is be-
systems development education, school directors, lieved to be effective in most situations and for users
609
Notes and reviews
with different backgrounds. It is intended to have 1977 (ISBN 92-3-303422-3)

particular application to circumstances in developing Already published in English 6F
countries.
Market: teachers and information specialists re-
sponsible for planning, organizing and running train- ¿Circula la Television en un Solo Sentido?
ing courses for users of scientific and technical E x a m e n y Análisis de la Circulación
information. 28 F de los Programas de Televisión en el M u n d o
by Kaarle Nordenstreng and Tapio Varis
(Estudios y Documentos
Guide for the Conversion de Comunicación Social, 70)
of School Libraries into Media Centres 72 p . ,figs.,cuadros
(Educational Studies and Documents, 22) 1976 (ISBN 92-3-301135-6)
62 p . , tables, illus. Already published in English 6F
1977 (ISBN 92-3-101389-0)
Already published in French 8 F L'Information Audio-visuelle
Transculturelle
by Eduardo Contreras, James Larson,
La Economía de la Edición de Libros John K . M a y o and Peter Spain
en los Países en Desarrollo Institute for Communication Research,
by Datus C . Smith, Jr. Stanford University (United States of America)
bajo los auspicios de Franklin Book Programs Inc. (Études et Documents d'Information, 77)
(Estudios y Documentos 51p.
de Comunicación Social, 79) 1976 (ISBN 92-3-202353-3)
46 p . , cuadros Already published in English 6F
Books received
A D J A D J I , Lucien; D U SAUSSOIS, Pierre. Adapter l'école d'apprendre, Situation II. Paris, Les Éditions O u -
à l'enfant. Paris, Fernand Nathan, 1977. 158 p . vrières, 1977. 327 p . , index. (Collection Points
(Bibliothèque pédagogique F . Nathan.) d'Appui-Éducation. )
B I D W E L L , Sidney. Red, white and black. London, H O G O N - D E R Q U E N N E S , Huguette. Le jeu réinventé.
Gordon Cremonesi Ltd., 1976. 204 p . Paris, Fleurus, 1977. 186 p .
B U R N , Barbara B . (ed.). Access systems youth and K A E P P E L I N , Philippe. Le psychodrame moyen de for-
employment. N e w York, N . Y . , International C o u n - mation. Paris, L e Centurion, 1977. 172 p . , annexes.
cil for Educational Development, 1977. 198 p . K E M P E , Henry C ; H E L F E R , Ray E . L'enfant battu et
D E L S E M M E , Jean-Paul. Décision et programmation sa famille, Paris, Fleurus, 1977. 370 p .
théâtrales. Brussels, J E B 2/77. 132 p . , annexes. La décentralisation culturelle. Brussels, JEB Points 4,
(Série Théâtre.) 1976. 165 p .
E C K H O L M , Erik P. Losing ground. Environmental stress D E L A N D S H E E R E , Vivianne; D E L A N D S H E E R E , Gilbert.
and world food prospects. N e w York, N . Y . , Norton Définir les objectifs de l'éducation. Paris, P U F , 1976.
& C o . , 1976. 187 p . , notes. 282 p . , bibliog.
Educational research in the Netherlands. Septem- L E G R A N D , Louis. Pour une politique démocratique de
ber 1972-September 1974. T h e Hague, Stitchting l'éducation. Paris, P U F , 1977. 274 p . , annex.
voor Onderzoek van het Onderwijs, 1976. 352 p . L E M A I T R E , Carole. Les relations urbaines spontanées.
E L V I N , Lionel. The place of commonsense in educational Brussels, J E B 1/77. 173 p .
thought. London, Allen & U n w i n , 1977. 153 p . L E M A Y , Michel. Le diagnostic en psychiatrie infantile.
H A M E L I N E , Daniel; D A R D E L I N , Marie-Joëlle. La liberté Paris, Éditions Fleurus, 1976. 308 p .
61O
Notes and reviews
LÉON, Antoine; CAMBON, Jacqueline; LUMBROSO, Brussels, Elsevier Sequoia, 1976. 198 p . , bibliog.
M a x ; W I N N Y K A M E N , Fajda. Manuel de psycho- (Collection Elsevier savoir.)
pédagogie expérimentale. Paris, P U F , 1977. 356 p. R E U C H L I N , Maurice. L'enseignement de l'an 2000.
LlNIGER-GouMAZ. AFRICANA. L'Afrique d'hier à Paris, P U F , 1973. 119 p . (Collection S U P . )
demain. Genève, Les Éditions d u T e m p s , 1977. R O B I N S O N , Kenneth. East wind, west wind. Some
236 p . , index. practical ideas from China's new society. Brasenose
L I P M A N , Matthew; S H A R P , A n n Margaret; O S C A N Y A N , Cottage, Great Rollright, Chipping Norton, O x -
Frederick S. Philosophy in the classroom. Upper fordshire (United Kingdom). 132 p .
Montclair, N . J . , Institute for the Advancement of R O D R I G U E Z D I E G U E Z , J. L . Las funciones de la imagen en
Philosophy for Children, 1977. 172 p . la enseñanza. Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 1977. 196 p .
M C H E N R Y , Dean E . , et al. Academic departments: S I N G H , Sohan. Learning to read and reading to learn.
problems, variations, alternatives. San Francisco, An approach to a system of literacy instruction.
Calif., Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1977. 224 p . , bibl., Indiana, Hulton Educational Publications Ltd.;
index. Tehran, International Institute for Adult Literacy
N A I D M A N N , E . ; D E L M O N T , P . La lecture silencieuse et Methods, 1976. 116 p .
active. Paris, F . Nathan, 1976. (Fiches individuelles S O R I A N O , Marc. Guide de littérature pour la jeunesse.
de lecture.) Paris, Flammarion, 1975. 529 p . , bibliog.
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bridge, International Extension College, 1976. literacy workers. A m e r s h a m , Hulton Educational
35 P- Publications; Tehran, International Institute for
V A N P E U R S E N , C . A . Une stratégie de la culture. Paris/ Adult Literacy Methods, 1976. 136 p .
OU
Vol. VII, 1977
Index No. 1, p. 1-159
No. 2, p. 163-319
No. 3, P- 323-451
No. 4, p. 455-614
Authors G U R U G E , A . W . ; R O Y S I N G H , Raja. Administration

of Education in the Asia Region, 118
A H M E D , Manzoor. Educational Aid and National De- GUTIÉRREZ R E Ñ Ó N , Alberto. Training Administrators
velopment, by Nancy Parkinson, 602 and Educational Administration Requirements, 73
. T h e Planning Crisis and the Limitations of . Problems of Decentralizing Educational A d -
External Aid, 195 ministration, 82
B A L M A C E D A , C a r m e n , et al. Parents Help to Educate H A L L A K , Jacques. The Diploma Disease: Education,
Their Children: A n Experiment in Chile, 557 Qualification and Development, byRonalt Dore, 313
B A M B E R G E R , Richard. A Reason to Read, 605 H A M I L T O N , David. A C o m m e n t o n the Rationale and
B E R E D A Y J George Z . F . Comparative Analysis in E d u - Methodology ofthelEA Studies in Evaluation, 440
cation, 472 H A R R I S , Miriam; W O O D , David. A n Experiment in
B E R N È D E , Jean-François. Training Educational A d - Psychological Intervention, 512
ministrators in Central America, 113 I B A Ñ E Z S A L A Z A R . Juana Consuelo. Non-formal E d u -
B O W E R S , C . A . Cultural Literacy in Developed cation Programmes for Children and Parents in
Countries, 323 Peru, 549
C A L V E T , Louis-Jean. Langues et Politiques de Langues Isos, R a m o n . Production Schools in P a n a m a , 395
en Afrique Noire, by Alfa Ibrâhîm S o w , 443 K A S S A M , Yusuf O . Formal and Non-formal E d u -
C Á R C E L E S , Gabriel. World Public Expenditure: E d u - cation and Social Justice, 244
cation and Armaments, 1965-74, 581 K A Y E , Antony. Distance Education: A Survey and
C H U R C H I L L , Stacy. Language, Pedagogy, Politics and Bibliography, by Bor je Holmberg, 604
Society: Bilingualism on the M o v e , 309 K L U C H N I K O V , B . K . Criteria and Methods for Edu-
D E S A N C T I S , Filippo M . A Victory by Italian cational Research, Reform and Planning, by Mullath
Workers: the '150 hours', 280 Vasudevan, 151
D U M O N T , René. School Versus Manual W o r k , 355 K O N D A K O V , Mikhail I. Educational Prospects in the
E G G L E S T O N , John. A n Ambitious Project: E u - U . S . S . R . , 127
rope 2000, 145 D E L A N D S H E E R E , Gilbert. Pre-school Education in D e -
EiBL-ElBESFELDT, Irenäus. T h e Biological Unity of veloping Countries, 506
Mankind: H u m a n Ethology, Concepts and Impli- L E T H À N H K H Ô I . École, Classe et Lutte de Classes, by
cations, 163 Georges Snyders, 445
E L - G H A N N A M , M o h a m m e d A . T h e Administrative L Y O N S , R a y m o n d F . S o m e Problems in Educational
Crisis in Education in the Arab Countries, 104 Administration, 58
F I F E , Jonathan D . T h e Goals, Practices andProblems M A H A D E V A N , Meera. Face to Face with Poverty: T h e
of Education-Information Systems, 423 Mobile Crèches in India, 570
F I L P , Johanna, et al. Parents Help to Educate Their M A I R , Lucille. Adult Learning, W o m e n and Develop-
Children: A n Experiment in Chile, 557 ment, 238
G I L L E T T E , Arthur. Cultural Literacy for Freedom: An M A T H U R , V . S. Workers' Educational and the Organ-
Existential Perspective on Teaching, Curriculum and ization of the Rural Poor, 251
School Policy, by C . A . Bowers, 315 M B I L I N Y I , Marjorie. Basic Education: Tool of Liber-
G i M E N O , Patricia, et al. Parents Help to Educate ation or Exploitation?, 489
Their Children: A n Experiment in Chile, 557 M E A D O W S , Dennis; P E R E L M A N , Lewis J. Limits to
G U E Y E , Khady. D a y Nurseries in Senegal, 565 Growth, a Challenge to Higher Education, 33
G U E Z O D J E , Vincent. Educational Reform in Benin, 445 M I K L O S , Erwin. Educational Administration: Future
G U I T Ó N , Jean. Education on the M o v e and Mobility Directions, 96
of Persons, 417 M M A R I , G . R . V . Attempts to Link School with
G U N T E R , Jonathan; T H E R O U X , James. Developing W o r k : T h e Tanzanian Experience, 379
M a s s Audiences for Educational Broadcasting: T w o N A V A R R O D E B R I T T O , Luiz. T h e School: Education
Approachee, 280 and Alienation, 337
6I3

Index
N E R E U , José Francisco. A n Experiment in the Use of S M A L L , N . J. Alternative Educational Systems: The

Low-cost Teaching Material, 588 Zambian Proposals, 134
O M A R I , I. M . What is IQ?, by Carl Liungman,150 S M I T H , Keith B . The Impact of Transnational Book
ORATAJ Pedro T . Barrio High Schools and Community Publishers on Knowledge in Less-developed
Colleges in the Philippines, 401 Countries, 299
P E R E L M A N , Lewis J.; M E A D O W S , Dennis. Limits to SOLJAN, Niksa Nikola. Some Problems of Edu-
Growth, a Challenge to Higher Education, 33 cational Theory and Policy in Yugoslavia, 184
PERRATON, Hilary. Learning About Anything, 255 SORIANO, Marc. Children's Books and Human Rights,
PILLAI, K . Sivadasan. N e w Frontiers in Indian Edu- 204
cation, 147 T A N G U I A N E , S. Education and the Problem of its
P O D D Y A K O V , N . N ; V E N G E R , L . A . A View of Early Democratization, 14
Childhood Education in the U . S . S . R . Through STEPHENSON, Audrey. Toys for Pre-school Children,
some Recent Books, 598 528
RICHARDS, Howard, et al. Parents Help to Educate T H E R O U X , James; G U N T E R , Jonathan. Developing
Their Children: A n Experiment in Chile, 557 Mass Audiences for Educational Broadcasting,
V A N R E N S B U R G , Patrick. Combining Education and 288
Production: Situating the Problem, 352 T U R G O N Y I , Julia. Pre-school Education in Hungary,
D E R O M E R O BREST, Gilda L . Catastrophe or N e w 540
Society? A Challenge to Lifelong Education, 44 V E N G E R , L . A . ; P O D D Y A K O V , N . N . A View of Early
R O Y S I N G H , Raja; G U R U G É , A . W . Administration of Childhood Education in the U.S.S.R. through
Education in the Asia Region, 118 Some Recent Books, 598
Ruiz D U R A N , Graciela. A Conceptual Framework W A N I E W I C Z , Ignacy. Adult Learning in Ontario,
for the Reform of Educational Administration, 272
65 W I L S O N , Michael J. The Computer and School M a n -
SAI, F . T . Action for Children: Towards an Optimum agement in Developing Countries, 86
Child Care Package in Africa, by Olle Nordberg, W O O D , David; HARRIS, Miriam. A n Experiment in
Peter Phillips and Goran Sterky (eds.), 153 Psychological Intervention, 512
SCHNEIDER, Gottfried. Adult Education in the Ger- Y A N G T C H E N . Education and Productive Work in
man Democratic Republic, 263 China, 413
S E M Y K I N , Nikolaj. Introduction to Education for
Work in Soviet Schools, 389
S H N E O U R , Elie A . ; S H N E O U R , Joan B . Malnutrition Miscellaneous
and Learning, 3
SILVA, Alberto. N e w Departures in Spanish Edu- 1977 International Literacy Prizes, 597
cation: Some Recent Publications, 435 Unesco and the Development of Adult Education, 228
SINCLAIR, Margaret E . Introducing Work-Experience Some recent Unesco publications, 155, 316, 447, 605
Programmes in Third World Schools, 362 Books received: 159, 610
614
Planning by Jacques Hallak
the location of
schools
an instrument of educational policy
Unesco: The object of this book is to present a methodology for

HEP, planning the location of schools. Taking as his starting
1977, point the results of an international research project
251 p. carried out in twelve countries, the author shows h o w the
55 French francs school m a p , taken in its widest sense, is an essential
part of educational planning and h o w it can help to
achieve the objectives of educational policies.
Contents include: a synthesis of school-map studies
and practices in a number of countries in connection with
the school m a p ; methodology: the drawing-up of the
school m a p ; adoption and use of the school m a p ; selective
reading list.
The author, a former lecturer in the Faculty of L a w
and Economics of the University of Paris, has written
extensively on the problems of educational planning.
International Review of
Education
Internationale Zeitschrift für
Erziehungswissenschaft
Revue internationale de
pédagogie
Special Number XXIlI/1977/2
Open Learning and External Studies
edited by Günther Dohmen
G. Dohmen Offenes Lernen im Hochschulbereich: Tendenzen, Erfahrungen,

Probleme
P. Guitón Open for Learning: Tertiary Education for Off-Campus Students
in Australia
M. N. Chamberlain The Extension of Higher Education by Mass Media
J. O. Pagano Linking a Community of Learners with a Community of Scholars
G. Dohmen Offenes Externenstudium mit Lernbausteinen
D. J. Nolan Open Assessment in Higher Education: The N e w York Regent
External Degree
M. Murai The Broadcasting University in Japan
Book Reviews
Subscription: 45 Dutch Guilders (postage extra)

Martinus Nijhoff, P . O . Box 269, The Hague (Netherlands)
Just published by Unesco
T h e changing role
of the teacher
International perspectives
Education today for by Norman M . Goble and J a m e s F. Porter
the world of tomorrow (IBE: Studies and surveys in comparative
education)
by Charles H u m m e l
The authors examine the influences and
(IBE: Studies and surveys in comparative alternatives affecting the teacher's role and
education) propose a three-phase model for teacher
education to confront the pressures of a
This book aims to present an objective society undergoing constant transition.
analysis of the dominant trends and problems
of education in the world today. The author 1977, 2 3 4 p.
examines four major topics: reforms and 38 French francs
innovations; lifelong education; democratization
and access to education; the place of education Co-published with Unipub, N e w York;
in society. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
Toronto; N F E R Publishing C o . Ltd, Slough,
1977, 200 p. w h o have sales rights in the United States,
38 French francs Canada and the United Kingdom respectively.
mresoo Constructive education

for adolescents
by W . D . Wall, P h . D .
In this sequel to Constructive Education for

Children (1975, bound: 68 French francs).
Professor Wall continues his examination of
education's role and ability to help people
digest and control rapid social change.
H e is primarily concerned with the period
between the ages of 10 and 20. Part I
examines adolescence and our education
systems, whilst Part II concerns the training
and deployment of teachers.
1 9 7 7 , 3 3 3 p.
B o u n d : approx. 8 8 French francs
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Co-published with George G . Harrap El- C o . Ltd,
London, w h o have exclusive sales rights
in the United Kingdom.
Bulletin of N u m b e r 18, 1977
Science education in the Asian Region
the Unesco
Regional
Office for
Education Section One
Science Education in the Asian Region
in Asia
Published yearly
A sales publication
Section Two
Science Education in Asian Countries
Afghanistan; Australia; Bangladesh;
Burma; India; Indonesia; Japan;
Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Nepal;
N e w Zealand; Pakistan; Philippines;
Singapore; Sri Lanka; Thailand;
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Section Three
Aspects of Science Education in the Asian
Region
Science Education in the Rural
Environment
Where is Education Going?
Science Curriculum Development
in Thailand
T h e Training of Science Teachers
in View of Changing Trends
Producing Low-cost Science
Equipment for Developing
Countries—a Report of a Commercial
Unesco Regional Office Project in H o n g K o n g
for Education in Asia Scientific Literacy for Adult Learners
Evaluation in Science Education
C P O Box 1425, Bangkok at the First and Second Levels
(Thailand) in Indonesia
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Contents of preceding issues
Vol. VII, No. 1, 1977 Elements for a dossier:

Ends and means for continuing education
Elie A . and Joan B . Shneour Malnutrition Unesco and the development of adult education
and learning Lucille Mair Adult learning, w o m e n
5 . Tanguiane Education and the problem and development
of its democratization Yusuf O. Kassam Formal and nonformal
Viewpoints and controversies education and social justice
Dennis Meadows and Lewis Perelman Limits to V. S. Aiathur Workers' education and
growth, a challenge to higher education the organizations of the rural poor
Hilary Perraton Learning about anything
Gilda L. de Romero Brest Catastrophe
Gottfried Schneider Adult education in
or n e w society?—A challenge to lifelong
education the German Democratic Republic
Ignacy Waniezoicz Adult learning in Ontario
Elements for a dossier: Filippo M . De Sanctis A victory by Italian workers:
Aspects of educational administration the '150 hours'
Raymond F. Lyons S o m e problems in educational Jonathan Gunter and James Theroux Developing
administration mass audiences for educational broadcasting:
Graciela Ruiz Duran A conceptual framework two approaches
for the reform of educational administration
Trends and cases
Alberto Gutiérrez Reñón Training administrators
Keith B . Smith T h e impact of transnational book
and educational administration requirements
publishing on knowledge in less-developed
Alberto Gutiérrez Reñón Problems of countries
decentralizing educational administration
Michael J. Wilson T h e computer and school
management in developing countries Vol. VII, No. 3, 1977
Erwin Aliklos Educational administration:
future directions C. A . Bowers Cultural literacy in developed countries
Mohammed A . El-Ghannam T h e administrative Viewpoints and controversies
crisis in education in the Arab countries Luiz Navarro de Britto T h e school: education
Jean-François Bernède Training educational and alienation
administrators in Central America
Raja Roy Singh and A . W. P. Gurugé Administration Elements for a dossier:
of education in the Asia region Learning to work—school and production
Patrick van Rensburg Combining education
Trends and cases
and production: situating the problem
Mikhail I. Kondakov Educational prospects René Dumont School versus manual work
in the U . S . S . R . Margaret E. Sinclair Introducing work-experience
N . J. Small Alternative educational systems: programmes in Third World schools
the Zambian proposals G. R . V. Mmari Attempts to link school
with work: the Tanzanian experience
Vol. VII, No. 2. 1977 Nikolaj Semykin Introduction to, and education for,
work in Soviet schools
Irenâus Eibl-Eibesfeldt T h e biological unity Ramon Isos Production schools in Panama
of mankind: h u m a n ethology, concepts Pedro T. Orata Barrio high schools
and implications and community colleges in the Philippines
NikSa Nikola Soljan S o m e problems Yang Tchen Education and productive work in China
of educational theory and policy in Yugoslavia
Trends and cases
Viewpoints and controversies Jean Guitón Education on the move
Manzoor Ahmed T h e planning crisis and the and mobility of persons
limitations of external aid Jonathan D . Fife T h e goals, practices and problems
Marc Soriano Children's books and human rights of education-information systems

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Editor: Zaghloul Morsy

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Published by the United Nations Educational,

Vol. VII No. 4 1977

Contents Educational reform in

Viewpoints and controversies

Elements for a dossier:

Trends and cases

Notes and reviews

Educational reform in Benin

Vincent Guezodje O n 30 November 1972, the revolutionary military Government of

the Centre Populaire d'Éducation, de Perfectionnement et d'Ini-

The origin of the reform: the Bensekou experiment

S o m e countries start by promulgating reforms, and the various

Between 1966 and 1972 our country experienced a pedagogic revival

F r o m the educational point of view, agricultural work, the obser-

The preliminary survey and the Law on Educational Policy

T h e preliminary survey, which lasted three months and was

Thirdly, the introduction of manual work into education is a

It is imperative to institute a system of democratic and patriotic education

This is exactly what the National Commission for the Reform of

T h e image of the school must change. The equation: school=personal

T h e above passages are extracts from the National Programme for

A decisive test: Paouignan

THE EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR

T h e Paouignan experiment, which w e shall discuss later in this

training and development structures, it should be m a d e responsible,

T h e c o m m u n e of Paouignan is situated in the heartland of Benin and

T o popularize the educational reform by applying it in the field.

groups (tradesmen, craftsmen and artists) were also approached. T h e

Criticisms of the Paouignan experiment

Failure of the Teachers' Association to m a k e contact with the other

T h e schools at Paouignan and Ouissi took part in the development

General conditions required

T h e success of the type of school w e are attempting to establish

i. 'National Programme for the Construction of the N e w Education System'.

still, as an ideology, which will be sufficiently inspiring to induce

W e must rely in thefirstplace on our strength, our own resources, on the

For administrative purposes, Benin is divided into 6 provinces

A s teaching will henceforth be linked to production, a production unit

1. Declaration of 30 November 1972 announcing the revolutionary government's programme.

co-operative are thus engaged in crop-growing, stock-raising, handi-

T A B L E I . Balance sheets of the co-operatives of nursery and primary schools (in C F A

Oueme 284 300 131 5,267,233 2,418,495 2,848,738

1. Being approximately 34 per cent of institutions.

T A B L E 2 . Balance sheets of the co-operatives of general secondary schools (in C F A

Oueme 24 II 3,028,338 1,697,294 1,331,044

However, as the aim of schooling is not production as such, it

T h e integrated development promotion policy adopted by the

Documentation Use of this Suggestions for

(1) Starting-point: (3) Techniques for studies

(2) Problems affecting

(5) Feedback to the (4) Orderly presentation

F I G . 2. Methodology for the study of the environment school section—use of the

This type of development marks a break with the colonial and

Comparative analysis in education

i. 'Reflections on Comparative Methodology in Education, 1964-1966', Comparative Edu-

Prospects, Vol. VII, N o . 4, 1977

Others have thought of this approach as scientific.1 Second, a macro-

The science of comparison