34 • Developing Post-Primary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa
“generous” scenario, per-student spending amounts to an average of 0.354 times the per capita GDP in the lower secondary cycle, and an average of 0.609 times in the upper secondary cycle. The corresponding averages for the “spartan” scenario are 0.177 and 0.322 times, respectively. These results suggest that, while schooling conditions are inevitably less comfortable under the “spartan” scenario, the disadvantage is not dramatic, as reflected in the differences between the two scenarios in the values of the variables pertaining to organizational arrangements, the level of teacher salaries and the share of spending on inputs other than teacher salaries.10 Yet the combined impact of making cost-conscious choices on all three dimensions is substantial: per-student spending under the “spartan” scenario is, on average, only about half as high as that under the “generous” scenario.11
COST ASSUMPTIONS FOR TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING The cost assumptions for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education (discussed in the next chapter) do not use the in-depth composite approach adopted for lower and upper secondary education. Instead, for simplicity, the cost assumptions are linked through proportional ratio to the cost assumptions in secondary education, and to costs in other countries. With regard to TVET, the simulation model makes a distinction between two very distinct types of activities: (1) formal courses, typically institution based, that are designed as an alternative to the academic or general stream of studies and (2) life skills training, usually of short duration, that are offered at the end of the primary or lower secondary cycle, mainly to help facilitate young people’s transition into the world of work. The latter type of TVET activities serves a dual purpose: (1) to equip young people (most of whom will work in the informal sector of the economy) with practical skills at the start of their working life in hopes of enhancing their labor market productivity and (2) to relieve pressure on the upper levels of the system by offering a positive alternative to young people who might otherwise seek to continue their studies in the formal system. For the purpose of this simulation exercise, only one set of cost parameters for TVET is maintained. This analytical strategy simplifies the presentation without compromising the main conclusions of the exercise. According to available information (which pertains mainly to the first type of courses discussed above), per-student spending on TVET courses,