Annex 5
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN RELATION TO THE YOUTH AND POPULATION INCREASE IN SWAZILAND, PAPER PRESENTED BY MR. G. HASINA, DEAN FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE, UNIVERSITY OF SWAZILAND

Background

Rural education is concerned with various aspects of education agricultural education, community improvement projects - as well as the ordinary local schools for the people living or working in the rural areas, farms and even villages. Agricultural pursuits are so important in these areas that even in industrialized areas, this type of education emphasizes those agricultural topics, and domestic arts that are relevant to the daily lives of rural people. The curricula are typically functional and based on the concrete and practical rather than the formal, abstract and theoretical.

Although at independence, Swaziland's main objective was 'to im�prove the living conditions of the mass of people' it was not until the Second National Development Plan (1973-1977) that the Government policy specified that 'rural development programmes occupy a central position in Swaziland development strategy'. At that time it was recognized that 85 percent of the population lived in rural areas.

In most developing countries there is growing emphasis on functional education. Educational opportunities are provided through a variety of types of organizations. In Swaziland these include Rural Education Centres, extension programmes, youth clubs, in-service programmes, the Small Enterprises Development Company, cooperatives, Consultative Council, ecumenical organizations, etc.

Rather unfortunately, in Africa and Asia there has developed an impression that education is a prerogative of the elite. Not surprisingly the 'educated' people develop a distaste for manual labour. This attitude persists even at the agricultural colleges. Economic development has accordingly been hindered.

In December 1986 a national workshop sponsored by both the Swaziland Youth Development Consultative Council and the Food and Agriculture Organization was held in Mbabane. The Workshop was on Rural Youth and Young Farmers. This workshop is a sequel to that.

The discussions were centred on three issues:

It was concluded that:

Swaziland Population Structure

Fairly rapid urbanization has been an obvious feature since independence. While about 85 percent of the people lived in the rural areas in 1976, in 1986 only about 65 percent still lived in the rural areas in all the districts except Shiselweni (Table 1). Here 86.8 percent still live in the rural areas. The fastest growing urban population is in the Manzini District where almost 30 percent of the population lives in the towns, outskirts and co-towns.

The breakdown of the poulation (Table 2) shows that about 76 percent of the population in 1986 were 24 years or younger and about 24 percent were 5 years or younger. The drop-out rate from the last year at primary school to the last year at high school is very high (Table 3).

An analysis of the current Swaziland Government expenditure over " the last five years shows that much of the budget goes into education (an average 14.3 percent) (Table 4). Slightly more was spent on agriculture than on youth and defence. Relatively little was spent on the projects of the Ministry of Interior.

Comparisons of Different Districts

The highest population lives in the Manzini District which is the most urbanized. The lowest population is in the Lubombo District but the least urbanized area is the Shiselweni District.

The highest number of income-generating projects listed was in Manzini followed by Shiselweni but there were significantly few projects and associations in the Hhohho District and all of them met 'under a tree' , i.e. without a fixed meeting place (Table 5).

Inferences and Recommendations

One of the most significant signs of educational progress is the development of rural school community centres. Ideally, school leaders assist both adults and children. The emphasis should be the solution of economic and social problems to bring about improved agricultural practices, sanitation, health, literacy, homes and communities.

In Swaziland it has already been established that the main target should be the youth since these are in the majority. This should accordingly be reflected not only in the overall government policy but also in the budget allocation. Fortunately, the Ministry of Education has been consistently getting a proportionally higher share. The main thrust of the Ministry of Education is, however, neither specifically rural education nor solution of economic and social problems. The Ministry has, however, made several contributions through:

Several ecumenical, voluntary, international and non-government organizations are involved in the country's rural agricultural programmes. These organizations shoulder the major responsibility. Many are very effective and operate on much larger budgets than it is often realized, included in this group are:

In many countries the church has been the principal avenue through which the state has achieved its educational objectives. Churches have thus been very active not only in formal eduation but also in rural education. Swaziland-is no exception. Since the culture of the country is also important centralization of the agricultural education in the rural areas is not necessarily advisable.

The Ministry of Agriculture although playing an important role in the rural development it is not basically targeted at the rural youth. The exception to this is the 4S Club.

Table 1

Summary of the Population (1986 Census)

Table 2

Breakdown of the Youth (African Population Estimate)
in Swaziland in 1986

Source: Swaziland Government Education Statistics, 1986

Table 3

Drop-out Rates in Different Classes, 1986

Source: Swaziland Government Educational Statistics, 1986.

Table 4

Summary of Government Expenditure (Thousands of Emalangeni)

^* Youth not included under defence

^** Then called Ministry of Home Affairs (not Interior)

Source: Swaziland Government Estimates 1983-1987

Table 5

Comparison of Income Generating Projects
in Different Districts (December 1986)

Source: 1986 National Workshop on Rural Youth and Young Farmers Final Report.