The thesis is focussed on three related areas: i) policy-making perceptions of Gambian secondary schooling, and how their limitations can be improved through an awareness of institutional realities; ii) an examination of key intra-school features of secondary schooling in two case-study schools (a high, and a secondary technical school); iii) an examination of the perceptions a cross-section of typical modern-sector employers have of secondary education, and secondary school leavers; as well as the training and employment orientations that the two forms of secondary education tend to give school-leavers. The problem the research is concerned about is formulated through an illustration of the historical emergence of perceptions of the nature and role of Gambian secondary schooling. This is followed by an examination and analysis of subsequent and current policy perceptions of the function, nature, problems and solutions, associated with the two types of secondary schools. This offers part of the rationale for the research. Issues in the literature of education and development are used to put the Gambian situation in perspective, as well as to situate the thrust and justification of the research.Case-study data from the two schools are used to indicate the limitations of policy makers' perceptions of secondary schooling, and the benefits that can come from an informed dialogue between policy and schools. A comparative analysis of the two schools is used for the purpose of bringing out the less obvious, and perhaps more meaningful and tell-tale educational features about them. These are used to demonstrate the limitations of relying on aggregated assumptions about national school-types, as well as to indicate contextual features that one may use to qualify the application of cross-national educational factors. To the extent that part of the status of the data relating to school-leavers is in terms of outcomes of official policy on secondary education, it is used to exemplify the educational factors employers refer to when employing secondary school leavers. To complement this, there is also an examination of the extent to which type of secondary school attended is related to school-leavers' perceptions of post-secondary school opportunities. The presentation of the thesis is organised according to three clusters of chapters; background, data-based, and analytical. The background chapters consist of contextual historical information, issues in the literature, rationales, and methodological issues. The data-based chapters consist basically of policy issues, and the school case-studies. The analytical chapters consist of syntheses of policy perceptions and institutional features, and comparisons of the case-studies; as well as issues about the post-school context. They also provide the means of indicating theoretical and policy-orientated issues that the research attempts to draw attention to.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:328356 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Sarr, Baboucarr Sulay |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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