Alternative Models for Secondary Education in Developing Countries: Rationale and Realities

Introduction from the report

The expansion of educational opportunity in developing countries during the past four decades hasbeen prodigious. In 1960, less than half of primary school age children were enrolled in school. Bythe early 1990s, despite rapid population increases in much of the world, the proportion was morethan 75 percent. During the same period, the enrollment rate for young people aged 12 to 17 morethan doubled, going from 21 to 47 percent (World Bank, 1999a). Clearly, there is a long way to gotoward assuring quality education for all, but there has been progress.

If in most countries the expansion of educational opportunity has been central to the cause ofdevelopment, so too has been the role played by formal schools in the way that education has beenconceived, organized, and offered. Schools – whether they are primary schools in villages oruniversities in the capital – have been the organizational unit of choice for governments and the agencyof hope for social advancement on the part of young people and their parents.

In most developing countries, education has been largely synonymous with schooling -- but notentirely. Formal schools have been widely accepted as the vehicles for transmission of officialcurricula (usually governed by an examination) following a set calendar, in prescribed facilities, staffedby persons deemed to be more-or-less qualified to teach at a given level. At the same time, there hasbeen recognition that conventional schools may not provide the means for expanding educationbeyond a certain point, addressing some educational needs, or serving some populations. Thelimitations of the potential reach of the school have included the following:

• The formal knowledge taught in schools is often irrelevant to the lives of many learners;
• There have been insufficient numbers of trained resources to permit the opening of schools inmany communities;
• The calendar of the school year or the timing of the school day precludes participation for manylearners;
• The cost of expanding the number of conventional schools (especially at the secondary andtertiary levels) exceeds available public resources.

As a result of the kaleidoscope of these needs, demands, and costs, there have been numerousattempts to develop alternative models of formal education to extend education in developingcountries. These alternatives have been developed across the different levels of education. Theirgenesis has been motivated by discrete educational, economic, technological, and political/ideologicalconcerns, or combinations of these concerns. The systems have borrowed some of the structures,content, and methods of formal education. They have claimed, to varying degrees, to provide theequivalent of formal school programs but in a manner that is cheaper, more relevant, or moreconvenient for the learners or the communities in which the learners live. The attractiveness ofalternative models is heightened as demand for education increases and as educational budgets remainconstrained. This is fueled by the success of many countries in universalizing primary education andby the growing recognition that success in the knowledge-based global economy requires bettereducated workforces. The attractiveness of alternative models of education has also been heightenedby the growing legitimacy of distance education programs around the world as well as a growinginterest in making use of the new information and communications technologies in education.

But while there is currently a great impetus for developing alternative paths to secondary schooleducation, this presents considerable dilemmas for educational policy makers. The dilemmas revolvearound the question of the legitimacy of the alternative models. Since alternative models tend toattract those who have been unable to access opportunities in the formal system, a major dilemma ishow to adapt the school curriculum and school year to meet the needs of the audience. Since manyyoung people are following the program while they are working, there is often a need to compress or“accelerate” coverage of the secondary school curriculum. This raises the question of whether thealternative system produces equivalent results at conventional secondary schools. This is important forparents and students, since few are willing to undertake the effort without the prospect of certificationat the end of their studies. Many would see an “alternative” certification of completion of secondaryschool education as not the “real thing” and therefore unattractive.

Moreover, efforts to make the curriculum more relevant to the needs and circumstances of audiencesthat do not find a place in conventional schools also face a dilemma. Whatever the merits of acurriculum organized around practical life skills, development themes, or work-oriented content, theproblem is the lack of congruence with the examination given to obtain a secondary school leavingcertificate. In most countries, the formal system, even when its curriculum is acknowledged as lackingrelevance to the real world, casts a long shadow on aspirations and expectations. Curriculumdevelopers for alternative models who start down the road to producing a more relevant curriculumare often roped back into traditional subject-matter content as students and parents become morevocal about passing examinations.

The present paper seeks to contribute to the international discussion of the potential of alternativemodels as a policy option to provide secondary school education in developing countries. The paperlooks in detail at the rationale for expanding access to secondary school education, even in countriesthat have not achieved universal primary school education. It examines some of the experience ofdeveloping countries -– and the issues faced -- in creating and implementing alternative models at thesecondary level. The paper highlights the experience of Honduras in developing an alternative juniorsecondary model. Although the Honduras experience is still a work in progress, the results of thisexperience bear watching. The paper concludes with lessons learned from the literature on use ofalternative models for secondary education.

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