EDUCATIONAL PATHWAYS INTO THE EVOLVING LABOUR MARKET OF WEST AFRICA

Abstract

This case study of Kano, Nigeria, examines changes over the past four decades in an education and labor market relationship that has evolved since the 10th century. We first offer an analysis of the historical origins of Kano’s current three-layered segmented labor market and its corresponding three distinct, but increasingly overlapping, educational pathways. We then compare the labor market entry pathways reported in 1974 and 1992 by two cohorts of young adult males, the respondents having first been surveyed as 17-year-olds in 1965 and 1979.

Despite higher levels of modern secular education in 1992 for males in all occupational destinations, apprenticeship participation was significantly lower in 1992 only for young men who entered the professional and clerical positions that dominate Kano’s public sector. Islamic training remained universal, and in fact increased significantly in years of participation across all occupational destinations. We next show that the jointly educated young men who were part of the first, more traditional sector of the labor market, were less seriously impacted in their earnings by Nigeria’s turbulent end-of-the-century economy. Finally, we discuss the possible advantages of an apprenticeship system coupled to modern secular education for moderating social inequality and stabilizing economic development in sub-Saharan Africa and other less-developed regions.

Citation

Morgan, S.L. and Morgan, W.R. (2003), "EDUCATIONAL PATHWAYS INTO THE EVOLVING LABOUR MARKET OF WEST AFRICA", Baker, D., Fuller, B., Hannum, E. and Werum, R. (Ed.) Inequality Across Societies: Familes, Schools and Persisting Stratification (Research in the Sociology of Education, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 225-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3539(03)14010-4