EDUCATIONAL EXPANSION AND THE PATTERN OF OCCUPATIONAL CHOICES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN TANZANIA I. M. OMARI* Education in Tanzania has by and large been expanding according to official development plans. This is especially true of higher education. The un- controlled and haphazard expansion of primary education by Tanganyika Parents Association (TAPA) as observed in Omari (1968) does not seem to be a serious problem any more. Lately however there has been a rapid rate of expansion of private secondary schools outside government plans (Deve- lopment Plan, 1972). Currently there are two goals of planned educational expansion in Tanzania-one is the achievement of self-sufficiency in high level manpower by 1980 and the other is Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 1989 as stipulated in the National Development Plans (Develop- ment Plan 1969); the date for the attainment of Universal Primary Education has now been put at 1977 (NEe, 1974). The thrust and achievements so far have been more impressive in the first goal rather than the second where things have been constrained by lack of finance, materials, and manpower. The 1971 Manpower Report (Development Plan, 1971) already cautioned the government that in order to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) before 1989 there would have to be a great strain on the economy. The report recommended that new ways of reducing costs should be devised to obviate this impending economic strain. It was surprising that despite this warning the target date has been made 1977 for it is not self-evident that new ways have been devised. Since education expansion depends very much on the expansion of the teaching force, the purpose of this p'dper is to, first review recent educational expansion in Tanzania with some emphasis on teachers' education, and secondly to analyse occupational preferences of groups of potential teachers. REVIEW OF EXPANSION IN THE PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION SYSTEMS The 1972 primary school enrolment in Standard (Grade) I reached 208,331 pupils as compared to a figure of 121,386 for 1961. This figure is estimated to represent 49 per cent of Standard One age group (age six to nine approximately). Total primary school enrolments have increased from 77,109 in 1969 to 1,003,596 in 1972 and reached 1.180,000 in 1973, which is * I. M. Omari is a Senior Lecturer in the Education Department University of Dar 167 es Salaam. estimated to be slightly above 50 per cent of total primary school age group UTAFITI estimated at about two million children in 1973. For the 1973/74 school year, 2,384 new classes are planned (each class has an average of 45 pupils), and preference will be given to the regions with classes/streams fewer than the national average for Primary I age group. Ironically while new classes are being constructed some areas do not utilise fully the existing primary school spaces. Thus the Sixteenth TANU Biennual Conference noted that schools have a capacity to accommodate 55 per cent of Primary I age group but that only 48.6 per cent of the capacity was being used. Thus UPE has two problems to deal with. First the under capacity utilisation and second getting to school the remaining almost half of school age children. Expansion in secondary school education has been proceeding at a slower pace than in primary education (Ministry of Education 1974). The main reason for this slow expansion pace is that secondary education is tagged to manpower planned targets. In other words while primary education can be offered as a human right that every child is entitled to, secondary education is currently offered to meet national economic needs. Table I shows that the absolute number of pupils selected for secondary school education each year has been increasing slowly. However when these absolute figures are expressed as a percentage of the number of candidates sitting for Primary Seven Leaving Examination each year the trend is reversed due to the expansion of primary school population. By the very nature of the selection procedures whereby regions are allocated quotas by a special formula, 1 and urban areas given more pupils because of many spaces open for day pupils, there are tremendous regional variations in the quality and quantity of selected pupils. For instance, in 1972 the Coast Region had 14 per cent of its Primary Seven pupils selected while Shinyanga Region had only seven per cent of its primary school leavers selected for secondary education. The quota system for regions and districts based on the above formula is quanti- tative rather than qualitative. In some regions for instance, the lowest pass mark for a selected candidate was 85 per cent while in others it was 50 per cent, suggesting a wide range of abilities of secondary school pupils that teachers will have to handle. It seems that equity in the distribution of opportunities takes precedence over the pursuit of excellence of the selected sample. The repercussions of this policy are yet to be assessed. Table I. Standard Seven Pupils Selected for Secondary Education Year Number Selected Percentage Selected 1971 7,530 10.9 1972 7,740 9.1 1973 7,955 8.9 1974 8,165 7.6 One of the purposes of instituting a selection formula for regional quotas was to stimulate local initiative in thc construction of new dasses since the 168 UTAFITI number selected depends on streams and not number of children enrolled. This formula was to help stimulate educational expansion in the education- ally less developed regions and districts. Local initiative was expected to complement government contributions to these areas while the more deve- loped areas would either depend primarily on local initiative or mark time in the spirit of relatively even national educ:ational development. However this formula has had negative unexpected outcomes. The more developed areas have still moved much faster in educational expansion than the less developed areas due to high motivation of parents and the high value placed on educational achievements in these areas. Furthermore since selection depends on streams and not number of children in a class, regions and districts have reported many streams with very few pupils (10-12 in some cases) especially in those schools in the so-called ujamaa and development villages. This was unfair and uneconomical as compared to places with streams of 45 to 70 pupils each. The latest move in the selection process was to substitute number of pupils for the number of streams in the formula. This is likely to give a better selection procedure, for only when more new children are born can regions and districts increase the number of pupils selected. Malpractices in the form of forged names will not interfere with the formula very much and these are easy to check. With the policy of villagisation and UPE even educational development might be achieved but at the expense of excellence in secondary school education due to variability of abilities. In terms of total secondary school enrolment, the expansion has been very spectacular. In 1961 there were about 12,000 secondary school enrolees. In 1972 there were 40,000 enrolees. However, greater expansion has taken place in private secondary schools than in the public secondary schools. In 1965 the private secondary school pupils numbered about 1,000 and by 1972 there were 10,000 pupils. This expansion of the private sector has several implications warranting some comments. Theoretically it is a contradiction in socialist transformation to have private school co-existent with public schools. Only the rich bourgeois group can afford to send its children to private secondary schools where fees exceed 1,000 shillings per year per pupiJ.2 The ordinary peasant in Tanzania cannot afford this amount and all preaching about equality of man and equal educational opportunities may sound like a mockery to the peasant. At the same time the educational philosophy emphasising the terminality of primary education and the notion that primary school graduates should go back to the land is being defeated by the operation of private secondary schools. The pupils who failed to get into free public schools but got into private secondary schools demonstrate to the other "failures" that secondary education is important, only that not everybody can afford to pay for it. Furthermore many of the private second- ary schools are built with the help of the money or the labour of the poor 169 peasant (e.g. peoples' institutions such as TAPA, BAKWATA, Churches, and Co-operative Unions donate money), but only the rich people can afford UTAFITI to send their children into these schools because of high school fees charged. After graduation these children.from private schools compete unfairly (due to their class status) for jobs with peasants' sons. Finally the expansion of private secondary schools is likely to lead to some poaching of teachers from public institutions thus inflating the already serious attrition rate of .secon~- ary school teachers. Thus manpower planning has to reckon WIth thIS problem of attrition rate. In fact the number of Tanzanian graduate teachers teaching in private schools is expanding (Table 2). In effect the 1972 Man- power Report (Development Plan 1972) warns that any more major program- mes in secondary education must take into account these private schools since they form 25 per cent of secondary school enrolment (p. 13). Poaching will be even greater if private secondary schools will be asked to localise their teaching staff. According to 1973 figures only 29 per cent of graduate teachers in private secondary schools were citizens as compared to about 60 per cent in public secondary schools (Table 2). Ultimately, the salaries, fringe benefits, and security in private schools will determine the attrition rate. In fact there is a great recruitment drive by heads of private schools and it seems that they are succeeding more among the non-graduates. TEACHER TRAINING Nyerere (1964), while introducing the first Five Year Development Plan (1964-1969), observed that about 1,000 teachers were employed in secondary and teacher training schools, 20 per cent (i.e., 200) of these were Tanzanians and 20 per cent (i.e. 40) of these Tanzanians held University degrees. About 1,200 additional graduate teachers were then required to carry out the secondary school educational goals of the plan. It is self-evident that Tanganyika was desperate for teachers at independence. The situation was even worse in science teaching where most graduate science and mathematics teachers were expatriates. It was not until the University of Dar es Salaam in collaboration with the Government Ministry of Education instituted a crash programme for production of teachers that the goals of self-sufficiency in the teaching force became tenable. There is however still a shortage of graduate teachers. For instance about 40 per cent of the graduate teaching staff are non-citizens (Table 2), and the situation is worse in private schools. Recent reports show that Tanzania is still recruiting expatriate teachers for Secondary School and Teacher Training Colleges for instance the Daily News of 8/10/75 reported that 160 teachers from India, Sweden, Denmark and Britain had been recruited. It seems that the University crash programme for the production of teachers for the arts is almost over, for the annual output is either stabilising or declining (Table 3). Of the 60 per cent Tanzanian citizen graduate teachers the majority are teachers of the arts subjects. However for science subjects the output is slowly increasing (Table 3), although the rate is also a low one. 170 UTAFITI 8 G .. l.l! e: lll" O\\O ...gr--r--Qt""loor-- r-:oO~~~s:;i~~ ] "u~ ~ "8 ;c=t ~r--~lI"'IOO"'MMO"I '" c>l ~.g~ ....:!:~!ir<~:g$~ O'u~ .. i:' '"" 0 .. 8 Jl .. .g M\OM-t--r--OQ_OO 8.. ~~0 ~r:i~~~~~~ > ;E '".." '" 8 M~r---""1O'1\C M MO"Ilrl_r-_r-- __ "'lt .S! :;; '" :;l 00 O'I::~~~~~ .e '"'" -; 0 0 I-- >.o,-...V'lNI""-N_v:.f' OJ rf")"' .... "',....MOVllX) -:'''1I11.t-;.''' ..-:,~M ..- .. 0 ---- .... NMNN I-- C:~~g~~ O;::l N ::l.c: Mr--t""l-OO __ O\ ~~:E t1~5 ::i~~~~~~~~ -5 ..- '" ~ o OtlOuObD~ e '" ~ '" ~'" =~tlI:l!{ t,..~~5~ Mll'lM-o ...... "'ltO ..o.DoOMar:o-:~o-: "0 0 ~:5~~e ..... ----NN '"~ '".." OJ ;E ~:2:;;:2!i&~8:~2:: .9 " '30 r.u.. \I ............. ,oV'") I-- ~ -; 0' :;l ~~tng~ O::S~dca TOO r---OOOO\OOMt"lMMM ="0f'o.....=_ f8o0 .0 >. G e:.. to-. o '" ~ 1;0 tlCI.a ,:r-:oO-D..o.o"":-.t..o r--r---t'-r--,..... r--.oo 00000'10\ -5 '" ~ as .... M 11 ~ 2:: I-- 8lJt be!! ..r "0 "8 ~~~g~ CO-\O"'O'\V\-O'\OO'llt('l')M MM.ooOoO~~~~~g~ l) 0 '"ell '" ell 0"'.", ~~'O ~'" ~ '" ~ ~ '"" ~ ~~ .. NOO('rJICOtf"l_OIONOM -:3" 9 0 ~ '" .;::~ " r:oo"'''OOO....:r--:r:~M'ON ___ NNr"lM..,.Vl\O ..... OO 1:: ..... " <'"" "" ~~~~~~~~~~~e:'"c" Meena (1974) indicated that the situation of shortages for secondary school UTAFITI teachers seems to be under control although ironically the attrition rate for graduates is not precisely known and expatriates are stilI being recruited to fill secondary school teaching vacancies. Available estimates show that the 1972 decentralisation policy transferred 32 graduate and 53 non-graduate education personnel, the majority of them being teachers,s to ministries other than education. Table 3. Number of Tanzanians Graduating asTeachers from the University of Dar es Salaam by Year, Degree and Sext ARTS (B.A.-Ed) SCIENCE (B.Sc.-Ed) TOTAL Year Male Female Total Male Female Total Science and Arts 1967 16 9 25 0 0 0 25 1968 27 5 32 6 1 7 39 1969 52 16 68 16 1 17 85 1970 160 26 186 58 14 72 258 1971 89 27 116 70 9 79 194 1972 69 42 111 68 20 88 199 1973 72 15 87 55 12 67 154 1974 80 15 95 72 13 85 180 1975* 69 12 81 56 14 70 151 1976t 80 14 94 106 9 115 209 Source: University of Dar es Salaam, Admission Office Files. (i) Student Admission, 1961-1969. (ii) Student Number File, Vol. 11 *Based on 1975/76 intake which was affected by the Indirect University Entry policy as given elsewhere in this issue of Utaftti. tFigures for this year are estimates based on the 1973/14 academic year enrolment as of August 31st 1973. Enrolment into teacher training colleges has been expanding since 1961 (Table 4). However in 1970 there was a change of policy whereby enrolment of primary school leavers into teachers colleges was increased. The main reason given for the change of policy was a financial and not a pedagogical one. It is argued that it is too expensive to train and maintain a secondary school leaver trained as a teacher. However it seems that there was also political pressure to give some professional training to two groups of primary school leavers. First to those who voluntarily joined National Youth Service for two years, and second to those primary school leavers showing good work habits and promoting political consciousness in the rural areas. In terms of the pedagogical costs of the decision, it would be premalure to 172 UTAFITI l,(')OO\....-tOOOO\l'V')t-_v ...... f"t -- __ aI u 8 o 'i5. z A o z ~~~~8~~8~~::~ f'I1.~ .. -""""INNM("'I")'O::tf'O'\O ~ .. ........ z ~ aI N 8 o 'i5. i5 u * " 0; ::s '" oaI 174 UTAFITI pedagogical considerations might not be held in revolutionary conditions like those stipulated under the UPE directive but as long term strategy they might be very compelling. Indeed unconventional methods of training Grade C teachers for implementation of UPE should be sought but the actual opera- tion of these teachers in a school will need more thorough planning and consideration. It will be seen that in Table 5 the column for "others" represents mostly untrained teachers. Tanzania has a reputation for having a very high proportion of trained teachers in her teaching force but this repute might not be held any more in primary schools. Recent policy directives require application of unconventional methods of training teachers. CAREER G-IOICES AND ASPIRATIONS OF TEAG-IERS IN TRAINING Teaching, notwithstanding its importance, has never been the most popular profession in the world (Waller, 1965). The Manpower Report in Tanzania (Development Plan, 1972), takes this fact into account when it points out that "whether we like it or not we must accept the fact that the teaching profession, not only in Tanzania but generally throughout the world, as yet does not enjoy parity of esteem or of salary with many other profes- sions". This might be considered a stereotype view but some earlier studies within Tanzania tend to confirm this position. Klinge1hofer (1967) asked 2,096 boys and 1,050 girls in Tanzania secondary schools and 300 primary school pupils to rank various occupations on the basis of their liking them. The full list of the occupations is in Beatie and Klitze (1967).4. The results of that study were revealing to manpower planners. The most popular occupations were medicine and engineering which when combined mono- poUsed 48.7 per cent of boys' first choices. Law was the next, polling 7.8 per cent of first choices. and farmer and accountant polled 6.9 and 5.2 per cent respectively, and secondary school teaching was trailing at 5.2 per cent of first choices and 6 per cent of second choices. A similar pattern of occupational choices was observed in the analysis of the female and primary school samples. For the primary school sample the results should be taken as tentative since interests at adolescent level are often likely to be temporary. They change as adolescents gain experience and knowledge whereby they discover new vocations and at times rediscover their own interests and abilities (Elkind, 1971). In any case the occupational preferences of the secondary school sample were clearly at variance with national manpower targets. For instance. the 1964/69 Five Year Development Plan (Develop- ment Plan, 1969) projected that during the plan there would be produced 350 engineers. 335 doctors and 700 graduate teachers. According to these figures the ideal situation would have been where teaching was the most popular profession. 175 The Klingelhofer results are similar to those independently obtained elsewhere in Africa. Foster (1965) asked Ghana Secondary School pupils to UTAFITI rank various occupations according to both perceived potential prestige and monetary rewards. The results showed that doctor, lawyer, engineer, univer- sity lecturer, business, chieftainship, and authorship still dominated the top of their preferences and secondary school teaching invariably came after the above choices had been entered. In fact in Ghana medicine and law are regarded as the "great professions" because of the prestige and monetary rewards they bring in a capitalist bourgeois society. Similar results were obtained in a French-speaking country. Cliget and Foster (1966) asked Ivory Coast secondary school pupils to rank 25 occupations according to prestige and income. Results showed preferences in the following order: engineering, university professor, doctor, lawyer and then secondary school teacher. Most of the above cited studies were done about a decade ago. In Tanzania several changes have been taking place politically, socially, ideolo- gically and educationally. Consequently Klingelhofer's results need to be re- examined in a new perspective, using up~to-date data. Furthermore Klingel- hofer asked Standard Seven and Eleven pupils to rank given occupations. It would be instructive to actually analyse the Form Six actual occupational choices at graduation and to ask University students to indicate their own occupational choices. Furthermore in 1967 there were fewer Dar es Salaam University faculties (e.g. no Engineering, Agriculture, Hydrology). The question is whether broadening occupational opportunities within Tanzania has changed students' patterns of occupational choices. The remaining part of the present study analyses two questions, namely: I. What were the pattern of career choices of University education students at Form 6? 2. What has been their pattern of career choices since Form 4 and what careers do they intend to ultimately join? ANALYSIS OF DEGREE CHOICES OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION STUDENTS Before sitting for Form Six examinations all candidates are supplied with University materials which include a current University of Oar es Salaam Prospectus, University Entry Qualifications by Faculty and courses, general University requirements, and an application form. In the application form the student is given 14 types of degree courses being offered at tbe University of Dar es Salaam or other East African Universities. They are B.Sc. Hydrology; B.Sc. Education; B.Sc. General; B.Sc. Agriculture B.Sc. Forestry; B.Sc. Engineering; B.Sc. Engineering Survey; B.Sc. Veterinary; Bachelor of Commerce; B.A. General, B.A. Education; B.A. Architecture; Bachelor of Laws, and Doctor of Medicine. A candidate is asked to choose five courses according to order of preference. This same order is then trans. ferred onto an admission card for each candidate. Such cards are stored at the University Admissions Office. This section of the study is focussed on 176 UTAFITI the degree preferences of 1973/74 First Year education students as presented in their Admissions Cards. Only those students whose cards were duly completed were analysed. Altogether there were 102 cards for arts students and l1S cards for science students, giving a total sample of 217 subjects. Not more than ten cards were incomplete. Their distribution by age and degree is shown in Table 6. The youngest student was born in 1954 and the oldest was born in 1934 giving an age range of 20 years. Table 6. First Year Education Students (1973/74), by Age, Degree, Sex and Total Number of Subjects by Year of Birth, Degree and Sex Year of B.A. (Ed.) B.Sc. (Ed.) Birth Male Female Total Male Female Total Total Before 1950 33 0 33 18 0 18 51 1950 20 1 21 33 0 33 54 1951 16 3 19 20 3 23 42 1952 13 7 20 30 3 33 53 1953 5 4 9 5 2 7 16 1954 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 Total 87 15 102 97 8 115 217 Table 7. Pattern of Degree Choices of Education Students (Arts), the Number. of Students in Each Degree Category, and Order of Choice (N = 102) Order of Choices and Frequencies Courses 1 2 3 4 5 B.A. (Education) 54(54) 29(28) 4 (3) 1 (1) 0(0) B.A. (General) 23(22) 47(46) 12(11) 4(3) 0(0) LL.B. 18(18) 11(10) 23(22) 14(13) 0(0) B.Com. 7 (6) 3 (2) 21(20) 16(15) 2(1) B.A. (Arch. Stu.) o (0) 1 (1) 1 (I) 5 (4) 2 (1) B.Sc. (Education) o (0) 3 (2) 5 (4) 2 (I) 1 (1) B.Sc. (General) o (0) o (0) o (0) 3 (2) 1 (1) B.Sc. (Agric.) o (0) 1 (1) o (0) o (0) 0(0) B.Sc. (Eng. Survey) o (0) o (0) 1 (l) 0(0) 1 (1) .Percentages are given in parentheses. Table 7 gives the pattern of degree choices of the arts students and the level at which education degree was preferred. Among the 102 arts students, S4 per cent of them (N= 102) had education as their first choice and 28 per 177 cent had indicated education as a second choice.s The number of students making education their third or fourth or fifth choice was negligible. It seems UTAFITI that the students were consistent in their interests. Once one has indicated a non-education degree as first choice education was not given as a second choice. Something else was chosen. It seems that those with B.A. (Ed.) as their first choice had B.A. General as their second choice since that was the second most popular degree course followed by Law and then Bachelor of Commerce for this sample of students. The most significant finding is the data showing that the majority of potential teachers in the arts and social sciences are not a disgruntled group who chose teaching as a last alternative. They voluntarily chose education. The mass media rhetoric tending to portray the teachers as a disappointed, unmotivated lot should be examined witll care. The proportion of students preferring teaching rather than doing anything else is high enough to suggest that the teaching force is composed of volunteers interested in their occupation and possibly well-motivated too. Comparable data for previous years was not available but it is unlikely that such a figure is a 1973/74 phenomena only. If any thing it might reflect an upward trend favouring the teaching profession. In a more recent study (Omari et. aI., 1975) involving about 700 primary school pupils (Primary Seven) and 200 secondary schools pupils (Form 4) teaching in both samples was given as the second choice, the first being a large category of other higher professions indicating that even in a free choice type of situation teaching is fairly well placed. However the differential salaries for the arts and science teachers (Chiwanga, Daily News, 2/5/74) might change the whole picture. It might lower the motivation of practising arts teachers and the proportion of Form 6 leavers favouring teaching the arts. The same analysis was performed on information for the science students (Table 8). It seems that science students have different feelings about educa- tion. Only 24 per cent (N= II 5) gave education as their first choice, and only eight per cent had it as a second choice. The majority of them wanted to join Engineering and failing there they would rather get into B.Sc. General than Education. This is reflected in the relatively larger percentage of subjects making B.Sc. General their second, third and fourth choices. Never- theless the students do not often make Education their last alternative. Other popular choices were Medicine, followed by B.Sc. Agriculture and B.Sc. Survey. For the science students (Table 8) education seems to be an unpopular occupation. for more than 75 per cent of the potential science teachers would not have been teachers if their personal preferences had been honoured. and very few had education as their second and third choices. It may be argued that the establishment of the Faculty of Engineering in 1973/74 was a novelty to the students, thus attracting the majority of them. The perceived future opportunities open to Engineering students may be greater than those in the teaching profession. However if that was the case Education would have been made a "good" second choice. In this case very few had it as the second 118 These results are consistent with Klingelhofer's data cited earlier. In light of the great emphasis placed on science education in the Tanzanian school system the government might need to find ways of consciously. purposely, and academically guiding secondary school science students into the teaching profession. The task might be that of improving teaching conditions in the schools. More importantly, provision of good laboratories. books, and the creation of attractive and prestigious institutes of science and technology where teaching might be academically challenging may be crucial factors. The institutes could conceivably follow the pattern of the Mzumbe Institute of Development Management and Administration and The Institute of Financial Management for arts subjects. The science institutes would probably cater for brains and talents from scientific subjects and might attract potential scientists from the secondary schools. Indeed Tanzania has not overtly shown interest in honouring scientific talents. In countries putting emphasis on education related to science and technology such overt signs might be necessary incentives. This becomes even more serious in a country like Tanzania where attitudes towards mathematics and the general mathe- 179 matical abilities of secondary school pupils are observed to be poor (Mmari, 1973). The issue is not one of physical expansion of facilities as currently UTAFlTI conceived (e.g., number of science streams being expanded). More important is the creation of scientific-oriented individuals. There might be a task of resolving a contradiction between the encouragement of individual academic excellence in the sciences and the furtherance of equality but that contradic- tion is not a necessary one. Students showing scientific promise should receive special academic incentives by getting them into prestigious institutes and technical colleges where qualified and motivated science teachers can also work together. Such institutes should possibly be of university calibre. Higher salaries for science graduate teachers might not create an atmosphere for nurturing scientific minds. Indeed in countries where institutes of technology exist, secondary school pupils like science subjects and work hard on them (Foster 1965). Concomitantly these institutes could help to strengthen the teaching of science subjects through research and teaching. Manifestations of scientific thinking and positive altitude towards hard sciences might not depend on material incentives as currently conceived by the government and the Ministry of National Education in particular. Though too early to assess the effects of the differential salaries for arts and science teachers designed to combat the shortage of science teachers, the side effects of the decision might outweigh the intended outcomes and it is not clear yet if they will be achieved. Wober (1974) advances a notion that occupational choices might not depend primarily on material incentives and status but on perceived and actual complexity of the task that matches the complex thinking involved in scientific pursuits. Pursuing this argument it would follow that science teaching has to be made interesting to scientifically minded students by making it match current scientific achievements. DISTRIBUTIONS OF CANDIDATES IN DIFFERENT FACULTIES Table 9 gives the distribution of candidates in different faculties of the University. Ordinarily students are distributed into faculties according to their first choices first, then their second and third choices. It seems that engineering is attracting the majority of the talented science candidates. Likewise law and medicine are more attractive than other occupations. Education does not seem to be very much worse off in attracting brilliant candidates when compared to other course such as B.A. General, B.Sc. General and B.Sc. Agriculture. However it seems as if in the science, agricul- ~u~e.and engineering will drastically reduce the number of brilliant students Jommg the teaching profession. Choice of a career might depend on the p~rceived cognitive complexity of the job and as such talented students mIght choose more complex occupations than the less talented ones. The 1972 Manpower Report takes pride in the large number of Form 6 passes since there was a surplus over University entrants required by manpower plans. But the report did not analyse the quality of the passes and their distributions by occupations. Educators need to be concerned about 180 UTAFITl .... '"c 9 _ C 4> -