Upe And Employment

The relationship between the UPE scheme and employment is crucial. During the implementation period, labour constraints influenced the ease with which the scheme was launched; and, even more important, from the time the first cohort of pupils leaves school, the amount and type of employment available will be a vital determinant of the value of the campaign. If school leavers are unemployed for an extended period, both the economic and social benefits from investment in education are called into question. On the one hand, economic returns will be poor because skills acquired will not be fully utilised and because production by many children who would have been occupied both during their school years and afterwards would have been lost. On the other hand, unemployment may have undesirable social aspects both for individuals and the wider society. Some observers have expressed concern that the unemployed may threaten the stability of society and be easily manipulated by politicians (see, for example, Nigerian National Council for Adult Education 1978 , 1). This is not inevitable, but is nevertheless a factor worth considering.