Vouchers, informal training and loose coupling: What Kenya's universities can learn

Munene, Ishmael I. and Otieno, Wycliffe (2005) Vouchers, informal training and loose coupling: What Kenya's universities can learn. Journal of Higher Education in Africa, 3 (1). pp. 101-130. ISSN 0851-7762

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Abstract

Educational reforms in African countries that are spearheaded by international donor agencies like the World Bank have earned the skeptical eye of policy analysts and scholars both locally and abroad. The World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programme, for instance, has been faulted for increased dropouts in schools, especially by the poor, and for the general retreat from financing education by national governments. This paper presents a different argument. It examines the success attained in Kenya’s informal sector training programme, the Jua Kali Voucher Training Programme (JKVTP), a collaboration between the World Bank, the Kenyan Government and the private sector. Using loose coupling as an analytical framework, we illustrate why the voucher system, a World Bank reform, has worked with the JKVTP but failed to materialise in Kenya’s higher education. By analyzing the coupling arrangements with the political state, markets, and policymaking, we demonstrate why vouchers generate differential outcomes in the two sectors of education. The paper concludes by suggesting policy implications for Kenya’s universities.

Item Type:	Article
Publisher’s Statement:	JHEA/RESA Vol. 3, No. 1, 2005, pp. 101-130 © Boston College & Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa 2005
Keywords:	Kenya, Universities, Vouchers, Training Programs, loose coupling
Subjects:	L Education > LC Special aspects of education > LC5201 Education extension. Adult education. Continuing education
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Faculty/Staff
Department/Unit:	College of Education > Educational Leadership
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2016 16:17
URI:	http://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/2614

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