DIFFERENT KINDS OF RTCs.

RTCs may be different in the following ways:

1. Ownership and control:

• By churches
• By local communities

2. Intake:

• People from local area or Province only / people from all Provinces.
• Male and female / female only / male only.
• Standard 6 leavers and below / Form 2 - 3 leavers / Form 4 - 5 leavers / a mixture of all.
• Straight from school / left school some time ago.

3. Purposes / Aims:

• To train Christian or church leaders (some have developed from Bible schools or are still mainly Bible schools).

• To teach people skills useful for living in villages / rural areas (RTCs)

• To teach people skills useful in rural and urban areas.

• To teach people skills useful in gaining paid employment (Vocational schools)

Some may have a combination of a number of these purposes.

4. Residential status:

• Day or boarding.

5. Length of courses:

• Full time from 1 to 3 years.
• Short courses from a few days to a few weeks.
• ‘Evening’ classes i.e. courses taught for 2 to 3 hours per day for a period of time, usually after ‘work’ time.

6. Funding:

• By churches.
• By local communities.
• By Provincial governments.
• By aid projects.
• By SIARTC

Or by combinations of these.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RTCs AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

RTCs.

• Owned /supported by churches or local communities.

• Aim to teach practical skills of direct use in people’s lives.

• Do not lead to further education or training.

• Partly or wholly self-financing.

• Aimed at people who have been ‘pushed out’ or dropped out of the formal school system.

• Selection relies on character and practical ability.

• Do not lead to a pass / fail examination.

• Assessed mainly by testing skills, not by written tests / exams.

Secondary schools

• Owned / supported by Provincial / National government or partly by churches.

• Teachers paid by government.

• Aim to teach knowledge and skills useful for further education or paid employment.

• Much of what is learnt is not of direct use in people’s lives.

• May lead to further education or training.

• Rely heavily on government grants and fees.

• Selection by public, competitive examination.

• Lead to graded written examinations with pass / fail element.

• Further studies depend on these examinations.

WHY DO PEOPLE SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO PRIMARY OR SECONDARY SCHOOLS?

Add your own ideas to this list.

• To give them a chance for further education and training.

• To find a paid job.

• In the hope that this will lead to a better life than they have had.

• Because they themselves went to secondary school.

• To help support them in their old age.

WHY DO PEOPLE JOIN RTCs?

Add your own ideas to this list.

• To learn skills useful in their everyday living.

• To learn skills to enable them to run a project or make money through self-employment.

• In the hope that they may get the chance of paid employment or further training.

• To avoid having to go back to life in a village or unemployment in town.