This study was sponsored by the Economic and Social Committee on Overseas Research (ESCOR) (UK) and the Education Division of the Department for International Development (DFID). From March 1996 to March 1997, Nicola Swainson was a research fellow at the School of African and Asian Studies at the University of Sussex. The local research collaborators have the following affiliations: Dr. Stella Bendera, Bureau of Educational Research and Evaluation, Faculty of Education, University of Dar es Salaam; Esme Kadzamira, the Centre for Research and Training at Chancellor College in Zomba and Rosemary Gordon, Department of Educational Foundations University of Zimbabwe.
Thanks to Professor Ralph Grillo from CDE who provided academic support and also to Liz Moore and Sue Jackson who gave administrative and practical assistance to the project. Terry Pearce provided secretarial services for the production of the draft and final report.
Research assistance was provided in Tanzania by Emmaneul Makundi. In Zimbabwe Edward Shizha ably assisted the research by collecting essential secondary data. In Malawi Shamiso Mnthali and Mercy Chipumhu did some of the tying and Percy Mwachumu assisted in data collection.
Last, but by no means least I would like to thank Paul Bennell for his untiring help and support during this project. Thanks also to Paul for his extensive comments on preliminary drafts and to Pauline Rose for her helpful comments on the final draft.
