p There are various forms of personnel training used in the cooperation between the USSR and independent African countries. Assistance is rendered both in establishing the material and technological basis for developing technical education (the construction of institutes, technical schools, training centres, etc.), and in Soviet experts training local 247 personnel during the construction and operation of industrial and other projects.

p The Soviet Union has always shown a concern for training local experts to perform intricate building and installation operations and ensure the effective operation of completed projects independently. Thousands and thousands of experts and workers have been trained with Soviet assistance directly on joint projects during their construction and exploitation and over 100,000 at special Soviet-built training centres during the short period of economic and technological cooperation between the USSR and African countries.

p In keeping with the agreements signed by the Soviet Union and African countries by early 1978, over 100 various training centres were to be built on the continent. Most of them had been built and were functioning by 1980. These are mostly poly technical, agricultural, petrochemical, mining and metallurgical, and medical institutes and technical schools and various vocational centres.

p Specifically, the following educational establishments were built with Soviet assistance: polytechnical institutes in Conakry (Guinea) and Bahrdar (Ethiopia), the National Technical Institute in Tunisia, the National Institute of Oil, Gas and Chemistry at Boumerdas (Algeria), and the Higher Administrative School in Bamako (Mali). These establishments are well equipped and employ modern progressive teaching methods, which have earned them a good reputation both in their respective countries and abroad.

p The Polytechnical Institute at Bahrdar was built in 1963 and donated by the Soviet Government to the people of Ethiopia. The Institute has 1,000 students (a four-year study course with a 250 annual intake). Before 1966, it had five departments: mechanisation of agriculture, chemical technology, electrical equipment for industrial enterprises, wood-working technology, and textile technology. In 1966, a new department—metal-working technology—was added. For a certain period lectures on all technological subjects were given by Soviet staff.

p In 1969, a group of 37 graduates from the Institute were sent to the USSR to continue their studies at Soviet higher educational establishments in order to be able to work at their own Institute as lecturers. In the mid-1970s, some Ethiopians educated in the Soviet Union began lecturing at 248 the Bahrdar Institute. The number of Soviet personnel assisting in organising and conducting the study course was reduced accordingly. In 1967, the first 151 students graduated from the Institute. By 1978, their numbers had increased to one thousand.

p In 1964, a Polytechnical Institute was built with Soviet assistance in Conakry. Today it plays an important role in providing national personnel. The Institute includes lecture-rooms, laboratories, training-in-production workshops and special studies with modern equipment. It is the first, and so far the only, educational establishment of this kind in the whole of West Africa. In accordance with a resolution passed by the Politbureau of the Democratic Party of Guinea, in 1968 the first group of young graduates from the Institute was awarded the name of Lenin as a sign of gratitude to the Soviet people.

p The Institute’s student body is expanding every year. It was designed to accommodate 1,500 students, but the actual figures were: 1,395 students in the 1970/71 academic year and 2,500 in 1972/73. By the end of the 1970s, more than 3,500 students had attended lectures in the physics and mathematics, civil engineering, electrotechnical, geological and mining, agricultural, chemical and pharmaceutical, social, and administration departments. The Institute has a medical faculty with therapeutic and pharmaceutical departments which have become leading centres for training skilled medical personnel.

p Many chairs and laboratories are engaged in research work, under the supervision of Soviet instructors, into subjects of vital interest for the national economy. Upon the recommendation of the Soviet teaching staff, senior students now specialiseln professions needed for the bauxite mining complex built in Guinea with Soviet technical assistance.

p Over 100 Soviet lecturers and experts specialising in equipment maintenance worked at the Institute. Scores of Guinean probationers learnt from Soviet teaching staff, and a group of Guinean teachers was sent to the USSR for postgraduate courses andTtraining work. Some Guinean teachers are offered post-graduate studentships at their own Institute.

p In Mali, the Higher Administrative School, built with Soviet assistance for high-ranking government functionaries, began functioning in 1965, It trains managers, lawyers, and diplomats.

p In 1966, the first batch of students was enrolled at the Agricultural Polytechnical Institute in Mali which was built and completely equipped by Soviet organisations on “ turnkey” terms. It trains high-and medium-level agricultural personnel and farm mechanics and accommodates 600 students.

p The El Tabbi Mining and Metallurgical Institute, built in Egypt with Soviet assistance, began functioning in 1968. It trains top engineers and research personnel for the national metallurgical and mining industries. The study course was based on Soviet curricula and syllabi. A highly qualified body of Soviet instructors (most of them with doctor’s and candidate’s degrees) worked at the Institute. They participated in organising research both at their own Institute and at major enterprises and research centres in the country. Many Egyptian teachers and graduates from this Institute worked on probation at Soviet iron and steel works and higher educational establishments. The Institute has already trained several hundred engineers in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, foundry work, rolled steel production, heat treatment, automation of metallurgical processes, metallurgical furnaces and heat engineering, mechanical equipment for iron and steel works, economics and ths organisation of metallurgical production, and mining. Since the 1973/74 academic year the Institute has been training engineers specialising in solid fuel chemical technology (coke production).

p The National Technical Institute of Tunisia, built with Soviet assistance in 1969, accommodates 700 students. So far it is the country’s only centre for training engineers. The Institute’s curriculum provides for a 5.5-6-year study course. The first group of students graduated in September 1975. In the mid-1970s, the teaching staff numbered 160 instructors, of whom several dozen were from the Soviet Union. The administration is taking measures to train its own teaching staff, so gradually the Soviet personnel will be replaced by specially trained Tunisian graduates.

p The Institute maintains close contacts with Soviet higher educational establishments. In 1973, it signed longterm cooperation agreements with three Soviet institutes and drew up concrete programmes for cooperation for a period of two years. Such ties with Soviet higher educational establishments are a great help to the Institute. The Soviet samples of diploma and academic year papers, for instance, 250 played a positive role in working out the graduation procedure.

p In Algeria, the problem of training national personnel is also being solved with the assistance of the Soviet Union, which cooperates in building and operating higher and secondary educational establishments, as well as vocational training centres. These establishments train the technical staff and skilled workers for virtually all the major branches of the national economy, primarily for the national oil industry, metallurgy, mining, geology, engineering, the textile industry, the building materials industry, and water management.

p By 1978, more than ten training centres for 6,000 students had been built and commissioned in Algeria with Soviet assistance. Some 15,000 skilled workers trained there are employed in ferrous metallurgy, geological surveying, mining, the defence industry, textile production, agriculture, and engineering. In 1976, an agreement was reached on cooperation in building new big training centres for the simultaneous training of a thousand production-training instructors and the same number of skilled workers for ferrous metallurgy.

p Graduates from the first higher educational establishment, built with Soviet assistance in 1964—the National Institute of Oil, Gas and Chemistry at Boumerdas—now work as engineers and technicians in the National Oil Company SONATRACH, on the Sahara oilfields, and also at the oil refineries and petrochemical plants at Skikda, Annaba, Algiers, and Arzew. In 1971, this Institute’s graduates played an important role in Algeria’s life when they stepped in after the French oil experts were recalled following the partial nationalisation of French interests in Algeria.

p In his speech at the inauguration of the steel foundry of the El Hadjar Iron and Steel Works built with Soviet assistance, Chairman of the Revolutionary Council Houari Boumedienne emphasised the special importance of the National Institute of Oil, Gas and Chemistry at Boumerdas, saying that its "recent graduates have contributed to the replacement of the foreign technicians and engineers who proved unreliable during the take-over of our oil wealth in February 1971".  [250•6 

p By 1978, the Institute had trained some 1,000 engineers and over 2,500 technicians with high qualifications, which satisfied nearly 70 per cent of the country’s requirements for oil and gas industry engineers and technicians. In the 1980s it will be training over 1,000 engineers and technicians a year. For comparison, in the early 1970s there were only a thousand diploma-holding Algerian engineers and technicians in all.

p The 1972/73 academic year was the first of the Light Industry Institute set up on the basis of the textile department of the African Institute of Oil and Gas and Textile Industry, where students from many African countries study. The Institute trains engineers and technicians in 17 specialities. By 1977, it had trained 54 engineers and 462 technicians. The Annaba Mining and Metallurgical Institute, built with Soviet assistance in 1969, trains mining engineers, metallurgists, and civil engineers for industrial projects built or being built in cooperation with the USSR. The LandReclamation Institute, also built with Soviet assistance, is playing a major role in carrying through the land reform in Algeria. By the mid-1970s, its student body numbered over 300. An agreement was reached on setting up two more institutes—of applied mathematics and of industrial chemistry—within the framework of Setif University.

p Nigeria is showing a growing interest in cooperation with the Soviet Union in training national personnel. A centre has been built there with Soviet aid to train skilled workers for the oil industry.

p In addition to technical assistance in building and outfitting new higher educational establishments, the Soviet Union has also participated in organising special departments in existing African universities. For example, Soviet organisations have extended aid in equipping the engineering and medical faculties of Lusaka University ( Zambia).

p The USSR aids a number of African countries in setting up various research centres. These include: phytopathological and virological laboratories in Ethiopia, a research centre that is part of the oceanographic and solar power engineering laboratories in Guinea, a complex laboratory in Nigeria, and an oil research laboratory in Algeria. These and other research centres, together with the Soviet personnel 252 working there, also play an important role in training African research staff.

p The Soviet Union extends considerable aid to African countries in specialised secondary and vocational training. It has helped to build secondary educational establishments, schools, colleges and training centres in Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, the People’s Republic of the Congo, Mali, Somalia, Uganda, and some other countries. Agreements have been signed to build similar establishments in Zambia, Kenya, Nigeria, Chad, and Ethiopia.

p Between 1959 and 1974, 44 centres for training skilled workers were built in Egypt—in Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan, Helwan, Nag Hammadi, Ganaklis, Port Said, and other towns. These centres train skilled workers of a wide range of professions—from farm mechanics to workers for power, metallurgical and general engineering plants. The training centres are fitted out with modern equipment, instruments and necessary technical documents supplied by the USSR. Experienced teachers and production training foremen have been sent to Africa to organise the study process. This has ensured a high standard of training of local labour. The Soviet-built training centres in Egypt were the main source of skilled labour for major enterprises, such as the Alexandria Shipyard, and Helwan Iron and Steel Works.

p The Aluminium Plant at Nag Hammadi is an important project built in Egypt in cooperation with the USSR. To ensure a supply of skilled labour, a training centre was commissioned there in 1973, well ahead of schedule. By the time the plant was ready, the training centre had put out the necessary contingent of skilled labour.

p The training of experts at the centres built with Soviet assistance is based on the principle of imitating conditions that are as close as possible to real production. The training centres are a special kind of enterprise the output of which produced by the trainees is marketed. This ensures that they partly cover their costs and meets the high demands on the craftsmanship of the workers in training. Under the guidance of Soviet experts, the knowledge they receive is consolidated and work habits improved during the construction and actual operation of enterprises. The method of team and individual training emerged, was developed and became popular in the course of joint work on building sites. It involves the transfer of knowledge, work 253 habits and experience from Soviet experts to local personnel individually and on a group basis and has proved effective for training virtually all categories of employees— from managers to ordinary workers.

To sum up, the construction of educational establishments and training centres in Africa and the training of local personnel during the construction of Soviet-African projects constitute the most effective means for promoting a rapid technological and economic growth of the African countries.