English summary provided by author:
There is a widely held conviction that education can play a decisive role in the modernisation and progress of developing countries. In reality, however, there has been but little evidence of real development in Third World countries despite heavy investment and huge expansion in educational provision in these countries during the last quarter of a century. Of particular concern is the continuing inability of rural populations to improve their standards of living, modernise agriculture or achieve a level of agricultural production sufficient for the needs of their country
This study attempts to shed some new light, from an educational perspective, on the nature of development, the general relationship between education and real progress and the potential and limitations of various forms of agricultural education as contributing factors to rural and agricultural development. From a comparative study of educational theories and practices from a wide spectrum of developing countries, some general or universal principles of education for development can be distilled, with particular emphasis on agricultural education
A brief survey is given of the present state of development of South West Africa/Namibia. Finally, on the basis of the universal principles, some guidelines are drawn for education, and specifically agricultural education, that could contribute towards the future development of this country