As communities shift toward new forms of industry and commerce, the need for functional education becomes critical. In addition to vocational skills, a wide range of service skills, including modern medicine, disposal of rubbish, animal care, and vehicle maintenance, are required to improve living conditions. Many rural people see such training as expensive, marginally beneficial, and basically irrelevant to their work and to their daily lives. In addition, illiteracy is an underlying deterrent to all practical training.
The educational process, as well as the wage scale, tends to avoid bestowing sufficient prestige upon the skilled technical worker who is so critically needed for new, small industries in rural communities. When practical courses are offered, some potential students stay away out of ingrained prejudice against intellectual pursuits. Others reject courses that don't lead to success in one or another system of examinations.