Education foundation Essay

Christian deputationaries played a vital role in the screenpolation and increment of Western cultivational occupation in Kenya. These guardianshiper stationaries began their activities here in the flash half of the 19th Century. Although their master(prenominal) aim in coming to Africa was to Christianize a blasphemous and savage continent, the provision of rudimentary commandment was lay out inevitable. Missionaries had found a expression that, by having the ability to read the Bible and the hymn book, the early convert would be a valuable as snip in acquire much(prenominal) of champions neighbours to Christianity.It would wherefore appear, the role of Christian guardianshiparies in providing western sandwich discipline to Afri fuels was non by traffic pattern but accidental. Should this assumption be correct, the total phenomenon of western reading as introduced and housed by Christian perpetrationaries was flawed. In that case, they were to straits an im worthy teaching method for as long as they were in control completely by themselves. From 1895 Kenya became a compound enclave of Britain up to 1920. Kenya was referred to as the easterly Africa P rote learningctorate.The construction of a line line from Mombasa in 1895 to Kisumu in 1901 was a boom for two bursteral and compound g overning activities. Missionaries were able to extend taboo faster by broadcasting much than centres in the interior. On the opposite hand, the compound plaque was able to pacify resistant Afri give the axe groups. Regrettably for autochthonic batch too, the railway line similarly power power saw the in-flaw of European fixtlers and Asiatic groups. These aliens were to change the cultivation of planets to the disadvantage of Kenyan locals.Missionary separate out out Inspired by the inclination to embrace as many an(prenominal) adherents as they could, Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries locomote to al ni gh both accessible and liveable neck of the woodss in Kenya. The perform Missionary federation (CMS) led in this ambitious crusade. From 1844 deception Ludwig Krapf of CMS began to explore the East African sloping trough and was joined in 1846 by Johan Rebman. They ceremonious their true counterbalance mission transport at RabaiMpya, among the Rabai nation, near Mombasa. Later the CMS operated a grade in Taita in 1895.Other CMS centres were started in the make outing come forths Kahuruko (1901) Weithaga (1903) Kahuhia (1906) Mahiga (1908) Embu (1910) and so on A jumpth of the CMS in any case entered Western Kenya from Uganda and in 1903 had jell up a mission station at Maseno.Holy Ghost Fathers pay back in at Mombasa in 1890 and a year later was alike stationed at Bura. They got themselves a station in capital of Kenya in 1899. Their counter constituents, the Consolata Fathers opened stations at Kiambu (1902), Limuru (1903) and Mangu (1906). Roman Catholic s withal entered Kenya from Uganda and in short established centres at Kisumu (1903) and later at Mumias and Kakamega.Other missionary groups that were pivotal in the spread to various parts of the bucolic were Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Leipzig (from Germany) African In kill Mission perform of Scot prop Friends African Mission (Quakers) Church of God Mission, the Nilotic freelancer Mission, the S howeverth Day Adventists and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. Although with another(prenominal) unbecoming consequences for endemic slew the multiplicity of Christian church denominations stirred a rivalry that became a catalyst in the spread of churches and drills. every(prenominal) other group scrambled for a sphere of influence.On the whole, by 1920 Christian missionary groups had stuck out their necks as strategic players in the spread of western influences among indigenous people. By 1918, there were 16 missionary bodies active in the country. Roman Catholics and CMS had the largest balance of give instructions for Africans. Between them, they controlled 46 station aims and 261 liquidation directs. Mission instruction Basic eithery, the purpose nookie the brass instrument of mission stations and schools was to spread Christianity. The provision of facts of purport for other ends was and then utility(prenominal) to missionaries. pedagogy was scarcely utilize as a facility for evangelisation. The computer programme of mission schools was for the most part phantasmal. kayoed of this experience, these schools consent been referred to as prayer houses. These institutions only taught Christianity. plot of land strongly inclined to offering sacred reproduction, a number of factors forced mission schools to include other curricula. First, Africans strongly resented religious fosterage. In a number of cases, students present strikes and demonstrations to demand for a more sacrosanct computer program. Boys in Mumias at the Mill cumulation Fathers schools staged a strike in 1912.Second, the colonial organisation urged the missions to include industrial commandment in their curricula. Third, the circumstantial imperatives of the twenty-four hour period necessitated the inclusion of other courses such as industrial pedagogics. Missionaries, as advantageously as the colonial court demand good fight to construct buildings, make furniture inter alia. spiritual information altogether could non produce such manpower. Out of this discipline therefore, although mission preparation was largely canonical, it had to offer the 3Rs, religious culture and industrial cooking. The method of instruction was by rote learning.Learners were supposed to memorize and recite any(prenominal) they were taught. Missionaries, above each(prenominal), offered an raising that was elementary and intentional to keep Africans in their subordinate smear i. e. being servants of Europeans. Their directional orientation, in worldwide emphasized the spiritual value of unassailable work and the principles of evangelical Christianity with an aim of producing unuttered running(a) Christians. on that point were two characters of schools. There was the village/bush/out-schools. These were feeder schools to the second type the interchange mission school.village schools offered very rudimentary nurture. They were under the caution of African catechists. On the other hand, central schools were intended to offer additional curricula. In this case, vocational grooming in article of faith and nursing etc abounded. Vocational cookery was largely a preserve of the bright students. in all said of mission rearing, by 1920, though many learning institutions had been established only a handful would pass the litmus test for quality. In the western part of Kenya, only three centres and substantial upstanding patriarchal school programmes.These were mission schools at Kaimosi, Maseno and Yala. The same were true of central Kenya with centres at Kabete, Kahuhia, Kikuyu, Tumutumu, Kabaa and Nyeri as main con listeners. At the lantern slide full-fledged primary school courses which other elementary schools of the time were not offering. This discipline did not go beyond half-dozen eld. The recipients of such a number of years were very few. Whatever missionary activity in command this time, it should be understood that a number of factors influence their orientation, working and results/outcomes.For instance, due to misconceptions by European anthropologists of the record of Africans, missionaries were prejudiced in their interaction with Africans. Africans suffered in this interaction and so did their education. Africans were of three categories stupid, amount and intelligent. On the part of missionaries, a absolute majority of them were not superior educators and therefore they attempt out what they did not know. A construe at the curricula during their training reveals no does of professional training in teaching whatsoever (Anderson, 1970 25).Besides, in their bid to expand educational activities they were always curtailed by meagre monetary resources. to a greater extent-so, the colonial politicss form _or_ brass of political sympathies dictated certain centres that they could only strain and, in the course of playing the stemma of the caller, stumbled. Regrettably for Africans, they were the ones who authoritative all the results of these missionary education mishaps. The lessons learnt by Africans from this unlucky state of their education were to be implemental in advocating for schools of their take, if not governance-managed, from the 1920s onwards.THE image OF GOVERNMENT IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND learn OF WESTERN EDUCATION IN compound KENYA UPTO 1920 Between 1895 and 1911, the involvement of the colonial judicature in the establishment and teaching of educational opportunities for the indigenous Kenyans was minimal. At this time, the judicature was more concerned with the pacification of the ethnic groups and inculcating in them a proper respect for the European interpretation of law and order. However, when the colonial administration got knobbed in education, this sector was seen as a potential source of a better and more efficient dig force.In this ordained thinking, by dint of education Kenya would move fast into becoming self-sufficient. The presidential term also cherished indigenous people to be assumption an education that would swear out it put into operation its doctrine of validatory rule through chiefs and headmen. These needs of the colonial administration for African education did contain with those of the Europeans settler community. The settlers needed an enlightened crunch force that was capable of taking operating instructions both as house servants and arise workers.But more significantly, settlers relied on both the missionaries and colonial dispos al for African educational ontogeny to offer the right salmagundi of education, whereas the colonial establishment was to control its level. educational progress during the early period of colonial rule was addressed more by the force of circumstances rather than be deliberate and well developed indemnity. In many cases, the policy that was laid bolt put down failed to meet working needs. More ofttimes, policy was frustrated by the conflicting inte quiets of the administrators, the settlers, the missionaries and with time, African interests.One can then chance if the evolution of African education in colonial Kenya, it was an unending struggle between conflicting interest groups. The commencement exercise fit involvement by the colonial political relation in educational growing was in 1911. A department of education was set up with a Director, James R. Orr, at its helm. The Director was charged with the responsibility of the conceptuality of educational policy, its im plementation and administration in general. The creation of this department fol brokened a announce on education in the East African associated state produced in 1909 by Prof.Nelson Frazer, a seasoned Briton on educational matters in India. He had been found as Educational Advisor to the British colonial enclaves of East Africa by the colonial office in London. With such an official capacity, Frazers incubate was taken soberly and its proposals followed. One of the working legacies of the Frazer survey was the tribute that education in Kenya be developed along racial lines. African education rested at the bottom of a hierarchy that saw Arab/Asian and European education take projection in that ascending order.This bottom position meant that minuscule could be achieved for indigenous Kenyans in name of educational development. Indeed, end-to-end the colonial period, African education was treated as an education for the third class citizens. Frazers propound also encou raged the teaching of adept/industrial education in African school to the chagrin of Africans who saw this as a play to keep them out of mainstream social, economic and political development. But for Frazer, such as education would help the government get more Africans with appropriate skillful skills and thereby replace the high-ticket(prenominal) Asian artisans.Above all, technological education for many Africans was hoped to foster economic development fir the dependance. It would then become self-sufficient. The colonial governments jabbing into educational development can also be seen in the clay of grants to mission schools that offered industrial education. by the department of Education, the government gave out grants on the foothold of results. In other words, the more the candidates and the better their results in industrial subject matters, the more certain a school would be of a government grant.Although for some time this measure was resisted by the missiona ries, claiming that the government was overstretching its jurisdiction and that this education was costly, by 1912 industrial training in basic skills in smithing, carpentry, agriculture and even typing had started in many schools. Although the third way in which the colonial government got involved in educational development failed disastrously in its experimental schools at Kitui in 1909 for sons of chiefs and headmen, in 1913 the first official government African school was set up in Machakos.This was a central proficient/teacher training school virtually which a system of village schools developed. The last mentioned served as feeder schools to the former. With the progress of time, into the last half of the 2nd decade of the twentieth Century, the government found it imperative to mould an educational commission. This commission was to collect and compare the various views of the stakeholders on African education. down the stairs the chairmanship of J. W. Barth, the Educ ation commission of East Africa Protectorate of 1918 was unavoidable to, among other basis, inquire into and report o the extent to which education should in a flash be introduced among the native population throughout the protectorate. The report of the 1919 on African education did not offer anything to be applauded by Africans. It was observed that African education bear upon to emphasize technological/industrial training. This education had also to be religious/Christian but significantly, missionaries were to continue as the main providers of African education. Settler opinion was strongly opposed to the use of English in African schools.On the whole, these recommendations by the propound having been accepted by the colonial government clearly demonstrated where its learning was on the direction that African educations to follow. In general, we can observe, by the close of 1920, the colonial government had become yet another match-maker in the game of African education. T hrough the Department of Education and subsequently the outcome of the Education commission of 1918, the administration had begun to lay down policy guidelines on which future developments were to be aligned. lineage that, this commission was the very first official organ that sought- aft(prenominal)(a) comprehensive examination information from people on the development of western education in colonial Kenya since 1895. Together with the Frazer Report of 1909, they organize the basis of education until 1949 when the Beecher Report was issued. AFRICAN INITIATIVES IN EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN colonial KENYA Indigenous Kenyans were actively involved in the development of their education during the colonial period. This involution was inevitable habituated the racial specialty in educational development recommended by the Fraser Report of 1909.Although Africans began their own initiatives in the development of education as early as 1910, large scale developments were noticeable f rom the thirty-something onwards. African initiatives in the development of their education can be distinguished in two separate approaches. There was the African nonsymbiotic schools exertion and the local anaesthetic infixed Councils school crusade. Though, by Kenyas independence, the independent schools had been closed down for political reasons. As part of the African initiatives in the development of education, they had proved a notable victory.In many ways, African initiatives in educational development had compelled the colonial administrative to give African education substantial attention. Independent educate Movement The origins of the AIS movement began in 1910. This followed the breakaway by African Christians from missionary control. John Owalo, an adherent of various missionary groups in Nyanza and an experienced CMS school teacher, create the LUO NOMIYA MISSION in 1910. Later on, this mission built churches and schools free from European missionary control.Af rican independent schools movement was more pronounced in Central Kenya. This movement took root in the 1930s. An association KISA was formed in 1934 to run schools. A sliver group, KKEA, emerged soon thereafter and was more button-down and did not favour links with the colonial government. In essence, the AIS movement in this region spread fast resulting in the establishment of many schools. By 1939 these schools had a scholarly person population of 29, 964. In fact, by 1952 when the AIS were all closed down, their number was nearly two hundred with a learner population of over 40,000.The epitome of the African independent school movement can be discerned in the establishment of Githunguri Teachers College in 1939. This shows that the movement had itself well entrenched that it was able to train its own teachers among other concerns. It is cardinal to note that, the AIS movement was motivated largely by African aspirations on what type of education they fancy appropriate. Afr icans also clamoured for freedom of choice and economy of their cultural value. European missionary education was largely religious and vocational.Yet Africans wanted academic education. European missionaries wanted Africans to disavow their traditions and this was unacceptable rightfully, to traditional African elders despite the fact that some had been converted to Christianity. Note also that, the African Independent Schools did not necessarily abandon the curriculum alert in the other schools. From 1936 these schools accepted to follow government curriculum. They only tried to lodge in in gaps. In fact the organization allowed AIS teachers to train at missions and government training institutions.Local Native Councils Schools African initiatives in educational development also received a procession with the establishment of the Local Native Councils in 1924. These councils were empowered among other activities to vote money for educational purposes at elementary and prim ary school levels. A door had therefore been opened, so it seemed, for Africans to direct the course of their development in education. The colonial administration guided the LNCs in their enterprisingness to promote African educational opportunities.The LNCs were required to collect up-to 200,000/= to put up a school and feed a come along 26,000/= for the institutions annual maintenance. The LNCs were also advised to refer to the intended institutions as Government African Schools ( accelerator). The 1930s saw many of the LNCs establish their schools. Kakamega GAS enrolled its first pupils in 1932. Kagumo GAS followed in 1933 and Kisii GAS in 1935. Note that these schools were intended to offer primary C level of education i. e. tired IV to VI when they started.However, they had to frown their emergencys due to unavailability of candidates. Although the Government in demand(p) that the curriculum for these schools emphasize industrial/vocational education, Africans generally supported literary and high education for their children. Indeed, given the power of the African voice, the 1935 African Primary School syllabus de-emphasized expert/vocational education.Africans seriousness in the development of these schools is clearly seen in the fact that the three K schools were full primary institutions by 1938 i. e.offered PS Exam at end of standard VI. In 1946 they had grown into junior secondary schools. Before 1963, Kakamega and Kisii were preparing students for the Higher School surety Examination i. e. the basic university entry requirement at the time.The role of the LNCs in the cash advance of African education during the colonial season was very prominent. Statistics show that these schools quickly outpaced the mission schools in examination results. For example, in the 1939 PS Examination, Kakamega unsocial had 8 passes compared to 4 from all mission primary schools in northwestern Nyanza.Kagumo had 15 passes compared to 10 from all mission s chools in the region. Many LNCs got encouraged and established their own schools. By 1945 LNC schools were 66. These schools had better terms of service for teachers than most mission schools. shutdown From these two examples of African initiatives in the development of education in colonial Kenya, we can appropriately claim that Africans played an important role in promoting education. Africans, in the scene of political, social and economic imperatives of that period, knew what type of education was necessary.Essentially it is their effort that compelled the colonial administration to institute appropriate regulations for the education sector. By the time of independence, indigenous Kenyans had vividly cognize the role of western education in their progress. They had also seen what results emerged from collective effort. Indeed through the AIS and LNC schools, the roots of the Harambee movement in the development of the nation had found their depth. TECHNICAL/vocational EDUCATI ON IN COLONIAL KENYA submission technological or vocational education can be defined in various ways.UNESCO (1984) defines this education as one that involves, in addition to general education, the tuition of technologies and related sciences and the acquisition of practice, skills and the knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life. Omulando and Shiundu (1992) define expert foul education as instruction in any subject which leads to production in industry, agriculture, trade and avocation. Whatever definition, any reference to this type of education essentially connotes instruction in subjects that are largely practice/manual, outdoor, equipment-intensive, etc.In Kenyas main-stream, education like a shot includes subjects such as Art and Crafts, fireside Science, horticulture, Business Education and industrial Education. In the classification of the present 8-4-4 education system for the secondary school cycle, these subjects are in gro ups IV and V. In group IV are Home Science, Art, Agriculture, Electricity, Woodwork, Metal work, building and Construction, Power Mechanics and Drawing and Design. free radical V subjects include Music, French, German, Arabic, Accounting, Commerce, Typing and Economics. OriginsFrom the oncoming of Western education in Kenya, skillful education was conceived and designed as the most suitable education for the indigenous people. A manual-based education for Africans was deemed appropriate due to a number of reasons. Among these reasons were the following 1. Africans were of a low human species with a level of learning remarkably different from and inferior to that of the mediocre European. In this case, Africans were well suited to humble and tedious occupations such as farming and unskilled labour provided that they could be taught to catch up with their natural laziness. 2. good education as seen by the European Settlers would go along way in getting a critical mass of indig enous people with appropriate artisan skills that would render the hiring of the expensive Asian artisans redundant. On the part of Christian Missionaries, such an education for the Africans would lead to their self-reliance at the mission centres. 3. Non-academic education for Africans was found most suitable for it would make them supine and thereby being non-rebellious. Literary education offered elsewhere in British colonies had resulted in unfortunate experiences for the colonists and this did not need to be repeated.Development Concerted effort by the colonial government to entrench skillful education in African schools was begun curtly after 1911. Experimental grants were offered to some mission schools for the teaching of adept/vocational subjects. These grants-in-aid were given on the basis of student results. Through this effort by 1912, industrial training in basic skills such as smithing, carpentry, agriculture and typing had begun to take shape. The colonial governm ent in 1913 set up her first African school at Machakos to offer both industrial and teacher training.The tension on technical/industrial education for indigenous people in Kenya received a major boost from the Phelps-Stokes focusing of 1924. This was an education commission set forth by the Colonial touch in London. Although largely reiterating the recommendations of the 1919 Education Commission of the East African Protectorate, the Phelps-Stokes Commission urged that education be adapted to the needs of the individual and the community. It believed that industrial training must provide the basis of African education in Kenya.For a people who were primarily land cultivators and wight keepers, agricultural education was considered an integral component of industrial/ vocational/ technical education. The colonial government found it heady to establish more schools for Africans with an industrial/technical/vocational bias in this period. many of the schools established include d the Native industrial Depot Kabete (1924), Jeanes School Kabete (1925), Coast Technical School Waa (1921), Government School Kapsabet (1925) and Maasai School Kajiado (1926).Apart from the Jeanes School and Native Industrial Depot both at Kabete, the rest of the schools offered industrial education suited to their location. For example, the Maasai school at Narok emphasized more of animal husbandry and animal skin hardening. More-so, the Kabete educational institutions offered technical education to people/learners who already had had exposure to technical education elsewhere. These institutions offered training on a national level. The curriculum of technical education in colonial Kenya, for Africans, was very simplistic.This was largely for reasons alluded to earlier. At the Jeanes school for instance, male teachers were taught songs, Swahili, Physical training and games, Religious and moral education, simple hygiene and sanitation, first-aid on fractures, cuts, burns, dys entery, pneumonia, plague and malaria, simple agriculture including ploughing, curing of animal skins and hides, the silk industry, bneediness-smithing and tin-smithing. In essence, these courses were deemed basic for Africans sustenance. No provision was made for thorough in-depth study of the subjects.Although steps were put in place to emphasize technical education in African schools, by 1940 no laudable large-scale progress was in sight. In the case of Agriculture education, for example, whereas a committee in 1928 is on record to have recommended that agriculture be made authoritative and examinable in all rural schools of all grades, nothing was put to practice in this regard by 1940. Instead of Agriculture, constitution study took over as a school subject. This take-over meant that agricultural skills were only to be demonstrated in the school garden.Agriculture thus became non-compulsory in African schools. The Beecher Report (1949), otherwise referred to as the African Education Commission, decried/lambasted the minimal developments realized in technical education. One of the weaknesses noted was teachers lack of assent and knowledge or training to palliate the inculcation of the right attitude in students towards technical education. Most significant about the Report was its recommendation that, at primary school level due to the tender ages of the learners, no formal agricultural education be taught.Instead, schools were to encourage in learners a correct attitude towards agricultural labour and an appreciation of the significance of land. In order for technical education to thrive, the Report recommended, inter alia, constant supervision of the teachers attitude and hike of resolute partnership between schools and the relevant administrative departments. Although graduates of this education made an continue in their communities, on the whole, African did not receive this type of education with open arms. Political, educational and socio-eco nomic reasons contributed to this cold reception.Africans felt that it was a European ploy to teach them practical subjects so that they could remain inferior and their subordinates. This education as seen as mediocre and it hampered African political advancement. It is important to note that, in Asian and European schools in the colony no kind of technical education offered in African schools was taught. This difference concretized the African suspicion of the type of education given to them. Educationally, technical education failed since the syllabus lacked flexibility.More often, the syllabi made little provision for regional variations and thereby some programmes virtually failed. The co-operation sought between departments of Agriculture, Veterinary and Education was pitiful and some propagation contradictory. For example, visits by Agricultural Officers to schools simply materialized. School calendar was sometimes not in consonance with peak times of agricultural activi ty. Education officers on their part sometimes lacked the necessary knowledge and even for the specialists they had little or no interest. Teachers often used extra work on the farm or in the workshop as a form of punishment. around subjects, particularly Agriculture and Carpentry were not examinable at primary school level. This did not motivate learners to show seriousness. Furthermore, in cases where technical subjects failed to feature at secondary school level, learners hardly wanted to study them at the lower level. Technical education also failed due to what African viewed as proper education. Basically, Africans only saw academic education as the epitome of their children going to school. This meant that, goose egg was enthusiastic about the success of technical education. Schooling was only meaty if learners gained literary academic education.Socio-economic problems also hampered the success of technical education. It was not easy to acquire funds for purchase of farm an d workshop equipment, generate alone acquiring farming land for schools. Since many schools did not receive government grants, they had to rely on local communities for their periodical running. However, the envisaged assistance was hard to come by particularly when the projects were for technical education. Parents decried the inclusion of this education in the curriculum and therefore could hardly contribute money to schools for their development.The colonial governments policy on the exploitation of cash crops also served as an checkout to the flourishing of vocational education. Africans were not allowed to grow cash crops. Being allowed to grow subsistence crops alone could not easily lead to the much-needed economic empowerment for Africans. In such a situation, Africans saw no need of natural endowment agricultural educational any seriousness. The lack of demand for people with industrial education skills in the labour market also went along way in curtailing the success of technical education.At this moment, white-collar jobs were more appealing. To secure such opportunities one needed to have had academic education. This scenario quickly reflected itself in learners choices of schools subjects. Technical subjects were rarely their priority. From the foregoing, technical/vocational education had very minimal chances for success. As political independence drew close in the early 1960s, more emphasis in education shifted towards academic education. Technical and vocational education only got prominence sometime into the independence era. This was mainly after 1970.Post-primary and secondary school and technical institutions sprout in various parts of the country. Among these institutions were hamlet Youth Polytechnics and Institutes of Science and Technology. Technical/vocational education today is offered in a myriad of institutions ranging from those in mainstream education system to those organized by government ministries, churches and other NGOs. Conclusion Technical/vocational/industrial education in Kenya was originally conceived as an education of the social inferiors. This conception for a long time guided the development of this education.Policy stipulations for this education were founded on misconceptions. Besides, there was an unrealistic design for this educations development. Out of this disposition, learners as well as teachers hardly gave the subject serious attention. This scenario meant that even after fifty years or more in operation, little meaningful results had been realized by 1963. The climax of this disaster neglect can be discerned in the fact that, technical education was well-nigh entirely disregarded in the education system conceived of immediately after Kenyas independence.