Education in Africa began as a tool to prepare its young to take their place in the African society. The African education experience was strictly set up to prepare the young for society in the African community and not necessarily for life outside of Africa. The schooling system of pre-European colonialism consisted of groups of older people teaching aspects and rituals that would help them in adulthood. Education in early African societies consisted in such things as artistic performances, ceremonies, games, festivals, dancing, singing, and drawing. Boys and girls were taught separately to help prepare each sex for their adult roles. The high point of the African educational experience was the ritual passage ceremony from childhood to adulthood. There were no academic examinations necessary to graduate in the African educational system.
When European colonialism and imperialism took place it began to change the African educational system. Schooling was no longer just about rituals and rites of passage, school would now mean earning an education that would allow Africans to compete with countries such as the United States and those in Europe. Africa would begin to try producing their own educated students as other countries had.
However, participation rates in many African countries are low. Schools often lack many basic facilities, and African universities suffer from overcrowding and staff being lured away to Western countries by higher pay and better conditionsю
Nearly all countries in Sub Saharan Africa have implemented policies to ensure free universal primary education of acceptable quality. Rising primary enrollment and completion rates, as a result of these policies, have brought increased demand for access to post-primary education.
Some countries are now declaring free universal secondary education. While the social and economic rationale for expanding learning opportunities beyond primary education is clear, the challenges are daunting, and the task of developing sustainable secondary education strategies is complexю
Education in Africa is a phrase used to cover everything from the highly developed medical studies offered in some African universities to the slow and laborious literacy campaign run in the most remote villages. For the majority in Africa today, education is the keystone for rapid development.
The acceleration in African education started after World War II and has been moving at a rapid rate during the past decade. From the few classes organized by Portuguese missionaries four centuries ago, education proceeded at a casual rate until World War II. A few landmarks had been established, such as Fourah Bay College (1827) in Sierra Leone, and in East Africa an outstanding secondary school, Makerere (1921), that was destined to become the University College of East Africa. But the distribution of educational facilities throughout sub-Saharan Africa was uneven and spotty. In West Africa, the coastal regions almost always had better opportunities for students than the interiors.
The unevenness of distribution of schools was well illustrated in West Africa. As recently as 1954, eleven of the thirteen secondary schools in Sierra Leone were located in the colony and only two in the protectorate. In former French West Africa the percentages of children of school age actually attending primary schools in 1955 ranged from 2.6 per cent in Niger to 24.3 per cent in Dahomey. This condition continues today as reported in the Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Africa held bv UNESCO in 1961. While some African states reported 60 per cent of the school age children in school, others reported only 2 per cent.
The thrust in higher education since the World War II has been one of the most spectacular developments in African education. Of the thirty-eight universities serving Africa throughout the continent, twenty-three have been opened since 1945, thirteen within the last decade. On the basis of present plans there appears much likelihood that expansion will continue rapidly.
While the growth of education since 1945 has been remarkable, it is but the beginning. "In the majority of countries the proportion of children out of school exceeds 80 per cent of the school age population" (UNESCO, 1961). Emphasis on education has been expansion of present systems. Effort has been directed primarily towards meeting the demands of villagers for more schools, of youths for more education, and of business and governments for trained personnel. The general approach throughout most of Africa, therefore, has been to expand the existing structure under the pressure of the need to produce more trained personnel for the country. But changes in the existing system are necessary.
There is an increasing demand in every country that the curriculum of the schools be Africanized. For the vast majority of educators it means the attempt to adapt the curriculum to the needs of the African environments. It is a striving for a system that will present those universals needed by an educated person in the world and yet relate them to the local and African setting. It is an attempt to strip the imported cultural baggage from the curriculum, retain the core of knowledge, skills and aptitudes, and surround it with an African setting.
Africanization of the curriculum would require extended research in the history, geography, natural sciences, folklore and folk music of the areas. Attempts have been made by some teachers to gather data on local history and geography. Such amateur attempts have undoubtedly been helpful, but the need is for studies conducted by specialists trained in a discipline.
Africans of all nations are greatly interested in learning more about their own country and about their neighbours' as well. School children in Sierra Leone should know their neighbour, Guinea, as children in Uganda should know Kenya etc. Africanization will depend on the production of studies in the subject areas, the countries and the continent. Once the studies have been made, it will become the task of textbook writers and curriculum experts to determine how the content can be built into the elementary and secondary education.
There is an additional and related need to train educators who can apply the findings of the social sciences to education. At present the inclination of the institutes of education is to concentrate on methodology. Old catechistic methods of teaching must be replaced by new, up-to-date efficient teaching methods. In order to achieve this and to reach the goals set by African educators, close collaboration between the social scientists and educators is necessary.
ACTIVE VOCABULARY
Administer; admit to; admission; attend; attendance; basic; board; a board of education;boarder; boarding school; certificate; teacher's certificate, certificate of secondary education; certification requirements; certificated teacher; course (elective / selective); curriculum; degree (BA, BSc, MA, MSc, Dr); education (primary, secondary, tertiary); educational; educational authorities; educationalist; educator; enroll; enrolment; enter; examination (in a subject); entrance examination; leaving examination; competitive examination; examiner; a board (jury) of examiners; fail / do badly (in an examination); grade; instruct; instruction; the language of instruction; literacy; literate; illiteracy; anti-illiteracy campaign; pass / do well at (an examination); programme; progress through school; promote; promotion; provide (for); provision (for); the three R's; scholarship; school (primary / elementary; secondary /middle; higher; technical; vocational; missionary; normal; preparatory; intermediate; junior high; senior high; public; private; state-run; non-state-run); to sit / re-sit an exam; subject (academic / obligatory); teaching methods (active, passive, bookish, catechistic); train; professional training; a teacher's training college.