Colonialism and Education: How has it played out?

Colonialism and Education: How has it played out? 

In Africa, Colonialism cannot be totally separated from Education, as there is what we call informal education and formal education. Informal education was in existence in Africa in the precolonial era, as it was in the form of apprenticeship, where children and or younger members of each household mostly learned from older members of their household, and community. In most cases, each household member learned more than one skill in addition to learning the values, socialization, and norms of the community/household. 

Some of the skills learned in Precolonial Africa include; Cooking, farming, wine making, dancing and in some cases selected people learnt how to practice herbal medicine, how to carve stools, how to carve masks and other furniture. 

History was also taught in this era as Parents, older members of households used oral story telling as a means to communicate the history, norms and values of their state, household and community. Children would gather around the storyteller who then narrates stories, usually, using personifications to tell stories that encourage conformity, obedience and values such as endurance, integrity, and other ethical values that are important for co-operation in the community. 

The origin of African education can be traced back to Egypt in Northern Africa. One of the first convenient mediums for retaining accurate information, papyrus, was used to develop systems for learning and developing new ideas. For a fact, one of the first form of higher education in Africa were the School of Holy Scriptures built in Ethiopia and Al-Azhar which was in Egypt. These schools became cultural and academic centers as many people travelled from all over the globe for knowledge and instruction. 

 Formal Education in itself was introduced into Africa by the European colonists, particularly in the West and Central Africa. Colonial powers such as Spain, Portugal, Belgium and France colonized the continent without putting in a system of education as at that time they only did what was going to be beneficial to them. Colonial powers often found themselves in a debate as to whether or not to educate their colonized populations and if so, t what extent. Specifically, the British Education Committee of the Privy council advocated for vocational education and training rather than one focused on academia. This vocational training however, neglected professions such as engineering, technology, or similar subjects. Instead, the vocational training had a dominant racial tone that stressed African training for skills fitting with their assumed social and mental inadequacy. Colonialists put in barriers in infrastructure or access such as limiting language of instruction to the language of the colonizer, limits on teaching curriculums, and ensuring the curriculum did no reflect any Afro-ethnicity. 

By demanding that communities create physical schools with strict curriculum, the foreign powers were able to dictate what the people learned, adjusting it to further their agenda. This not only forced new form and content to education, but abandoned the knowledge gained from the largely informal education. With less community awareness, efficiency in learning skills, and especially understanding of the past, African communities began to dwindle in education and prosperity. 

 Between the 1950s and 1990s, African countries finally regained their independence. With this recovered freedom, they began to rebuild their traditional forms of education. This inevitably evolved into a hybrid of the two models. Although children and adults may learn from their families and community, a sense of individuality has also developed that today both drives ingenuity and creates separation between groups and cultural tradition. 

 Reference: www.wikipedia.com