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The Dynamics of Educational Policy Formation: Kenya 1928–1934

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Donald Schilling
Donald Schilling*
Affiliation:
Denison University
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Extract

Educational policy has too frequently been understood as that body of weighty pronouncements on educational matters issued by higher authorities. Encapsuled in official reports and policy statements, educational policy appears rigid, changing only as one official document replaces another. Consequently, the study of educational policy has also acquired a static, one-dimensional quality in some hands. Emphasizing the contents of reports and their relationships to previous and subsequent policy statements, these analyses fail to penetrate the surface to reach a more profound understanding of educational policy.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , Spring 1980 , pp. 51 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. These problems particularly characterized earlier studies of educational policy such as Lewis, L. J., Education Policy and Practice in British Tropical Africa (London, 1954); Hilliard, Frederich H., A Short History of Education in British West Africa (London, 1957); Mason, Reginald James, British Education in Africa (London, 1959); Wise, Colin, A History of Education in British West Africa (London, 1956). More recent studies have not always escaped from these limitations as Kurtz, Laura S., An African Education: The Social Revolution in Tanzania (Brooklyn, 1972), and Mwanakatwe, J. M., The Growth of Education in Zambia since Independence (Lusaka, 1968), too clearly indicate. Sheffield, James, Education in Kenya: An Historical Study (New York, 1973), does much better although his treatment is too brief to allow for a satisfying analysis of the dynamics of policy formation.Google Scholar

2. See Benoit, Andre, “A Note on Decision-Making Processes in the Politics of Education,” Comparative Education Review, 19:1 (Feb. 1975), 157. Also Etzioni, Amitai, The Active Society (New York, 1968), pp. 292–295.Google Scholar

3. British Colonial administration in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The Policy-Making Process (New Haven, 1970), xi.Google Scholar

4. Etzioni, , The Active Society, pp. 303–304.Google Scholar

5. For a picture of the internal workings of the Colonial Office see Parkinson, Cosmo Sir, The Colonial Office from Within, 1909–1945 (London, n.d.), especially pp. 24–36 on the handling of incoming dispatches. Also Jefferies, Charles Sir, The Colonial Office (London, 1956), pp. 122–130.Google Scholar

6. Although he uses somewhat different categories at points and his analysis is not directed at the process of policy formation, Anderson, John, The Struggle for the School (London, 1970), 9–111, discusses these actors. Also Schilling, Donald G., “British Policy for African Education in Kenya, 1895–1939,” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972), pp. 1–82.Google Scholar

7. The term “decision participants” is used by Robinson, James and Majok, Roger, “The Theory of Decision-Making,” in Charlesworth, James C., ed., Contemporary Political Analysis (New York, 1967), pp. 175–188. On the implications of the colonial situation see Balandier, George, “The Colonial Situation: A Theoretical Approach,” in Wallerstein, I., ed., Social Change: The Colonial Situation (New York, 1966).Google Scholar

8. The best short treatment of the political life of Kenya from a European perspective remains, Bennett, George, Kenya: A Political History (London, 1963). Rosberg, Carl and Nottingham, John, The Myth of “Mau Mau”: Nationalism in Kenya (New York, 1966), offers a stimulating treatment of the growth of African nationalism. For the difficulties of administering the Education Department see Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Education Department Annual Report, 1926 and 1933. Orr's problems as an administrator are highlighted in Colonial Office, Public Record Office, London (hereafter CO), 533/368, File 10257. Also Edinburgh House Archives, London (hereafter EHA), Box 233/file: Jesse Jones, Thomas Dr. 1921–1938, Oldham, J.H. to Jones, , May 14, 1926. As for Scott, H.S., Anderson, , Struggle for the School, 48, judges him to be Kenya's most able Director of Education in the colonial period.Google Scholar

9. Among the most significant policy statements of the Advisory Committee were Educational Policy in British Tropical Africa, Cmd. 2374 (London, 1925), and Memorandum on the Education of African Communities, Col. No. 103 (London, 1935). The following case study will indicate the manner in which the Advisory Committee functioned in dealing with specific matters.Google Scholar

10. For the classic general study of mission activity in East Africa consult Oliver, Roland, The Missionry Factor in East Africa (London, 1952); for more specific examination of the mission-education linkage see Strayer, Robert W., The Making of Mission Communities in East Africa (London, 1978); Temu, A. J., British Protestant Missions (London, 1972); Kieran, J.A.P., “The Holy Ghost Fathers in East Africa, 1863–1914” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1967); Macintosh, B. G., “The Scottish Mission in Kenya, 1819–1923 (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1969).Google Scholar

11. Data from Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Education Department Annual Report, 1938, Tables V and XVIII.Google Scholar

12. On the geographic rivalry see Strayer, , The Making of Mission Communities, pp. 41–47; Kieran, , “Holy Ghost Fathers,” 195. Not all missions were eager to unite in forming a partnership with government in education. The African Inland Mission, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Church of God, the Gospel Missionary Society, and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada all refused to join in the grant-in-aid program. The three Roman Catholic societies working in Kenya were also very hesitant to enter into the relationship until the late 1920s when they too began to participate fully in the grant-in-aid program.Google Scholar

13. The Alliance which emerged from the United Missionary Conference at Kikuyu in 1913 included only four of the missionary societies: the Church Missionary Society, the Church of Scotland Mission, the African Inland Mission and the United Methodist Mission; hence the Kenya Missionary Council was established to encompass most of the Protestant missions. On crucial occasions the Roman Catholics would attend a Kenya Missionary Council meeting to develop a common strategy. The minutes of the KMC reveal the extent of its activities as a lobbyist for mission education. See EHA/Box 234/file: Kenya Missionary Council 1924–1944.Google Scholar

14. Bennett, George, “Paramountcy to Partnership: J.H. Oldham and Africa,” Africa, 30 (1960), 356–360; Dougall, J.W.C., “J.H. Oldham,” International Review of Missions, LIV, 233 (Jan. 1970), 8 22. Cell, John W., By Kenya Possessed: The Correspondence of Norman Leys and J. H. Oldham, 1918–1926 (Chicago, 1976), pp. 37–87. The best picture one can get of Oldham's work behind the scenes and ability to influence people in high places comes from an examination of his extensive correspondence in the Edinburgh House Archives, London.Google Scholar

15. The classic sympathetic study of European settler leadership and its aims in Kenya is Huxley, Elspeth, White Man's Country, 2 vols. (London, 1935). For a more critical study see Sorrenson, M. P. K., Origins of European Settlement in Kenya (Nairobi, 1968). For settler labor needs and their impact on Africans see Tignor, Robert L., The Colonial Transformation of Kenya: The Kamba, Kikuyu, and Massai from 1900 to 1939 (Princeton, 1976), pp. 94–110, 145 202.Google Scholar

16. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Legislative Council Debates, provides a good indication of the on-going settler role in government. One local Kenya official commented on the social influence of the settlers as follows, “The official members of the administration have the settler point of view presented to them at breakfast in the morning paper. The process of conditioning is continued at committee meeting, deputations and private interviews during the day and at sundowner parties and in clubs in the evening. One-sided repetition whittles away doubts as water wears away stone.” Liversage, Vincent, “Economic Management in Kenya” (unpublished manuscript, Rhodes House Archives, Oxford), 8.Google Scholar

17. In particular the settler role in pushing technical education from 1919 until the establishment of the Native Industrial Training Depot in 1924. See East Africa Protectorate, Report of the Education Commission (Nairobi, 1919); East Africa Protectorate, Report of the Economic Commission (Nairobi, 1919); EHA/Box 242/file: Director of Education, (Orr, J. R.), Report of the Committee to Enquire into Native Technical Education, submitted by the Acting Colonial Secretary, April 3, 1923. CO 533/372, Denham, to Thomas, , July 8, 1924.Google Scholar

18. Rosberg, and Nottingham, , Myth of “Mau Mau,” pp. 35–70; Tignor, , The Colonial Transformation, pp. 203–225.Google Scholar

19. For example, CO 533/267, India Office to Colonial Office, July 21, 1921, enclosing Thuku, Harry to India Office, July 10, 1921; CO 533/272, Harris, John H. to Churchill, , Aug. 26, 1921, enclosing a memorandum of grievance by the Kikuyu Association; CO 533/329, Denham, to Amery, , Feb. 17, 1925, enclosing memorandum from the Kikuyu Association presented to the East African Commission, Nov. 1924; CO 533/395, Kenyatta, to Passfield, , April 15, 1930, enclosing petition of the Kikuyu Central Association.Google Scholar

20. Schilling, Donald G., “Local Native Councils and the Politics of Education in Kenya, 1925–1939”, International Journal of African Historical Studies, IX, 2 (1976), 218–247.Google Scholar

21. Kenneth King discusses the tactic of destroying school gardens in protest against agricultural and educational policy, in “The Politics of Agricultural Education for Africans in Kenya,” Education in Eastern Africa, V.1 (1975), pp. 1–12. The school boycott was used extensively during the circumcision crisis (1929–1930) and was linked to the establishment of alternative schools. See Anderson, , Struggle for the School, pp. 112–131; Welbourn, Frederick B., East Africa Rebels (London, 1961); Kovar, Michael Harry, “The Kikuyu Independent Schools Movement: Interaction of Politics and Education in Kenya, 1923–1953,” (unpublished D. Ed. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970).Google Scholar

22. Educational Policy, Cmd. 2374, 4. The work of the Phelps-Stokes commissions which were both chaired by Jones is reported in Jones, Thomas Jesse, Education in Africa (New York, 1922); and Jones, , Education in East Africa (London, 1925).Google Scholar

23. On the conservative implications of the policy see King, Kenneth J., “Africa and the Southern States of the U.S.A. Notes on J.H. Oldham and American Negro Education for Africans,” Journal of African History, X, 4 (1969), 659–677, and his Pan-Africanism and Education: A Study of Race Philanthropy and Education in the Southern States of America and East Africa (London, 1971).Google Scholar

24. The mission-government-settler conflict of 1923/1924 is a case in point. See Schilling, , “British Policy for African Education,” 206–280.Google Scholar

25. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Legislative Council Debates, Vol. II, 1926, Oct. 18, 381–383. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Legislative Council Debates, Vol. II, 1927, Oct. 31, 505.Google Scholar

26. Kenya National Archives, Nairobi (hereafter KNA), PC/NZA), 3/10/5/1, minutes of the School Area Committee of Central Kavirondo, Aug. 4, 1926, which reports plans for a model school for the district.Google Scholar

27. EHA, Box 227/file: Committee Papers-Kenya 1925/34, Orr, to Vischer, , Nov. 19, 1925, on placing several mission schools under government control. EHA, Box 244/file: Jeanes School: Dougall, J.W.C. 1924–1930, Dougall, to Oldham, , June 6, 1927, reporting Orr's recommendation to the Senior Commissioners.Google Scholar

28. EHA, Box 244/file: Jeanes School: Dougall, J.W.C. 1924–1930, Dougall, to Oldham, , June 6, 1927.Google Scholar

29. KNA, Minutes of the Proceedings of the Legislative Council, May 14, 1923, and May 20, 1923.Google Scholar

30. EHA, Box 227/file: Committee Papers-Kenya 1925/34, Msgr. Brandsma to the Central Advisory Committee on Native Education, Feb. 26, 1927, as quoted in Kenya Missionary Council, Educational Policy in Kenya, November 1927.Google Scholar

31. EHA, Box 227/file, Committee Papers-Kenya 1925/34, Kenya Missionary Council, Educational Policy in Kenya, November 1927.Google Scholar

32. CO 533/368, Ormsby-Gore, to Grigg, , Feb. 16, 1928.Google Scholar

33. CO 533/388, Barth, to Amery, , April 26, 1929, enclosing Scott, H.S., Memorandum in Regard to Education of Africans, Section I: Present Position. Unless otherwise cited the following paragraphs and quotations are based on this memorandum.Google Scholar

34. EHA, Box 234/file: Kenya Missionary Council 1924–1944, minuters of KMC, Feb. 26, 1929. CO 533/388, Barth, to Amery, , April 26, 1929, enclosing Scott, H.S., Memorandum in Regard to the Education of Africans, Section IV; C,D. The material in the following five paragraphs is drawn from these sections of Scott's memorandum.Google Scholar

35. Kenya was notoriously slow in developing secondary school opportunities for Africans. The first high school, sponsored by the Alliance of Missionary Societies and hence called Alliance High School, was not established until 1926. By the outbreak of World War II only two other secondary schools had been founded, neither of which offered the full secondary school course. The Native Industrial Training Depot was not in fact upgraded at this time. See Githara, Henry Kamanu, “The Development of African Secondary Education in the Republic of Kenya, 1924–1968” (unpublished D. Ed. dissertation, Catholic University, 1970).Google Scholar

36. CO 533/388, Barth, to Amery, , April 26, 1929, enclosing the Roman Catholic critique of Scott's proposal.Google Scholar

37. CO 533/388, Barth, to Amery, , April 26, 1929, enclosing the KMC critique of Scott's proposal.Google Scholar

38. EHA, Box 242/file: Scott's Scheme of 1929, minutes of the Central Committee on African Education, April 11, 1929.Google Scholar

39. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Native Affairs Department Annual Report, 1933 (Nairobi, 1933), 55. On reactions of LNCs to funding C Schools see KNA, South Nyeri LNC Minutes, meeting of Aug. 6–8, 1930, item 2; Kiambu LNC Minutes, meeting of June 28, 1930, minute 38/30.Google Scholar

40. CO 533/388, Barth, to Passfield, , July 13, 1929.Google Scholar

41. See, for example, EHA, Box 242/file: Scott's Scheme of 1929, Scott, to Oldham, , Jan. 5, 1929; Scott, to Oldham, , March 10, 1929. Box 242/file: Director of Education (H.S. Scott), Scott to Oldham, June 17, 1929.Google Scholar

42. EHA, Box 244/file: Jeanes School: General 1925/34, Oldham, to Dutton, , Oct. 8, 1929.Google Scholar

43. See EHA, Box 242/file: Scott's Scheme of 1929, Oldham to Vischer, Sept. 30, 1929, in which Oldham provides a detailed analysis of the defects in Scott's recommendations regarding the C Schools; among those defects he lists the adverse effects on the policy of cooperation.Google Scholar

44. EHA, Box 242/file: Scott's Scheme of 1929, Oldham, to Arthur, , Oct. 1, 1929.Google Scholar

45. CO 533/388, Colonial Office, Conclusions of the Sub-Committee of the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies, reached at meetings on Oct. 8 and Oct. 14, 1929.Google Scholar

46. CO 533/388, Passfield, to Grigg, , Oct. 23, 1929.Google Scholar

47. CO 533/400, Grigg, to Passfield, , May 20, 1930, enclosing Scott to the Secretariat, Nov. 14, 1929.Google Scholar

48. Ibid.Google Scholar

49. Ibid.Google Scholar

50. On the practice of female circumcision and its significance for the Kikuyu see Kenyatta, Jomo, Facing Mount Kenya (London, 1938), pp. 130–154; Muriuki, Godfrey, A History of the Kikuyu, 1500–1900 (Nairobi, 1974), pp. 118–122. Also Murray, Jocelyn, “The Kikuyu Female Circumcision Controversy” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1974).Google Scholar

51. Church of Scotland Mission, Memorandum Prepared by the Kikuyu Mission Council of the Church of Scotland on the Subject of Female Circumcision (Kikuyu, 1931). This is an extensive analysis of the controversy by the mission. It should be noted that not all missions followed the hardline stance of the Church of Scotland Mission. See Strayer, , The Making of Mission Communities, pp. 136–152.Google Scholar

52. Church of Scotland Mission, Memorandum … on Female Circumcision, 49. Also EHA, Box 247/file: Arthur, J.W. Dr. 1913–1935, Arthur, to Oldham, , Nov. 10, 1929.Google Scholar

53. On the development of stalemate see EHA, Box 247/file: Arthur, J.W. Memorandum: The Crisis at Kikuyu. Nov. 7, 1929; Memorandum: The Crisis at Kikuyu, No. 2, Dec. 15, 1929. enclosing Scott to Arthur, Nov. 22, 1929. EHA, Box 234/file: Kenya Missionary Council 1923 1944, minutes of the Executive Committee of the KMC, Dec. 5, 1929. CO 533 394, Grigg to Passfield, enclosing notes of a meeting at Government House, Feb. 22, 1930. On the legal defeats see Church of Scotland Mission, Memorandum … on Female Circumcision, 55–57. On the establishment of independent schools see Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Education Department Annual Report, 1932, 18.Google Scholar

54. EHA, Box 242/file: Scott's Scheme of 1929, Oldham, to Hopper, , March 11, 1930, enclosing an undated extract of a letter from Scott to Oldham.Google Scholar

55. CO 533/400, Grigg, to Passfield, , May 20, 1930.Google Scholar

56. CO 533/400, Report of the Sub-Committee of the Advisory Committee, July 1930.Google Scholar

57. EHA, Box 246/file: Educational Advisor: Dougall, J.W.C., Oldham, to Dougall, , Nov. 26, 1930.Google Scholar

58. On advisory Committee approval see CO 533/400, Colonial Office, minutes of the Advisory Committee, July 31, 1930. On Colonial Office approval see CO 533/400, Passfield, to Grigg, , Sept. 17, 1930.Google Scholar

59. The LNCs had to fight to get permission to build even four schools, and in any case these schools remained firmly under government control. For that story see Schilling, , “Local Native Councils and the Politics of Education in Kenya, 1925–1939,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, IX, 2 (1976), 237–243.Google Scholar

60. By 1937, for example, it was estimated that fifty-four registered independent schools enrolled approximately 7,200 students. This despite government efforts to discourage their establishment. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Education Department Annual Report, 1937, 59.Google Scholar

61. To receive the Elementary Certificate a candidate had to complete Standard IV and one year of an approved teacher training course or, in lieu of the course, two years of teaching. He then had to pass an examination based on: (1) blackboard writing, (2) drill and physical education, (3) classroom teaching. To receive the Lower Primary Certificate the Candidate must have completed Standard VII, had a one-year training course or two years of teaching experience, and passed an examination based on: (1) the three areas above, (2) school management and teaching, (3) English speech, (4) Swahili speech. To receive the Primary Certificate the candidate must have passed the Junior Secondary Course (through Form II), a two-year teacher training course, and an examination based on. (1) same subjects as for the Lower Primary Certificate, (2) hygiene, (3) elementary agriculture. CO 533/408, Byrne, to Thomas, , Oct. 22, 1931, enclosing Rules Governing the Issue of Teachers' Certificates in Schools for Arabs and for Africans.Google Scholar

62. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Education Department Annual Report, 1936, 60–61.Google Scholar

63. Tuqan, Mustafa, “Kenya,” in Parkinson, Nancy, ed., Educational Aid and National Development (London, 1976), pp. 103–106.Google Scholar