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The Education System as a Response to Inequality in Tanzania and Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

David Court
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Extract

This article examines the attempt of Kenya and Tanzania to deal with the universal problem of how to reconcile inequalities in the distribution of rewards with a concern for equality. It argues that in both countries the mainspring of educational policy is a desire to alleviate the potentially disruptive consequences of inequality, although for different purposes and by different means. The broad purpose of the article is to compare contrasting educational practice in Kenya and Tanzania from this perspective as a way of illuminating two distinctive modes of development. More specifically, it attempts to identify some of the contradictions and dilemmas inherent in their particular use of education. Finally, it uses this analysis to make a speculative assessment of how each is faring in the task of building a relatively integrated polity.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , December 1976 , pp. 661 - 690
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

page 661 note 1 Particularly useful in shaping a general approach to this topic has been Parkin, Frank, Class Inequality and Political Order (London, 1972)Google Scholar. Other useful recent works which bear on this issue are Bowles, Samuel and Gintis, Herbert, ‘I.Q. in the U.S. Class Structure’, in Social Policy (New York), 01/02 1973Google Scholar; Carnoy, Martin, ‘The Political Consequences of the Role of Education in Manpower Formation’, in Comparative Education Review (Los Angeles), XVIII, 3, 10 1974Google Scholar; Foster, Philip, ‘Access to Schooling’, in Adams, Don (ed.), Education in National Development (London, 1971)Google Scholar; and Hirschman, Albert, ‘The Changing Tolerance for Income Inequality in the Course of Economic Development’, in World Development (New York), 12 1973, pp. 29–36Google Scholar.

page 661 note 2 Some of the historical origins of regional inequality in access to education in Kenya are described in Sheffield, James R., Education in Kenya: an historical study (New York, 1973)Google Scholar, and in Anderson, John, The Struggle for the School: the interaction of Missionary, Colonial Government and Nationalist enterprise in the development of formal education in Kenya (Nairobi, 1970)Google Scholar. Analysis of the colonial pattern and the trends it engendered in Tanzania is contained in Mbilinyi, Marjorie J., ‘African Education in the British Colonial Period, 1919–1961’, Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, 1975Google Scholar.

page 662 note 1 Details on patterns of present day inequalities are presented in a number of documents. For Kenya, see particularly the I.L.O.Report, Employment, Incomes and Equality (Geneva, 1972), and Kinyanjui, Kabiru, ‘The Distribution of Educational Resources and Opportunities in Kenya’, Discussion Paper No. 208, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, 1974Google Scholar. For Tanzania, see Ishumi, Abel, ‘The Educated Elite: a survey of East African students at institutions of higher learning’, Department of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, 1974Google Scholar, and Mbilinyi, Marjorie J., ‘The Problem of Unequal Access to Primary Education in Tanzania’, Annual Social Science Conference of the East African Universities, Dar es Salaam, 1973Google Scholar.

page 663 note 1 An excellent review and synthesis of this literature is given by Parkin, op. cit.

page 664 note 1 See, for example, Himmelweit, H. T. and Wright, J., ‘The School System, Social Class and Attainment after School’, University of London, 1967Google Scholar, and Somerset, H. C. A., ‘Educational Aspirations of Fourth-Form Pupils in Kenya’, in Court, David and Ghai, Dharam P. (eds.), Education, Society and Development: new perspectives from Kenya (Nairobi, 1974), pp. 67–101.Google Scholar

page 665 note 1 Most notably in The Arusha Declaration (Dar es Salaam, 1967), ‘The TANU Guidelines (Mwongozo)’, in Mbioni (Dar es Salaam), VI, 8, 1971, and Nyerere, J. K., Decentralization (Dar es Salaam, Government Printer, 1972)Google Scholar.

page 666 note 1 Nyerere, Julius K., Freedom and Unity/Uhuru na Umoja: a selection from writings and speeches, 1952–65 (Nairobi, 1966), pp. 16–17Google Scholar.

page 667 note 1 Kenya Government, Development Plan, 1974–1978 (Nairobi, 1974), p. 3Google Scholar.

page 667 note 2 Kenya Government, Report of the Commission of Inquiry (Public Service Structure and Remuneration Commission) (Nairobi, 1971)Google Scholar, and ‘The TANU Guidelines (Mwongozo)’, loc. cit.

page 667 note 3 The argument that the Ndegwa Commission Report officially sanctioned the emerging functionalist ideology in Kenya is developed by Prewitt, Kenneth, ‘The Functional Justification of Inequality and the Ndegwa Report: shaping an ideology’, Annual Social Science Conference of the East African Universities, Nairobi, 1972Google Scholar.

page 669 note 1 See Nyerere, Julius K., ‘Progress Comes with Production’, in The African Review (Dar es Salaam), III, 4, 1973, pp. 531–2Google Scholar.

page 669 note 2 See ‘Admission to University’, in Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 8 January 1975.

page 670 note 1 For an evaluation of the campaign which preceded ‘Mtu ni Afya’, see Hall, Budd L., Wakati wa Furaha, Research Report No. 13 (Uppsala, 1973)Google Scholar.

page 670 note 2 For an assessment of some of these efforts, see Court, David, ‘The Social Function of Formal Schooling in Tanzania’, in The African Review, III, 4, 1973Google Scholar.

page 675 note 1 Saul, John, ‘High Level Manpower for Socialism’, in Cliffe, Lionel and Saul, John (eds.), Socialism in Tanzania, Vol. II (Nairobi, 1973), p. 279Google Scholar.

page 676 note 1 Hirji, K. F., ‘School Education and Underdevelopment in Tanzania’, in Maji Maji (Dar es Salaam), 12 09 1973, p. 21Google Scholar.

page 676 note 2 Ibid. p. 20.

page 677 note 1 Hoffman, Rainer, ‘Education and Politics in the People's Republic of China’, Conference on Education and Politics, Arnold Bergstraesser Institut, Freiburg, 02 1973Google Scholar.

page 677 note 2 Besha, M. Ruth, ‘Education for Self-Reliance and Rural Development’, Institute of Education, University of Dar es Salaam, 1973Google Scholar.

page 678 note 1 Ibid. p. 33.

page 679 note 1 See, for example, Foster, Philip, ‘Education for Self-Reliance: a critical evaluation’, in Jolly, Richard (ed.), Education in Africa: research and action (Nairobi, 1969), pp. 81–101Google Scholar.

page 680 note 1 For an amplification of this general conclusion, see Hirji, loc. cit.

page 680 note 2 See Bowles, Samuel, ‘Cuban Education and the Revolutionary Ideology’, in Harvard Educational Review (Cambridge, Mass.), 41, 4, 11 1971Google Scholar.

page 681 note 1 For illustrations of the way in which the demand for credentials influences the nature of activity in different spheres of the educational enterprise, see the chapters by Court. E. M. Godfrey and G.–C. M. Mutiso, and Peter Kinyanjui in Court and Ghai, op. cit.

page 682 note 1 Kabiru Kinyanjui, ‘The Distribution of Educational Resources and Opportunities in Kenya’, op. cit.

page 683 note 1 Ibid. p. 29.

page 683 note 2 Ibid. p. 30.

page 683 note 3 Kenneth King, ‘Primary Schools in Kenya: some critical constraints on their effectiveness’, in Court and Ghai, op. cit. pp. 123–47.

page 683 note 4 Kenya, , Sessional Paper on Employment (Nairobi), 05 1973Google Scholar.

page 683 note 5 Kenya, , Ministry of Education. Annual Report, 1973 (Nairobi, 1974)Google Scholar.

page 684 note 1 See Ergas, Z. and Chege, Fred, ‘Primary School Education in Kenya: an attempt at evaluation’, in Journal of Eastern African Research and Development (Nairobi), III, 2, 1973Google Scholar.

page 684 note 2 Kabiru Kinyanjui, ‘Education, Training and Employment of Secondary School Leavers in Kenya’, in Court and Ghai, op. cit. pp. 47–66, and ‘The Distribution of Educational Resources and Opportunities in Kenya’, op. cit. p. 36.

page 685 note 1 Kabiru Kinyanjui, ‘Education, Training and Employment of Secondary School Leavers in Kenya’, loc. cit.

page 685 note 2 For some interesting data on these points, see Kenneth Prewitt, ‘Education and Social Equality in Kenya’, in Court and Ghai, op. cit. pp. 199–216.

page 685 note 3 Some initial conclusions are in H. C. A. Somerset, ‘Who Goes to Secondary School? Relevance, Reliability and Equity in Secondary School Selection’, in ibid. pp. 149–84.

page 686 note 1 Kenya, , Development Plan, 1974–1978, Part I (Nairobi, 1974), p. 407Google Scholar.

page 687 note 1 Court, David and Prewitt, Kenneth, ‘Nation versus Region in Kenya: a note on political learning’, in British Journal of Political Science (London), IV, I, 1973Google Scholar.

page 688 note 1 O'Connor, Edmund, ‘Contrasts in Educational Development in Kenya and Tanzania’, in African Affairs (London), 73, 290, 01 1974, pp. 67–84Google Scholar.

page 689 note 1 Olson, J. B., ‘Secondary Schools and Elites in Kenya: a comparative study of students in 1961 and 1968’, in Comparative Education Review, XVI, I, 02 1972Google Scholar.