Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Education in Africa Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Education and Political Development: Africa since Independence
Authors:Kelly, Gail P.ISNI
Welch, Claude E.ISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Africana Journal
Volume:16
Pages:3-18
Language:English
Geographic terms:Subsaharan Africa
Africa
Subjects:nation
education
Development and Technology
Education and Oral Traditions
Politics and Government
nationalism
Abstract:In 1965, James S. Coleman published 'Education and political development', a collection of essays and commentaries on the relationships between schooling and the building of the nation-State in newly emergent countries. This volume evinced optimism that the problems of these new States were ultimately solvable, in large part through extending formal education in schools. The present essay asks whether the faith in education Coleman expressed in 1965 has been substantiated by experience in the past twenty-plus years in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors conclude that school expansion in sub-Saharan Africa has had little to do directly with promotion of political development. If schools are to contribute to political development in Africa, clearly the institutional capacity of those schools needs to be enhanced, and significantly greater attention needs to be given to curricular design. The significant gaps in access to education that exist, based on region or gender, must be reduced. Until schooling, at least at the primary level, is close to universal, further major steps toward political development will be difficult. But the onus must not be laid only on the educational systems. Expanded and improved education can help improve the situation, but only if accompanied by dramatic changes in the nature of political leadership. Note, ref.
Views