THE INDEPENDENT nations of Africa now face the task of re evaluating and reshaping those institutions imposed on them by the former colonial powers. The educational institutions these emerging nations inherited are not linked to the realities of present-day African needs. COLONIAL ATTITUDE Before abandoning past practices and patterns, the new leaders recog nized the need to examine the inherited structures in order to better comprehend the strengths and limitations of the educational systems now firmly entrenched in their countries. This is especially the situa tion in former British Africa where no uniform policy existed. Each territory supported its own educational program and each governor had his own ideas on how to educate the "natives." This British diversity contrasts with the practice of the French and Portuguese, who consistently transported their own cultures and orthodox methods of teaching them to their colonies. The diversity in British Africa ranged from educational policies that imposed the English model and all its components on the African to policies that attempted to develop an educational program based on the African's own environment and on his own way of life. This lack of uniformity in British educational policy led to a great deal of controversy. On one side were those Europeans who favored rapid Westernization of the African. They argued that old African values must be replaced since, whether educa tors approved or not, overwhelming social change was obliterating Mr. Urch is Assistant Professor of Education, University of Massachu setts. Fall 1971 249 long-existing traditions. The one great hope for progress in Africa, they felt, was the application of European knowledge, experience, and skill. The African students needed an educational program that pre pared them to assume a viable position in the modern world, not one that bound them to the past. On the opposite side were colonial officials, educators, and noneducators concerned with the maintenance of those traditions in African society which they believed essential to the well-being of the African. They realized the necessity for modernization, but they argued it could be accomplished more easily and with less harm, if advanced ideas were integrated into the existing culture. They lamented the fact that the school, in removing the students from their rural environment, had given them a dislike for their old traditions. They advocated schools that were less bookish and more practical.
Tanzanian educators recognize the need to ally education more clearly to economic development, for they see in a revitalized economy the impetus for the growth of social services. The shortcomings in the educational system which must help accomplish this are clear. They realize that the 'education for self-reliance'policies have only slightly altered the nation's economy and have done little to create the 'new' socialist person. Teachers, their students, and parents do not yet possess the attitudes necessary to promote cooperation and service; and the majority of students do not attain the knowledge and skills necessary for an economy to prosper.The nation's educational bureaucracy must also be committed to dramatic change. To date, only cosmetic changes have occurred in the way schools are administered. While leadership at the top has been sincere, regional and local educational leaders often only pay lip service.Revolutionary change in Tanzanian education could come quickly through coercion and force. However, that is not the Tanzanian way and the chosen path. Instead, change is to be accomplished through the democratic process of enlightenment and dedication. This takes time. The major question is whether Tanzania still has the time.
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