education foundation

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN EDUCATION IN COLONIAL KENYA UPTO 1920

Christian missionaries played a vital role in the introduction and development of Western education in Kenya. These missionaries began their activities here in the second half of the 19th Century. Although their main aim in coming to Africa was to Christianize a ‘dark and savage’ continent, the provision of rudimentary education was found inevitable. Missionaries had found out that, by having the ability to read the Bible and the hymn book, the early convert would be a valuable asset in getting more of one’s neighbours to Christianity. It would then appear, the role of Christian missionaries in providing western education to Africans was not by design but accidental. Should this assumption be correct, the entire phenomenon of western education as introduced and provided by Christian missionaries was flawed. In that case, they were to offer an improper education for as long as they were in control all by themselves.

From 1895 Kenya became a colonial enclave of Britain up to 1920. Kenya was referred to as the East Africa Protectorate. The construction of a railway line from Mombasa in 1895 to Kisumu in 1901 was a boom for both missionary and colonial government activities. Missionaries were able to spread out faster by opening more centres in the interior. On the other hand, the colonial administration was able to pacify resistant African groups. Regrettably for indigenous people too, the railway line also saw the in-flaw of European settlers and Asian groups. These aliens were to change the development of events to the disadvantage of Kenyan locals.

Missionary spread out
Inspired by the desire to embrace as many adherents as they could, Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries moved to almost all accessible and habitable regions in Kenya. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) led in this ambitious crusade. From 1844 John Ludwig Krapf of CMS began to explore the East African Coast and was joined in 1846 by Johan Rebman. They established their first mission station at RabaiMpya, among the Rabai people, near Mombasa. Later the CMS operated a station in Taita in 1895. Other CMS centres were started in the following places: Kahuruko (1901); Weithaga (1903); Kahuhia (1906); Mahiga (1908); Embu (1910) etc. A branch of the CMS also entered Western Kenya from Uganda and in 1903 had set up a mission station at Maseno. Holy Ghost Fathers set in at Mombasa in 1890 and a year later was also stationed at Bura. They got themselves a station in Nairobi in 1899. Their counterparts, the Consolata Fathers opened stations at Kiambu (1902), Limuru (1903) and Mang’u (1906). Roman Catholics also entered Kenya from Uganda and soon established centres at Kisumu (1903) and later at Mumias and Kakamega.

Other missionary groups that were pivotal in the spread to various parts of the country were: Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Leipzig (from Germany); African Inland Mission; church of Scotland; Friends African Mission (Quakers); Church of God Mission, the Nilotic Independent Mission, the Seventh Day Adventists and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa.

Although with other unbecoming consequences for indigenous people the multiplicity of Christian church denominations stirred a rivalry that became a catalyst in the spread of churches and schools. Every other group scrambled for a sphere of influence. On the whole, by 1920 Christian missionary groups had ‘stuck out their necks’ as important players in the spread of western influences among indigenous people. By 1918, there were 16 missionary bodies active in the country. Roman Catholics and CMS had the largest proportion of schools for Africans. Between them, they controlled 46 station schools and 261 village schools.

Mission Education
Basically, the purpose behind the establishment of mission stations and schools was to spread Christianity. The provision of education for other ends was therefore secondary to missionaries. Education was only used as a facility for evangelisation. The curriculum of mission schools was largely religious. Out of this experience, these schools have been referred to as prayer houses. These institutions only taught Christianity.

While strongly inclined to offering religious education, a number of factors forced mission schools to include other curricula. First, Africans strongly resented religious education. In a number of cases, students staged strikes and demonstrations to demand for a more secure curriculum. Boys in Mumias at the Mill Hill Fathers schools staged a strike in 1912. Second, the colonial government urged the missions to include industrial education in their curricula. Third, the circumstantial imperatives of the day necessitated the inclusion of other courses such as industrial education. Missionaries, as well as the colonial administration needed skilled labour to construct buildings, make furniture inter alia. Religious education alone could not produce such manpower.

Out of this development therefore, although mission education was largely basic, it had to offer the 3Rs, religious education and industrial training. The method of instruction was by rote learning. Learners were supposed to memorize and recite whatever they were taught. Missionaries, above all, offered an education that was elementary and designed to keep Africans in their subordinate place i.e. being servants of Europeans. Their educational orientation, in general emphasized the spiritual value of hard work and the principles of evangelical Christianity with an aim of producing hard working Christians.

There were two types of schools. There was the village/bush/out-schools. These were feeder schools to the second type – the central mission school. Village schools offered very rudimentary education. They were under the direction of African catechists. On the other hand, central schools were intended to offer additional curricula. In this case, vocational training in teaching and nursing etc abounded. Vocational training was largely a preserve of the bright students.

All said of mission education, by 1920, though many learning institutions had been established; only a handful would pass the litmus test for quality. In the western part of Kenya, only three centres and developed substantial primary school programmes. These were mission schools at Kaimosi, Maseno and Yala. The same were true of central Kenya with centres at Kabete, Kahuhia, Kikuyu, Tumutumu, Kabaa and Nyeri as main contenders. At the coast full-fledged primary school courses which other elementary schools of the time were not offering. This education did not go beyond six years. The recipients of such a number of years were very few.

Whatever missionary activity in education this time, it should be understood that a number of factors influence their orientation, working and results/outcomes. For instance, due to misconceptions by European anthropologists of the nature of Africans, missionaries were prejudiced in their interaction with Africans. Africans suffered in this interaction and so did their education. Africans were of three categories: stupid, average and intelligent. On the part of missionaries, a majority of them were not professional educators and therefore they tried out what they did not know. A look at the curricula during their training reveals no does of professional training in teaching whatsoever (Anderson, 1970: 25). Besides, in their bid to expand educational activities they were always curtailed by meagre financial resources. More-so, the colonial government’s policy dictated certain centres that they could hardly achieve and, in the course of ‘playing the tune of the caller’, stumbled. Regrettably for Africans, they were the ones who received all the results of these missionary education mishaps. The lessons learnt by Africans from this unfortunate state of their education were to be instrumental in advocating for schools of their own, if not government-managed, from the 1920s onwards.

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN EDUCATION IN COLONIAL KENYA UPTO 1920

Between 1895 and 1911, the involvement of the colonial government in the establishment and development of educational opportunities for the indigenous Kenyans was minimal. At this time, the government was more concerned with the pacification of the ethnic groups and inculcating in them a proper respect for the European interpretation of law and order. However, when the colonial administration got involved in education, this sector was seen as a potential source of a better and more efficient labour force. In this official thinking, through education Kenya would move fast into becoming self-sufficient. The government also wanted indigenous people to be given an education that would help it put into operation its doctrine of indirect rule through chiefs and headmen.

These needs of the colonial administration for African education did concur with those of the Europeans settler community. The settlers needed an enlightened labour force that was capable of taking instructions both as house servants and farm workers. But more significantly, settlers relied on both the missionaries and colonial government for African educational development to offer the ‘right’ kind of education, whereas the colonial government was to control its level.

Educational progress during the early period of colonial rule was directed more by the force of circumstances rather than be deliberate and well developed policy. In many cases, the policy that was laid down failed to meet practical needs. More often, policy was frustrated by the conflicting interests of the administrators, the settlers, the missionaries and with time, African interests. One can then observe if the development of African education in colonial Kenya, it was an unending struggle between conflicting interest groups.

The first worthy involvement by the colonial government in educational development was in 1911. A department of education was set up with a Director, James R. Orr, at its helm. The Director was charged with the responsibility of the formulation of educational policy, its implementation and administration in general. The creation of this department followed a report on education in the East African Protectorate produced in 1909 by Prof. Nelson Frazer, a seasoned Briton on educational matters in India. He had been appointed as Educational Advisor to the British colonial enclaves of East Africa by the colonial office in London. With such an official capacity, Frazer’s report was taken seriously and its proposals followed.

One of the lasting legacies of the Frazer Report was the recommendation that education in Kenya be developed along racial lines. African education rested at the bottom of a hierarchy that saw Arab/Asian and European education take prominence in that ascending order. This bottom position meant that little could be achieved for indigenous Kenyans in terms of educational development. Indeed, throughout the colonial period, African education was treated as an education for the third class citizens. Frazer’s report also encouraged the teaching of technical/industrial education in African school to the chagrin of Africans who saw this as a play to keep them out of mainstream social, economic and political development. But for Frazer, such as education would help the government get more Africans with appropriate technical skills and thereby replace the expensive Asian artisans. Above all, technical education for many Africans was hoped to foster economic development fir the colony. It would then become self-sufficient.

The colonial governments thrust into educational development can also be seen in the system of grants to mission schools that offered industrial education. Through the Department of Education, the government gave out grants on the basis of results. In other words, the more the candidates and the better their results in industrial subjects, the more certain a school would be of a government grant. Although for some time this measure was resisted by the missionaries, claiming that the government was overstretching its jurisdiction and that this education was costly, by 1912 industrial training in basic skills in smithing, carpentry, agriculture and even typing had started in many schools.

Although the third way in which the colonial government got involved in educational development failed disastrously in its experimental schools at Kitui in 1909 for sons of chiefs and headmen, in 1913 the first official government African school was set up in Machakos. This was a central technical/teacher training school around which a system of village schools developed. The latter served as feeder schools to the former.

With the progress of time, into the last half of the 2nd decade of the 20th Century, the government found it imperative to constitute an educational commission. This commission was to collect and collate the various views of the stakeholders on African education. Under the chairmanship of J. W. Barth, the Education commission of East Africa Protectorate of 1918 was required to, among other terms, “inquire into and report o the extent to which education should immediately be introduced among the native population throughout the protectorate.

The report of the 1919 on African education did not offer anything to be applauded by Africans. It was observed that African education continue to emphasize technical/industrial training. This education had also to be religious/Christian but significantly, missionaries were to continue as the main providers of African education. Settler opinion was strongly opposed to the use of English in African schools. On the whole, these recommendations by the Report having been accepted by the colonial government clearly demonstrated where its learning was on the direction that African educations to follow.

In general, we can observe, by the close of 1920, the colonial government had become yet another match-maker in the game of African education. Through the Department of Education and subsequently the outcome of the Education commission of 1918, the administration had begun to lay down policy guidelines on which future developments were to be aligned. Note that, this commission was the very first official organ that sought comprehensive information from people on the development of western education in colonial Kenya since 1895. Together with the Frazer Report of 1909, they formed the basis of education until 1949 when the Beecher Report was issued.

AFRICAN INITIATIVES IN EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN COLONIAL KENYA

Indigenous Kenyans were actively involved in the development of their education during the colonial period. This participation was inevitable given the racial differentiation in educational development recommended by the Fraser Report of 1909. Although Africans began their own initiatives in the development of education as early as 1910, large scale developments were noticeable from the 1930s onwards. African initiatives in the development of their education can be distinguished in two separate approaches. There was the African independent schools movement and the Local Native Councils school movement. Though, by Kenya’s independence, the independent schools had been closed down for political reasons. As part of the African initiatives in the development of education, they had proved a notable success. In many ways, African initiatives in educational development had compelled the colonial administrative to give African education substantial attention.

Independent School Movement
The origins of the AIS movement began in 1910. This followed the breakaway by African Christians from missionary control. John Owalo, an adherent of various missionary groups in Nyanza and an experienced CMS school teacher, formed the LUO NOMIYA MISSION in 1910. Later on, this mission built churches and schools free from European missionary control.

African independent schools movement was more pronounced in Central Kenya. This movement took root in the 1930s. An association KISA was formed in 1934 to run schools. A splinter group, KKEA, emerged soon thereafter and was more conservative and did not favour links with the colonial government. In essence, the AIS movement in this region spread fast resulting in the establishment of many schools. By 1939 these schools had a pupil population of 29, 964. In fact, by 1952 when the AIS were all closed down, their number was about 200 with a learner population of over 40,000.

The epitome of the African independent school movement can be discerned in the establishment of Githunguri Teachers College in 1939. This shows that the movement had itself well entrenched that it was able to train its own teachers among other concerns.

It is important to note that, the AIS movement was motivated largely by African aspirations on what type of education they thought appropriate. Africans also clamoured for freedom of choice and preservation of their cultural value. European missionary education was largely religious and vocational. Yet Africans wanted academic education. European missionaries wanted Africans to discard their traditions and this was unacceptable rightfully, to traditional African elders despite the fact that some had been converted to Christianity.

Note also that, the African Independent Schools did not necessarily abandon the curriculum existing in the other schools. From 1936 these schools accepted to follow government curriculum. They only tried to fill in gaps. In fact the Government allowed AIS teachers to train at missions and government training institutions.

Local Native Councils Schools
African initiatives in educational development also received a boost with the establishment of the Local Native Councils in 1924. These councils were empowered among other activities to vote funds for educational purposes at elementary and primary school levels. A door had therefore been opened, so it seemed, for Africans to direct the course of their development in education.

The colonial administration guided the LNCs in their endeavour to promote African educational opportunities. The LNCs were required to collect up-to 200,000/= to put up a school and have a further 26,000/= for the institution’s annual maintenance. The LNCs were also advised to refer to the intended institutions as Government African Schools (GAS).

The 1930s saw many of the LNCs establish their schools. Kakamega GAS enrolled its first pupils in 1932. Kagumo GAS followed in 1933 and Kisii GAS in 1935. Note that these schools were intended to offer primary ‘C’ level of education i.e. standard IV to VI when they started. However, they had to lower their requirements due to unavailability of candidates.

Although the Government desired that the curriculum for these schools emphasize industrial/vocational education, Africans generally supported literary and higher education for their children. Indeed, given the power of the African voice, the 1935 African Primary School syllabus de-emphasized technical/vocational education.

African’s seriousness in the development of these schools is clearly seen in the fact that the three K schools were full primary institutions by 1938 i.e. offered PS Exam at end of standard VI. In 1946 they had grown into junior secondary schools. Before 1963, Kakamega and Kisii were preparing students for the Higher School Certificate Examination i.e. the basic university entry requirement at the time.

The role of the LNCs in the advancement of African education during the colonial epoch was very prominent. Statistics show that these schools quickly outpaced the mission schools in examination results. For example, in the 1939 PS Examination, Kakamega alone had 8 passes compared to 4 from all mission primary schools in North Nyanza. Kagumo had 15 passes compared to 10 from all mission schools in the region. Many LNCs got encouraged and established their own schools. By 1945 LNC schools were 66. These schools had better terms of service for teachers than most mission schools.

Conclusion
From these two examples of African initiatives in the development of education in colonial Kenya, we can appropriately claim that Africans played an important role in promoting education. Africans, in the context of political, social and economic imperatives of that period, knew what type of education was necessary. Essentially it is their effort that compelled the colonial administration to institute appropriate regulations for the education sector. By the time of independence, indigenous Kenyans had vividly known the role of western education in their progress. They had also seen what results emerged from collective effort. Indeed through the AIS and LNC schools, the roots of the ‘Harambee movement’ in the development of the nation had found their depth.

TECHNICAL/VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN COLONIAL KENYA

Introduction
Technical or vocational education can be defined in various ways. UNESCO (1984) defines this education as one that involves, “in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences and the acquisition of practice, skills and the knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life”. Omulando and Shiundu (1992) define technical education as “instruction in any subject which leads to production in industry, agriculture, trade and commerce”. Whatever definition, any reference to this type of education essentially connotes instruction in subjects that are largely practice/manual, outdoor, equipment-intensive, etc. In Kenya’s main-stream, education today includes subjects such as – Art and Crafts, Home Science, Agriculture, Business Education and Industrial Education. In the classification of the present 8-4-4 education system for the secondary school cycle, these subjects are in groups IV and V. In group IV are Home Science, Art, Agriculture, Electricity, Woodwork, Metal work, Building and Construction, Power Mechanics and Drawing and Design. Group V subjects include: Music, French, German, Arabic, Accounting, Commerce, Typing and Economics.

Origins
From the onset of Western education in Kenya, technical education was conceived and designed as the most suitable education for the indigenous people. A manual-based education for Africans was deemed appropriate due to a number of reasons. Among these reasons were the following:
1. Africans were of a low human species with a level of learning remarkably different from and inferior to that of the average European. In this case, Africans were well suited to menial and tedious occupations such as farming and unskilled labour provided that they could be taught to overcome their natural laziness.

2. Technical education as seen by the European Settlers would go along way in getting a critical mass of indigenous people with appropriate artisan skills that would render the hiring of the expensive Asian artisans redundant. On the part of Christian Missionaries, such an education for the Africans would lead to their self-sufficiency at the mission centres.

3. Non-academic education for Africans was found most suitable for it would make them passive and thereby being non-rebellious. Literary education offered elsewhere in British colonies had resulted in ‘unfortunate’ experiences for the colonists and this did not need to be repeated.

Development
Concerted effort by the colonial government to entrench technical education in African schools was begun shortly after 1911. Experimental grants were offered to some mission schools for the teaching of technical/vocational subjects. These grants-in-aid were given on the basis of student results. Through this effort by 1912, industrial training in basic skills such as smithing, carpentry, agriculture and typing had begun to take shape. The colonial government in 1913 set up her first African school at Machakos to offer both industrial and teacher training.

The emphasis on technical/industrial education for indigenous people in Kenya received a major boost from the Phelps-Stokes Commission of 1924. This was an education commission set forth by the Colonial Office in London. Although largely reiterating the recommendations of the 1919 Education Commission of the East African Protectorate, the Phelps-Stokes Commission urged that education be adapted to the needs of the individual and the community. It believed that industrial training must provide the basis of African education in Kenya. For a people who were primarily land cultivators and animal keepers, agricultural education was considered an integral component of industrial/ vocational/ technical education.

The colonial government found it prudent to establish more schools for Africans with an industrial/technical/vocational bias in this period. Some of the schools established included the Native Industrial Depot – Kabete (1924), Jeanes School – Kabete (1925), Coast Technical School – Waa (1921), Government School – Kapsabet (1925) and Maasai School – Kajiado (1926). Apart from the Jeanes School and Native Industrial Depot both at Kabete, the rest of the schools offered industrial education suited to their location. For example, the Maasai school at Narok emphasized more of animal husbandry and animal skin curing. More-so, the Kabete educational institutions offered technical education to people/learners who already had had exposure to technical education elsewhere. These institutions offered training on a national level.

The curriculum of technical education in colonial Kenya, for Africans, was very simplistic. This was largely for reasons alluded to earlier. At the Jeanes school for instance, male teachers were taught songs, Swahili, Physical training and games, Religious and moral education, simple hygiene and sanitation, first-aid on fractures, cuts, burns, dysentery, pneumonia, plague and malaria, simple agriculture including ploughing, curing of animal skins and hides, the silk industry, black-smithing and tin-smithing. In essence, these courses were deemed basic for Africans’ sustenance. No provision was made for thorough in-depth study of the subjects.

Although steps were put in place to emphasize technical education in African schools, by 1940 no commendable large-scale progress was in sight. In the case of Agriculture education, for example, whereas a committee in 1928 is on record to have recommended that agriculture be made compulsory and examinable in all rural schools of all grades, nothing was put to practice in this regard by 1940. Instead of Agriculture, Nature study took over as a school subject. This take-over meant that agricultural skills were only to be demonstrated in the school garden. Agriculture thus became non-compulsory in African schools.

The Beecher Report (1949), otherwise referred to as the African Education Commission, decried/lambasted the minimal developments realized in technical education. One of the weaknesses noted was teachers’ lack of conviction and knowledge or training to facilitate the inculcation of the right attitude in students towards technical education. Most significant about the Report was its recommendation that, at primary school level due to the tender ages of the learners, no formal agricultural education be taught. Instead, schools were to encourage in learners a correct attitude towards agricultural labour and an appreciation of the significance of land. In order for technical education to thrive, the Report recommended, inter alia, constant supervision of the teachers’ attitude and encouragement of resolute partnership between schools and the relevant administrative departments.

Although graduates of this education made an impact in their communities, on the whole, African did not receive this type of education with open arms. Political, educational and socio-economic reasons contributed to this cold reception. Africans felt that it was a European ploy to teach them practical subjects so that they could remain inferior and their subordinates. This education as seen as mediocre and it hampered African political advancement. It is important to note that, in Asian and European schools in the colony no kind of technical education offered in African schools was taught. This difference concretized the African suspicion of the type of education given to them.

Educationally, technical education failed since the syllabus lacked flexibility. More often, the syllabi made little provision for regional variations and thereby some programmes virtually failed. The co-operation sought between departments of Agriculture, Veterinary and Education was inadequate and sometimes contradictory. For example, visits by Agricultural Officers to schools hardly materialized. School calendar was sometimes not in consonance with peak times of agricultural activity. Education officers on their part sometimes lacked the necessary knowledge and even for the specialists they had little or no interest. Teachers often used extra work on the farm or in the workshop as a form of punishment. Some subjects, particularly Agriculture and Carpentry were not examinable at primary school level. This did not motivate learners to show seriousness. Furthermore, in cases where technical subjects failed to feature at secondary school level, learners hardly wanted to study them at the lower level.

Technical education also failed due to what African viewed as proper education. Basically, Africans only saw academic education as the epitome of their children going to school. This meant that, nobody was enthusiastic about the success of technical education. Schooling was only meaningful if learners gained literary academic education.

Socio-economic problems also hampered the success of technical education. It was not easy to acquire funds for purchase of farm and workshop equipment, leave alone acquiring farming land for schools. Since many schools did not receive government grants, they had to rely on local communities for their day-to-day running. However, the envisaged assistance was hard to come by particularly when the projects were for technical education. Parents decried the inclusion of this education in the curriculum and therefore could hardly contribute money to schools for their development.

The colonial government’s policy on the growing of cash crops also served as an impediment to the flourishing of vocational education. Africans were not allowed to grow cash crops. Being allowed to grow subsistence crops alone could not easily lead to the much-needed economic empowerment for Africans. In such a situation, Africans saw no need of giving agricultural educational any seriousness.

The lack of demand for people with industrial education skills in the labour market also went along way in curtailing the success of technical education. At this moment, white-collar jobs were more appealing. To secure such opportunities one needed to have had academic education. This scenario quickly reflected itself in learners’ choices of schools subjects. Technical subjects were rarely their priority.

From the foregoing, technical/vocational education had very minimal chances for success. As political independence drew nearer in the early 1960s, more emphasis in education shifted towards academic education. Technical and vocational education only got prominence sometime into the independence era. This was mainly after 1970. Post-primary and secondary school and technical institutions sprouted in various parts of the country. Among these institutions were Village Youth Polytechnics and Institutes of Science and Technology. Technical/vocational education today is offered in a myriad of institutions ranging from those in mainstream education system to those organized by government ministries, churches and other NGOs.

Conclusion
Technical/vocational/industrial education in Kenya was originally conceived as an education of the social inferiors. This conception for a long time guided the development of this education. Policy stipulations for this education were founded on misconceptions. Besides, there was an unrealistic design for this education’s development. Out of this disposition, learners as well as teachers hardly gave the subject serious attention. This scenario meant that even after fifty years or more in operation, little meaningful results had been realized by 1963. The climax of this failure neglect can be discerned in the fact that, technical education was almost entirely disregarded in the education system conceived of immediately after Kenya’s independence. The Ominde Commission gave little consideration for it.

From this historical exposure, several lessons can be derived. Among them are:
1. An educational programme needs to be grounded in realistic and on objective principles.
2. Ideal programmes should not be pushed on or forced on to learners.
3. Teacher education is important in any educational endeavour.
4. Co-operation/partnership with the relevant government and non-governmental organizations needs to be encouraged.
5. Resources are crucial and if possible need to be acquired in advance or their procurement be guaranteed before project implementation.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN KENYA DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD

Introduction
Teacher education has been defined as, “a set of phenomena deliberately intended to help candidates acquire the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and norms of the occupations of teaching”. (Katz & Raths, 1990: 241). Teacher education is at the centre of any education system. Teachers decisively influence the quality of education, the lives and future of their learners. The development of teacher education in colonial Kenya is an account that depicts interplay of political, social and economic forces. This account manifests a sluggish pace of progress, haphazard planning and unsatisfactory outcomes. A large portion of this history dwells on primary school teacher education. One of the reasons for this concentration on elementary education for Africans was politics. The colonial administration for a long time desired that Africans be trained for menial duties. Such jobs did not require literary and post-primary education.

Origins
The first teachers for African schools, run by Christian missionaries, were freed slaves. These African teachers obtained their training at Sharanpur – India under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). John Rebmann was helped a great deal by these teachers in running the CMS stations at the Kenyan coast. More African teachers for the in-land mission schools were drawn from the method of selecting the able pupils who would then be trained as catechists-cum-teachers. These teachers manned the village schools. Two factors seemed to contribute to this mode of training teachers. First, missionary competition for spheres of influence could not allow for any elaborate teacher training format. Second, the missionaries held a false educational theory. That was, in order to teach one only needed to be a little way ahead of the learners.

Development
The development of teacher education in colonial Kenya was guided by the activities of two key players. These were the colonial administration and the Christian missionaries. On the part of the colonial government, her efforts can be discerned in two ways. These are: (a) Policy and projects emanating from the Department of Education, and (b) Recommendations from numerous education reports sponsored directly or indirectly by the Government. Christian missionaries on the other hand were the agents on the ground. In many ways, they initiated and executed policies and projects on teacher education for African schools. Essentially, an elaboration of teacher education in this period in Kenya is one that details the efforts of these two actors.

The colonial government’s involvement in teacher education was very much influenced by the general political outlook of the time. The colonists were out to subjugate the Africans and this was boosted by a racially-based education system. Government policies were therefore to reflect the desired outcomes. Education was intended to adapt the learners to their local conditions. One of the ways in which this orientation was interpreted in teacher training was to have teachers suited to low levels of literary education but a high affinity for manual skills. Indeed, this is what the first government school at Machakos (1913) was destined to offer in its teacher training component.

Government efforts in teacher education are noted in the Education Commission Report of 1919. This report desired that teacher training be offered by Christian missionaries and the government’s role would be confined to offering them financial assistance. In the same year, the Department of Education released rules for teachers in the colony. Of importance, these rules classified teachers into four categories. These were pupil-teachers, third, second and first - class teachers. Note however that, this classification did not take effect. It did not function at all. Thus, this attempt at teacher categorization should be seen as an effort by the government to streamline teacher training in the colony at the time.

The Phelp-Stokes Commission (1924) added another dimension to the Government’s involvement in teacher education. While underscoring the need for trained teachers, the Commission recommended for a ‘quick manufacture’ of such teachers. The Government yielded to this idea and in 1925 Jeanes school (Kabete) was established. The Jeanes School offered a training that produced a multi-purpose teacher. This person had to reflect the spirit of rural life, supervise village schools, among other community related activities.

In the same period, the 1920s, Christian missionaries went a step ahead of government efforts. They founded two secondary schools in which teacher training was included. Alliance High school, Kikuyu was established in 1925 by Protestant Churches. Teacher education was offered after the third year. Kabaa Catholic School opened its doors to teacher education in 1928 and up till 1934 it produced the highest number of teachers than any other centre in the colony.

The decade of the 1930s, with regard to Government efforts in teacher education, can be highlighted by the 1932 Education ordinance. Among other concerns, this ordinance provided guidelines on the classification of teacher certificates. There were to be four teacher certificate categories. The highest grade was the Primary Teacher certificate followed by Lower primary teacher certificate, Elementary Teachers’ certificate and the Jeanes Teacher certificate. This categorization of teachers by qualifications needs to be seen as an effort by Government to streamline the teaching force as well as affecting a high quality of instruction. Note for example that, a PTC holder had to have passed the Junior Secondary School Examination and undergone a two year teachers’ course in an approved institution. Such a teacher qualified to teach in primary school up-to standard VI. Towards the end of the decade of the 1930s, Christian missionaries had begun to work out modalities of separating teacher training from the normal schools. Out of this arrangement, Protestant groups put resources together and set up a Joint Normal School at Kahuhia for teacher training. Other centres by Protestants were later on to open in Embu, Maseno, Kaimosi, Tumutumu and Butere. In fact, by the 1940s, most of these centres operated as separated teacher training institutions.

There were more concerted efforts by the Government to provide teacher education opportunities in the 1940s. The government, in this period, planned to separate teacher training from the normal mainstream schools. Following the recommendations of a committee on teacher training in the early 1940s, Kagumo primary Teachers training college was established in 1944. This institution was non-denominational and admitted students from the entire colony. These students had to have passed the Junior secondary school examination (F2). Note that Kagumo helped to improve on teacher quality as it offered training of a more highly qualified grade of primary school teachers.

The recommendations of the Beecher Report of 1949 also helped to polish government policy on teacher education. The report urged that certificate courses for secondary school teachers be started. This is because the teachers trained at Makerere College were not enough for the fast expanding secondary school sector. In the light of this anticipated change, the report recommended a different teacher certificate classification. The I.I certificate was the highest and its holders had to be of an education up-to from 6 plus a 2 year teachers training. Such teachers would teach up to F4. A I.II teacher would be a form 4 graduate who had had a 2 year teacher’s training and would teach up-to F 2. T.3 and T.4 teachers taught at primary school with the latter handling the lowest grades up-to standard IV.

The Beecher report also called for establishment of more teacher training colleges. In fact, it desired that by 1960 there be at least 44 of such institutions. The implementation of this proposal did not fail to have its drawbacks. For example, there were to emerge many small-sized institutions. Some of the centres had few members of staff who could not adequately and competently manage the 14 curriculum subjects on the timetable. Note that, some of the institutions were founded for ethnic groups and this fragmented teacher training even further. It is self-evident here that the issue of quality was quite suspect.

In the 1950s, teacher education in the colony recorded attention from numerous groups though the Binns Committee of 1952 (aka-Advisory Committee in the training of teachers in the British colonial territories) was most prominent. The committee warned the government against the numerous teacher training colleges. In their place, it was recommended that large institutions be set up alongside institutes of Education that would co-ordinate their activities. It is from this recommendation that the government was later to set up two teacher education centres at Siriba and Kaguno in 1958. These centres were meant to co-ordinate teacher training activities in their respective regions as well as setting examinations for these institutions. Indeed, it was from this co-ordinating role by these centres that the Kenya Institute of Education in 1964 emerged. By the same year, the government consolidated the then teacher training colleges into 18 institutions with a student capacity of 600 in each training college.

Secondary school teacher education in colonial Kenya can be realized from the foregoing, was hardly addressed. Basically, teachers for this level were drawn from the expatriates (foreigners) and a few locals trained at Makerere College (Uganda) in the 1950s. In essence, teacher education for secondary school teachers in Kenya got underway after independence. In 1965 Kenyatta College was established to offer teacher training for secondary school teachers. University level teacher education began at the then University College, Nairobi in 1966 with the establishment of the Department of Education. This effort by the Government was augmented when the Swedish government helped in the building of a teachers college – Kenya Science Teachers College in Nairobi that focused on preparing science and mathematics teachers for secondary schools.

Conclusion
In the development of teacher education in the colonial period, little attention was given to issues of quality. A lot of the decisions were guided by expediency than appropriate and effective planning. This meant that at independence, the young nation inherited a teacher education sector that needed a lot of effort and resources to get it on track. Over four decades down the line, we need to ask ourselves, is this sector any better? What are the aims of teacher education? Who goes into it e.g. by gender, qualifications, arts versus science, age etc? How are recruits trained? What are the results? We talk of a system of education that does not deliver, are we also saying that the teacher education sector has failed? Why?

THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN KENYA

Higher education (HE) refers to all forms of post-secondary school education. At times thus education is also termed as tertiary level education. Though this explanation, we shall treat higher education as a synonym of university education. The history of university education in Kenya can be divided into two periods. During the colonial era, because of the restricted educational developments for Africans, very little progress was made. It was not until 1956 when the Royal Technical Institute of East African in Nairobi admitted its first students that tertiary education was first offered locally. University education only prospered after Kenya’s independence. More students were enrolled just as was for the establishment of additional universities. These first developments have not failed to have their drawbacks. Today, though the university continues to offer important service to the country, education at this level is being challenged to be more adaptive, relevant and realistic to Kenyan diverse social, political and economic challenges.

For a large portion of the colonial period, higher education was developed along inter-territorial lines. This arrangement followed a recommendation by governors of the East African British colonies in 1929. The governors found Makerere Technical Institute, already established in 1922, as the most suited centre for higher education in the region. It was argued that the region had had minimal developments at secondary school level and thus it would be uneconomical for each colony to establish a higher education centre.

The development of Makerere Institute into a full-fledged university was facilitated by a number of commissioned reports in the 1930s and 1940s. For example, the James Currie Report (1933) underscored the Africans’ thirst for higher education. More-so, it urged that university education should have an African character and that subjects such as medicine, engineering, agriculture, veterinary sciences and commerce be offered.

The Earl De La Warr (1936) Commission was more emphatic on the growth of Makerere. The commission recommended that this institution be developed into an autonomous university. However before full autonomy, Makerere had to be affiliated to University of London. On the curriculum, the commission added teacher training to what the James Currie Report had recommended. Note that in 1939 Makerere became an autonomous college with an executive council. In 1950, Makerere became a university college of University of London following the Asquith committee report of 1945.

The dawn of higher education in Kenya was discerned in the late 1940s. In 1947 a committee recommended the setting up of a technical and commercial institute in Nairobi. The proposed institution was also supposed to prepare students for university education in disciplines that were not offered at Makerere College. The Nairobi institute opened its doors to students in 1956 after getting consent from the East African High Commission Act in 1954 as the second regional centre for higher education. This institution was referred to as the Royal Technical Institute of East Africa. It began by offering courses in architecture, engineering, commerce, land and building economics and domestic science.

Following the recommendations by the Lockwood Report (1958), the Royal Technical Institute of East Africa was transformed into a university college in 1961. In this year, the institute entered special links with University of London and thereby was able to offer degrees of that university. These special links lasted five years (1966). By this time, the Royal College had become a constituent college of the University of East Africa that had been inaugurated in 1963.

Between 1963 and 1970, university education in Kenya, like in the other sister countries of the region, was developed on a federal structure. Each of the university colleges specialized in certain disciplines besides the general arts and science courses. University College, Nairobi, for instance focused on veterinary medicine, Architecture, Design and Development, Commerce and Engineering.

Kenya’s first autonomous public university was born on 1st July 1970. This followed the dissolution of the UEA. UON was quick to broaden its curriculum in the same year by adding more faculties of Education, Agriculture and Law to what already existed. It acquired Kenyatta College as its constituent college in 1972. For 14 years UON served as the sole public university in the country. In 1984 Moi University was established as the second public university and was intended to concentrate on science and technology disciplines. Kenyatta university became autonomous in 1985, Egerton University in 1987 and was later followed by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology as the fifth public university. More institutions were established after 1990 such as Maseno and Masinde Muliro universities. To-date, a lot more public universities have been established. Following the enactment of the new public universities Act in 2013, such universities are now in place viz. Chuka, Karatina, Kabianga, Masai Mara, Pwani, Laikipia, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kisii, etc.

EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN KENYA AFTER INDEPENDENCE

There have been notable developments in education in Kenya between 1963 and the present (2013). Like in many other newly independent African states, Kenya considered educational development as the main activity that would lead to the envisaged national progress. Unlike the restrained developments during the colonial period, the independence era provided room for unprecedented numerical and quantitative growth in education. The first decade of development (1960s) was guided largely, by the recommendations of the Education Commission Report (Ominde) of the 1964/65. In the 1970s the stipulations by the National Commission on Educational objectives and policies (Gachathi) 1976 contributed to the nature of the developments realized. The Mackay Report (1981) dominated the events of the 1980s and indeed a new education system resulted. The educational highlight of the decade of the 1990s was the TIQET report under the chairmanship of Dr. Davy Koech. Beginning in 2000 to-date (2013), there may have been no single educational issue of focus. Lately, the prospect of introducing the use of laptops at Class 1 in public primary schools is high. On the other hand, educational developments continue to emphasise the requirements of the newly implemented constitution as recommended by the Odhiambo report (2012).

Educational Developments in the 1960s

The independent Government of Kenya appointed its first Education Commission in 1964. This appointment was inevitable considering that the educational needs of the independent state were very different from those of a colonial regime. In this light thus, the terms of reference for the Education Commission were broad and all encompassing.

The commission was asked to survey the existing educational resources in Kenya and advise the government on the formulation and implementation of national policies for education. More specifically, the Commission was asked to recommend on an education that:

1. Appropriately express the aspirations and cultural values of an independent African country;
2. Takes account of the need for trained manpower for economic development and for other activities in the life of the nation;
3. Takes advantage of the initiative and service of regional and local authorities and voluntary bodies;
4. Contributes to the unity of Kenya;
5. Respects the educational needs and capacities of children;
6. Has due regard for the resources, both in money and in personnel that are likely to become available for educational services; and
7. Provide for the principal educational requirements of adults.

In addressing its task, the Ominde Commission was clear on the educational objectives for the country. Education in Kenya was:

1. Nationhood and promote of national unity;
2. To serve the people of Kenya and its needs of Kenya without discrimination;
3. To be an instrument of the secular state in which no religion is privileged, and to respect the religious conviction of all people;
4. Cultural traditions of the people of Kenya both as expressed in social institutions and relationships;
5. Discouraging excessive competition but ensures that every young person is made to realize a valuable role to play in the national life;
6. To ensure that education is regarded and used as an instrument for the conscious change of attitudes and outlook required by modern methods of productive organization. At the same time, education must foster respect for human personality;
7. To serve the needs of national development;
8. To promote social equality and remove divisions of race, tribe and religion. To pay special attention to training in social obligations and responsibilities; and
9. To ensure adaptability to change.

Note that, these objectives are the lasting legacies of the Ominde Report. Ever since, Kenya’s educational objectives have not drastically been changed. In fact, there has been either a re-orientation of these objectives or an over-emphasis on some of the objectives.

*Issue: Why are these educational objectives important this time?

By making such a clear statement of the purpose of education in Kenya and spelling out the national and social goals of the country’s educational policy, the Commission broke new ground. It meant that the Commission was recommending a completely new philosophy of education for the country. Education was to be a vehicle for changing attitudes and relationships and enhancing social equality among the various races, tribes and religious groups in Kenya. Through education, a spirit of national feeling was to be promoted.

A number of developments were realized after the Ominde Report. These include the change to a single non-racial system of education, unification of curricula and examinations, the spread of the harambee school movement, administrative changes, among others.

With regard to the creation of a single system of education, the government introduced a bursary scheme to enable indigenous citizens have their children admitted to the former European and Asian ‘high cost’ schools. Besides the bursary scheme, the ministry of education paid grants to ‘high-cost’ boarding secondary schools so that they could remit fees for deserving students. These efforts by government increased African enrolment in the high cost schools to 30% in 1966 and stood at 65% by 1969. Note that the government paid a high price to achieve this racial integration.

To strengthen attempts towards a non-racial system of education, the Government in 1966 changed the educational structure to a unified year primary cycle for all primary schools. A common syllabus was introduced in 1967 for all primary schools and a common examination C.P.E replaced the Kenya Preliminary Examination. Similar changes occurred at secondary school level. The East African Examination Council cam to being in 1967 thus the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate was replaced by an equivalent – East African Certificate of Education. Likewise, the Higher School certificate offered by Cambridge Overseas was taken over by East African Advanced Certificate of Education.

NOTE:
(a) The effect of these curriculum and examination changes was the elimination of the remaining differences between former European, Asian and African school systems.
(b) There was a shift toward general education, enabling learners at primary level to receive basic education in terms of literacy, numeracy, manual co-ordination and general knowledge. At secondary school level, the replacement of the Cambridge examinations with the East African Examinations Council paved the way for improvements in and localizing of the content of education.

At this time, K.I.E (Kenya Institute of Education) 1968 was active and contributed immensely in the professional developments in teaching and educational studies, advisory services, conferences and in-service courses. In fact the institute was to play a crucial role in making the content of what was taught in Kenyan schools more relevant to the future circumstances and lives of the learners.

The self-help secondary school movement (Harambee) was another significant development in this period. Many of these schools were single-stream day schools teaching up-to form two in poor buildings which were ill-equipped, under –staffed and served by untrained teachers. By 1966, there were 266 harambee schools compared to 199 government secondary schools. To attempt their control government introduced K.J.S.E in 1966 with an aim of having those with good results to proceed to government aided secondary schools. But it was learnt by Government, very fast that it was not possible to control these schools. Instead it attempted to help them grow.

Note that in 1966 the government sponsored a Harambee schools’ Head-teachers conference. The number of these schools was expanding almost 1 ½ times more rapidly than government assisted schools. There were 498 Harambee schools compared to 331 government aided schools by 1970.

Educational Developments in the 1970s

The major emphasis of the Kenya government’s post-independence education developments was on manpower development. This goal was quickly realized by 1970. The production of highly skilled manpower was intense in the 1960s so that by 1970 the unemployment problem of the graduates of the education system was beginning to emerge. In a nutshell, education was beginning to provide results that were contrary to expectations. This situation saw a number of recommendations emerge from various reports. These reports include ILO report of 1972 and the Gachathi Report of 1976.

The ILO Report of 1972 realized that neither the formal nor the non-formal education was adequately meeting the socio-economic demands of the nation. This report entitled: “Employment, Incomes and Equality: A strategy for increasing productive employment in Kenya”, recommended a restructuring of the school system to incorporate the teaching of pre-vocational subjects right from the primary school level. It also recommended that primary education be lengthened by 1 or 2 years to cover primary and lower (junior) secondary education and re-designated as Basic Education. This education was to be universal and free.

The government found it necessary after a decade of independence to revisit the entire education sector by assessing the realized developments. This is what resulted in the appointment of the second national education commission/committee – National Committee on Educational Objectives and Policies (NCEOP) of 1975 reporting in 1976. This committee was entrusted the task of defining a new set of educational goals or objectives for the 2nd decade of independence and formulating a specific programme of action for realizing them within the nation’s financial constraints. The NCEOP endorsed the recommendations by the ILO (1972) report. More emphatically the Gachathi Report recommended/proposed a nine-year basic education programme to replace the seven years of primary schooling. This was to be followed by two years of junior secondary education and four years of senior secondary education. The proposal also urged that the demarcation between secondary academic and technical education be removed and that secondary education be made increasingly scientific, pre-vocational and craft-oriented. Work skills could be provided to the students by integrating institutions such as the village polytechnics, the National Youth Service (NYS) and the various vocational and industrial training centres into the mainstream educational system so that education at the secondary level could be terminal rather than being tied to university entrance.1

Other significant developments in the 1970s include the encouragement of UPE – government abolished tuition fees in primary schools beginning in 1974 and ending in 1979; establishment of self-help institutes of science and technology; increase of vocational/ technical secondary schools. The last two examples were put in place in order to alleviate the problem of educational irrelevance. It was hoped that with these institutions offering vocational courses, learners would be helped to acquire employable productive skills in the labour market/life after schools.

Educational Developments in 1980s
Educational developments in this period were dominantly influenced by the outcome of the presidential working party Report on the Establishment of the Second University in Kenya (1981). Although this working party was not asked to review and recommend on the entire education system, report was emphatic that Kenya’s education system be changes. The 8-4-4 education system was recommended in place of the 7-4-2-3 system. The government accepted the report of the Mackay led Commission and indeed in 1984 the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology published a document on the new education system. Part of the rationale for this system of education was that: The previous system of education did not address national development needs; there was need for technical and vocational training, need for equitable distribution of education resources, need for better assessment and evaluation in education etc.

The 8-4-4 education system took effect from 1985 at primary school (i.e. date when the first Standard Eight national examination was held). At secondary school level, the system reached maturation (i.e. first group sat for their O’ Level examination in 1989). At university level, the first graduates of the system completed their studies in the 1993/94 academic year.

Like any other human endeavour, the 8-4-4 education system has had its successes and drawbacks. The programmes have encountered implementation challenges such as – shortages for staff, facilities and time and an over-crowded curriculum. Measures were put in place to alleviate some of the problems noted e.g. reduction of subjects. Later, the Koech Report (1999) would urge for the overhaul of the 8-4-4 system if not a complete removal and replace it with a different system.

Educational Landscape from 1990s – 2013
Broadly, the nature of educational developments (quantity; quality; level/cycle) from the 1990s to-date (2013) can be described as sporadic and segmented. The climax of any educational thinking witnessed in the decade of the 1990s was the production of the TIQET report in 1999. Having reviewed past educational experiences in the country and holding futuristic plans, this report presented a comprehensive account of the reforms that were needed. In the main, the existing education system needed to be reformed with a bent on emphasising curricular relevance. This was evident in the over 150 recommendations presented. Although the Government received the report, no deliberate effort at its implementation has ever been made to-date. Increasingly, what exist are circumstantial efforts at different times, different levels (educational cycles) and by different players often that may not necessarily have any direct influence from the national educational policy framework. In other words, it may appear that educational matters are left to the dictate of circumstances.

What should the education sector undertake in order to realize worthwhile ends?
In my view, the following aspects/components of the educational enterprise need to be given a committed focus.

Curriculum - what content is of most worth for the differentiated learner in Kenya?
Teachers – what teacher development is of most worth for the differentiated teaching needs existing in Kenya today?
Institutions – what resources are of most worth for the differently located schools in Kenya today?