The government accepted responsibility for providing free primary education for a length of time fixed provisionally at five years. Only a little more than 50 percent of primary-age children were enrolled in schools, however, with attendance concentrated in urban areas. Religious classes providing Islamic moral and sociocultural education were taught in the schools from about 1980. An alternative course for non-Muslim students was also introduced. The postindependence period in Bangladesh
Comprising what was formerly the eastern wing of Pakistan, Bangladesh emerged as an independent sovereign state in December 1971. Thus, it shared its educational history with India until 1947 and with Pakistan from 1947 to 1971. After independence Bangladesh continued to follow the primary education scheme originally established by Pakistan. One of the country’s most valued educational assets is its rich national language, Bengali.
Article 17 of the constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh declares that it is the duty of the state to provide education to all its children to such stage as may be determined by law. In 1973 and 1974 the government nationalized most of the primary schools, but it was found that about 33 percent of primary-school-age children in Bangladesh never went to school and that about 70 percent of those who did left school before attaining the minimum educational standard. The majority of children thus entered adulthood illiterate. It was soon recognized that universalization of primary education for an overpopulated developing country like Bangladesh is a difficult task. Subsequent major reforms attempted to orient the educational system to a new social order inspired by the ideals of “nationalism, democracy, socialism, and secularism” on which the nation was founded. The postindependence period in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) gained independence in 1947. Successive governments subsequently continued the policy of democratizing education that began under British rule. The political and social changes ushered in during the pre-independence period paved the way for a gradual process of constitutional reforms. Schools and schooling were seen as great instruments of socioeconomic development.
Education was free from the kindergarten to the university level in all state and state-aided institutions. Although there were a few fee-levying private institutions, management of education was primarily a state responsibility. General education within the formal system was divisible into primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary education. There were few dropouts or grade repeaters at the primary level. At the junior secondary stage, instruction was provided according to a common curriculum that consisted of religion and other subjects. Students at the senior secondary stage were streamed into science, commerce, or liberal arts courses.
The University Act of 1978 established the University Grants Commission and the University Services Appeals Board to provide for the establishment, maintenance, and administration of universities and other higher educational institutions together with their campuses and faculties. The National Institute of Education was established in 1987 to coordinate curriculum development, textbook development, teacher education, and eventually certification and entrance examinations. S.N. Mukerji Africa
Before the arrival of the European colonial powers, education in Africa was designed to prepare children for responsibility in the home, the village, and the tribe. It provided religious and vocational education as well as full initiation into the society. In sub-Saharan Africa it varied from the simple instruction given by fathers to children among the San of the Kalahari to the complex educational system of the sophisticated and highly organized Poro society of western Africa (extending over Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea). The majority of ethnic groups in Africa fell somewhere between the San and the Poro with respect to the educational arrangements they provided for their youth. Most societies offered rituals to mark the end of puberty and relied heavily upon custom and example as the principal educational agents. The passage" class="md-crosslink">rites of passage marked the culmination of an epoch in a boy’s life. As a child, he had been introduced by his elders to the legends surrounding previous exploits of his tribe, to the mysteries of his religion, to the practical aspects of hunting, fishing, farming, or cattle-raising, and to his community responsibility. Now he occupied a new position in the society. In some cases he had been prepared for the rites; in others secrecy surrounded the event, for reaction to the ceremony was itself an important part of the ritual. A variety of formal observances, in addition to the experiences of daily living, impressed upon the youth his place in the society—a society in which religion, politics, economics, and social relationships were inextricably interwoven. Girls underwent a similar, though usually shorter, initiation period.
An exception to this pattern could be found in those areas where Islam had spread. Islam reached eastern Africa in the 9th and 10th centuries and western Africa in the 11th. It introduced the Arabic script, and, because knowledge of the Qurʾān became an important religious requirement, Qurʾānic schools developed. These schools concentrated on the teaching and memorization of the Qurʾān; some were little more than gathering places beneath a tree where teachers held classes. Qurʾānic schools placed young Africans in contact with Arab civilizations, and boys selected as potential leaders could attend higher educational institutions in the Arab world. Nevertheless, Islam touched but a small fraction of the total African population of sub-Saharan Africa.
Western-style schooling was introduced in most of Africa after the establishment of the European colonial powers. As African nations gained independence in the late 20th century, they abolished the racial segregation that had existed and instituted other reforms but, in general, kept the structure of the existing school systems, at least initially. Thus, 20th-century education in these countries can be discussed according to former colonial status. Education in Ethiopia, Liberia, and South Africa, however, must be treated separately—Ethiopia and Liberia because they have long histories as independent nations and South Africa because it was under the control of a white minority government for most of the century. Ethiopia
Christianity was recognized in Ethiopia in the 4th century. For nearly 1,500 years all education was church-related and hence church-controlled, except in the eastern part of the country where the Islamic population maintained Qurʾānic schools. In 1908 Emperor Menilek II created the embryonic government school system, modeling it on European systems. The real development of education, however, came after World War II under the direction of Emperor Haile Selassie. Despite his efforts, by 1969 less than 10 percent of the children between the ages of seven and 12 were in school. Education at the secondary level benefited from the infusion of more than 400 Peace Corps teachers in the 1960s and early 1970s. The first Ethiopian colleges were founded in the 1950s. By 1970, 2,800 Ethiopian students were enrolled in higher education either in their own country or overseas.