Total enrollment in French West African schools rose from 15,500 in 1914 to 94,400 in 1945. The number of students in the higher primary schools grew in the same period only from 400 to 800 or 900. (The area’s total population in 1945 was almost 16 million.)
Educational policy was stated frankly in the official statements of governors generaclass="underline"
Above all else, education proposes to expand the influence of the French language, in order to establish the [French] nationality or culture in Africa (Bulletin de l’Enseignement en AOF, No. 45, 1921); Colonial duty and political necessity impose a double task on our education work: on the one hand it is a matter of training an indigenous staff destined to become our assistants throughout the domains, and to assure the ascension of a carefully chosen elite, and on the other hand it is a matter of educating the masses, to bring them nearer to us and to change their way of life. (From Bulletin de l’Enseignment en AOF, No. 74, 1931.)
After World War II all inhabitants of the newly established French Union became citizens in common who were represented in the French Parliament. This political policy carried over into education, which became even more assimilationist: the old higher primary schools, for instance, became classical and modern secondary schools on the French model. An Investment Fund for Economic and Social Development provided financial and developmental aid to education—to the extent that primary enrollments rose to 156,000 in 1950 and to 356,800 in 1957 and higher primary enrollments rose to 5,800 in 1950 and to 14,100 in 1957. Technical and professional education also expanded, from 2,200 students in 1951 to 6,900 in 1957. Scholarships awarded by the central government, the colonies, and local groups enabled an increasing number of African youths to pursue higher education in France. In Senegal in 1950 the first French West African university, the Institute for Higher Studies (later called the University of Dakar), was established. It was followed by those of Abidjan and Brazzaville.
In 1957 and 1958, when the colonies achieved autonomy and then a kind of commonwealth status within the new French Community established by the Gaullist constitution, education began a more intensive development, at least quantitatively. More primary and secondary schools were opened, teacher training was accentuated, and more scholarship students went to France. Within three years, after the French African countries had achieved full independence, this upgrading of education accelerated. Curricular reforms, however, were slow. Although countries including Guinea, Mali, and Congo (Brazzaville) introduced such reforms as the Africanization of history and geography, generally the traditional French system persisted, and courses were taught in French. The so-called ruralization of primary education—that is, the spread of education out beyond the towns—proceeded under the aegis of the governments and French educational officials.
The rise in the number of primary students was spectacular at first. Between 1955 and 1965, for instance, the percentage of primary-age children enrolled in school increased in Guinea from 5 to 31, in Senegal from 14 to 40, in Niger from 2 to 12, and in Chad from 5 to 30. Such progress, however, depended on recourse to unqualified teaching personnel. Some countries subsequently continued programs of rapid educational expansion. Progress was slower in other countries, and in some areas enrollment even declined. Also, in the former French areas, the number of students attaining a higher education remained among the lowest in Africa. Education in Belgian colonies and former colonies
As elsewhere—and perhaps more than elsewhere—the Catholic and Protestant missions played the prime role in the development of education in the Belgian Congo (now Congo [Kinshasa]; called Zaire from 1971 to 1997) and in Ruanda-Urundi (the present states of Rwanda and Burundi). In the period before 1908, when the Belgian king Leopold II treated the Congo as virtually his private preserve, the missions had assumed an unofficial responsibility for education. After 1908, when the Belgian parliament assumed control of the Congo, the Roman Catholic mission schools were afforded government subsidies and given a privileged official status; the Protestant schools, though not provided with financial assistance, were officially authorized to operate. Throughout the colonial period the overwhelming majority of schools were missionary, and until 1948 the systems were limited to two-year primary schools, three-year middle schools, and a sprinkling of technical schools for training indigenous cadres. In 1948 the Belgian government issued a new plan titled “Organization of Free Subsidized Instruction for the Indigenous with the Assistance of Christian Missionary Societies,” which promised more diversification in primary education (both vocational and secondary-preparatory) and, more radically, recommended the establishment of secondary schools that would prepare the Congolese for higher education.
Leopold II, portrait bust by Ottavio Giovannozzi, 1846; in the Uffizi, FlorenceAlinari/Art Resource, New York
In 1962 the government of the newly independent Congo proceeded with a reform of the old educational system. The first primary degree was standardized and its length extended from two or four years to six years; and pupils were to take a common primary course prior to their orientation toward general, normal, or technical secondary education or toward professional education. Numerous specialized schools of higher education were created: the National Institute of Public Works and Construction, the School of Civil Engineers, the National Institute of Mines, the Higher Pedagogical Institute, the Higher Institute of Architecture, and the National School of Administration. To the already existing Lovanium University of Kinshasa (founded in 1954) and the Official University of the Congo (founded in 1955 in Lubumbashi) there was added the Free University of the Congo (founded in 1963 in Léopoldville [from 1966 called Kinshasa]). Although less pronounced, an analogous evolution characterized Burundi and Rwanda.
By 1970 Congo was among the African countries enjoying the best school and university infrastructure. Then, from 1974 to 1977, the country, then called Zaire, went through a period of intense nationalism. Zairian citizens with Christian names were ordered to change them to African names. Foreign-owned businesses were sold to Zairian citizens. All schools were nationalized, and mission schools were made state schools. A program of accelerated teacher training was instituted. The old universities were combined with the National University of Zaire. The economic chaos that resulted from these moves caused the government to quickly rescind its plans, however. Businesses were returned to foreign owners in 1977. The church schools were reinstated in 1976, and the universities once again separated in 1981. The result of this upheaval was disastrous for the educational system. Problems and tasks of African education in the late 20th century
The independent African states faced numerous problems in implementing an educational policy that would encourage economic and social development. Pedagogical problems and economic and political problems intermixed. The difficulties confronting most governments, however, were basically political.
Numerical increases in school enrollments, though occasionally spectacular, failed to correspond to the legitimate aspirations of the people or even, more modestly, to the initial objectives fixed by the governments themselves. The Conference of Nairobi in July 1968 viewed as rather alarming the lack of progress in education and literacy in the context of growing populations. Increasing emphasis was placed on improving and expanding vocational-technical, adult, and nonformal programs of education. There was also concern about the financial difficulties of the different states, the unsuitability of current educational systems to local needs, the waste and duplications in primary and secondary education, and the insufficient liaison between educational policy makers and the planners of economic and social development. In short, an educational crisis developed and ripened in Africa. Abdou Moumouni David G. Scanlon The Middle East