ED 4001: TRENDS AND ISSUES IN EDUCATION

2020ED142389
PURITY JEPKEMOI KANGOGO
ASSIGNMENT ON: CONTRIBUTIONS OF PRE INDEPENDENCE EDUCATION
COMMISSIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN KENYA
Education is regarded and priced as the most important good to a human being. It is seen
as the major channel for the advancement of the individual. It is generally believed that well-
educated individuals make up society and that they will exercise a positive influence on
that society.

During the colonial regime, Kenyans, as other Africans, experienced great

discrimination economically, academically, socially and politically (Bogonko 1992; Otiende et al
1992; Kivuva nd).In this times, there was nothing as a nation, only several nations living side by
side in the same territory.

Education like society was stratified along racial lines. There was African education, European
education and Asian education. This interpreted as three separate systems separated by rigid
boundaries, (Ominde 1964). This stratification was based on the colonialist’s assertion that the
mental development of the African adult was equivalent to that of an average 7 – 8 years old
European boy.

African education, therefore tended to be a mixture, particularly balanced between a European

Model with a European subject matter and an education deemed suitable to the place in colonial
life considered appropriate to the African population. During the exploration of Africa, around
1878, the concept of education was based on what man and woman could do – i.e. the Victorian
concept.
The men were supposed to learn academic subjects i.e. the three ‘Rs’ of Reading, Writing and
Arithmetic while the women were meant to do womanly things associated with ‘Bs’i.e.
Bathing, Brooms, Babies and bedroom.

This clearly shows how education was abused. The exploration brought the Whiteman, to exploit
Africa economically in her resources. The Africans were seen as strong people who would
provide cheap labor to the Europeans. Therefore, the curriculum was meant to prepare Africans
for manual work, though, the Africans themselves did not have an academic curriculum, they
learnt through apprenticeship, which was appropriate for that time.

Pre-independence commissions were formed to help in Education curriculum before Kenya’s

independence. The following are the various pre independent commissions and their
contributions to the development of education in Kenya:
In 1924, the Phelps – stokes commission was formed.

 It recommended the education of the girl child. It also recommended practical education
for African communities.
 This commission drew the government’s attention to its neglect of African education.
 In 1925 – Advisory committee for education in tropical Africa – recommended a
necessary skills training.
In 1949 – the Beecher commission

 This commission sought to maintain Christian principles and open European moral aspect
to formal education, this owed to declining African moral standards.
 It targeted establishment of a high number of primary teachers colleges which resulted in
the creation of a large number of relatively isolated teacher training centers because there
was availability of land for building the schools.
 There was also demand for local teachers ,
 The commission was also of the opinion that a unified African teaching service be
established and this led to the establishment of African teaching service in 1967.
 It also recommended that teachers should have a national organization for airing their
views and thus the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) was established in
1957/58.

In 1952 – Binns commission

 Following the recommendations by Beecher commission to employ more expatriate

teachers, this commission was of the opinion that it was necessary to emphasize on
training and employment of African teachers who would be suitable in meeting the
realities of African environment.
 It also expressed the concern over the dignity of the teaching profession caused by the
structure of teacher institutions.
 It argued that as long as teacher education continued to be carried out in small-scattered
training centers, the profession could not achieve the dignity it requires.
 And therefore it expressed urgent need to set up large institutions and institutes of
education to coordinate their access.
 This note was taken up in 1956 when Mrs. E.M Williams, principal White lands training
college was invented by the Christian council of Kenya to study and advice on the
reorganization of teacher training by the protestant churches.
 The conference strongly recommended that delegacies be established to coordinate the
work of teacher training centers and take up the responsibility of setting teacher
examinations.
 Following these recommendations two teacher-training organizations were set up at
Kagumo and coordinate teacher-training activities and explore possibilities of
consolidating training.
 This led to the setting up of Kenya Institute of Education in 1964 to carry out the
organization’s functions.
.
The replacement of colonial education and government was done
through political alliances, each of which had implications on education. Kenya was struggling
to socialize, after being pulled apart by the colonial era through the Harambee spirit of pulling
together resources which included education.
Political – alignments were built for self-governance. For the county to integrate there was need
for common religion due to different ethnic background. This affected education practices and
education was seen as medium to this healing process.
At independence, there was need for education, manpower and development. To facilitate in
national healing and cohesions, commissions focused on identity and unity, which were critical
issues at the time.
However, since independence, the Kenyan educational system has experienced several
fundamental changes (reforms) in structure and curricula content (Bedi et al. 2000).

References
Abagi, O Odip, (1997) Efficiency of primary Education in Kenya situational analysis
And implications for educational reforms. Discussion paper no. Dp 004/97, NRB, IPAR URL
://http/www. Par.or.K/dp4.pdf.
Amutabi (2003) the 8-4-4 system of education, international journal of educational Development
23
(2003).
Bedi etal (2000) the decline in primary school enrolment in Kenya. KIPPRA discussion paper
No.14- April 2005.