Jomo Kenyatta's education policy aimed at the rapid expansion of primary school enrollment, the establishment of secondary and tertiary educational institutions, and the development of Kenya's educational capacity to support the postcolonial state. Kenyatta inherited an educational system from the colonial period that had severely limited African access to advanced education. His presidency saw substantial expansion of educational provision, though questions about quality and equity persisted.
Kenyatta prioritized the expansion of primary education as a means of developing Kenya's human capital and of spreading literacy throughout the population. His government invested substantially in primary school construction and teacher training. The policy reflected both Kenyatta's belief in the importance of education for national development and his understanding that electoral legitimacy depended partly on the visible provision of public services. Rapid primary school expansion became a signature achievement of Kenyatta's presidency and a visible demonstration of the postcolonial state's commitment to African welfare.
The expansion of secondary education was also significant. Kenyatta's government established new secondary schools and expanded enrollment at existing institutions. The secondary education system served as a crucial pipeline for producing the educated elite that would staff the postcolonial bureaucracy, teaching profession, and business sector. Secondary education was also seen as a means of building national unity by bringing together students from different ethnic communities.
Kenyatta's government also invested in the development of university education. The University of Nairobi was expanded and became the primary institution for tertiary education in Kenya. The development of the university reflected Kenyatta's ambition to build Kenya's indigenous intellectual capacity and to reduce dependence on foreign universities for the training of Kenya's professional and intellectual elite. The university became a center of intellectual life and contributed substantially to the development of Kenya's postcolonial academic establishment.
Education policy under Kenyatta also involved questions of curriculum content and the decolonization of knowledge. Kenyatta sought to ensure that Kenya's educational curriculum reflected African perspectives and African historical experience rather than simply reproducing colonial curricula that privileged British history and perspectives. The incorporation of Kenyan and African history and literature into the educational curriculum was an important part of the postcolonial nation-building project.
However, Kenyatta's education policy also had limitations and inequities. The expansion of primary education did not result in universal enrollment, and rural students generally had less access to quality education than urban students. Secondary education remained selective and competitive, creating hierarchies of access based on class, ethnicity, and gender. The expansion of education also created questions about employment opportunities for graduates and about the relationship between educational expansion and economic development.
See Also
Kenyatta Economic Policy Kenyatta Development Projects Kenyatta Cultural Policy Nairobi Development 1963-1978 Kenyatta Presidency
Sources
- David K. Leonard, African Successes: Four Public Managers of Kenyan Rural Development (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), pp. 78-112.
- David Court, "Education and Development in Kenya," in E.W. Nafziger (ed.), Inequality in Africa (Lexington: Lexington Books, 1988), pp. 234-267.
- Paul R. Nugent, Africa Since Independence (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 178-201.