Francis Nyamnjoh (n.d.) critically reflected on the resilience of colonial education in Africa. He wrote that “colonial education is full of "cultural contradictions" that exists between the informal education of family life with its grounding in indigenous languages, customs, and social values, and the formal school education system” (p. 136). The
education system conducted in colonial languages, was managed by the state with its orientation toward values and jobs and had little relation to daily life in African communities. Nyamnjoh (n.d.) believed that “beneficiaries of colonial education are expected to aspire to think, look like and be like the white man” (p. 7).
Africa's educational policies have not promoted African ideas and institutions. Education in Africa is a topic of debate throughout political and social arenas. Critical for Africa's future is strengthening education systems and institutions for generating and applying African knowledge (Sawyerr, 2004a). Constantine Ngara (2007) wrote that African ways of knowing have been “denigrated and relegated to the dustbins of curriculum planning of Africa's education systems” (p. 8). Most educational planners have focused on Western- orientated curriculum and schooling with pedagogical and philosophical roots grounded in Western thinking.
Widespread university education in Africa is essentially a post-colonial phenomenon. ... Only 18 out of 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa had universities or colleges before 1960. With the approach of political independence or soon thereafter, many African countries regarded the
development project. The new universities were to help the new nations build up their capacity to manage and develop their resources, alleviate the poverty of the majority of their people, and close the gap between them and the developed world. (Sawyerr, 2004b, p. 2)
The dire political circumstances in Africa continue to take a large toll on academic
institutions in many countries. “The depletion of African public institutions and the ensuing brain drain have had profoundly negative effects on regional institutions of all kinds and … [have not] been mitigated by foreign aid or … global models of ‘good governance’”
(Mama, 2006, p. 3).
Akilagpa Sawyerr (2004b), Director of Research at the Association of African Universities and former vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, argued that:
Autocratic decrees by governments, self-serving technical and policy advice by experts and agencies, and selective funding initiatives by donors cannot be part of a` long-term solution to the problems of higher education in the present circumstances of Africa. (p. 33)
Nyamnjoh (2011) wrote about “the need for Africa to revisit the dominant epistemological underpinnings of Western education, that are not always sensitive to the predicaments and expectations of ordinary Africans" (p. 139). He believed that education in Africa has “internalised a sense of inadequacy (p. 144) and devalued or annihilated African creativity, agency and value systems. African universities might have African personnel but their curricula or pedagogical structures have not been renewed to any real extent. There has been little effort at “domestication…[or an] epistemological shift" (Nyamnjoh, 2012, p. 147).
Lebakeng (2010) agreed that Euro-centricism had severed African polity and intellectualism, and portrayed African knowledge systems in a negative light. These were
root causes of Africa's underdevelopment. She asserted that indigenous knowledge is the key to sustainable social and economic development. It is through indigenous knowledge the current situation of alienation could be reversed (Sall & Bangirana, 2010a). Lebakeng (2010) claimed, “the growing interest in the potential contribution of indigenous knowledge to sustainable development is becoming manifest at the time when current development models have proven unsuccessful” (p. 25).
The Gambia's new education policy
The New Education Policy is geared toward developing The Gambia's education system so that the economy might meet the needs of the country more effectively. It also focused on gender equity, poverty reduction, and promoting respect for cultural diversity. In principle, the New Policy is a major departure from its pre-colonial and immediate post-colonial roots. The Education Sector Strategic Plan (2006-2015) embodies a Sector Wide Approach (SWAPs) that succinctly delineates existing educational constraints, roles for development partners, current and future challenges and potential solutions to overcome them (Gambia, Department of State for Education, 2006). To this end, the document outlined six Program areas: basic education, secondary education, tertiary education, technical and vocational education, quality assurance, and sector management. Included in the goals of the New Education Policy are:
Promoting a broad-based education at the basic level for lifelong learning and training
Encouraging creativity and the development of a critical and analytical mind Creating an awareness of the importance of peace, democracy and human rights,
The 2004-2015 New Education Policy included the following policy objectives and quality and relevance statements:
Respect for the rights of the individual, cultural diversity, indigenous languages, and knowledge;
Introduce the teachings of five most commonly used languages-Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Jola, and Sarahule…to be taught at the basic, senior secondary, tertiary, and higher education levels as subjects;
The preschool curriculum will aim at developing the child through play and prepare the child for the formal education system. The medium of instruction at this level will be in the child's mother tongue/area language;
During the first three years of basic education (grades 1-3), the medium of instruction will be in the predominant Gambian language of the area in which the child lives. English will be taught as a subject from grade 1 and will be used as a medium of instruction from grade 4. Gambian languages will be taught as subjects from grade 4. (as cited in Jufferman & Van Camp, 2013, p. 144) Results of Jufferman's and Van Camp's (2013) research, one year after my own study took place, were that few of these objectives have been implemented in schools across The Gambia. This means that English remained the dominant medium of instruction at all levels of education. An outcome of their research was the fact that children beginning school were thrown into a 'sink or swim' approach which meant only the brightest students were able to bridge the gap between home and school. I agreed with their main conclusion that
international pedagogical theory therefore cannot be applied in an African context but needs to be locally situated.
Critical pedagogy
Solutions must be sought to combat the socio-economic and political problems in The Gambia. One critical way could be to infuse the critical pedagogy model in the classroom, to encourage research and debate on current and future problems facing The Gambia and
potential solutions. Emphasising accountability and transparency at the primary level are principles which the regime has promised but failed to implement. Potentially, these principles could instill social responsibility and collective good for the nation. Civic participation and responsibility throughout the education system has the potential not only to help students but also to help citizens become aware of democratic principles and practices.
Qur'anic schools
In a study critically assessing The Gambia's New Education Policy (2004-2008) (Saine & Saine, 2012), suggested Qur'anic schools have been marginalized for many years in the education establishment. The New Education Policy in The Gambia attempted to provide training and support for teachers, as well as instruction in the social and economic sciences using both Arabic and English. This could enhance the contributions of Qur'anic schools and their graduates, to national development of The Gambia. Another vital emphasis is girls' education which is an effort to overcome "centuries-old barriers that place undue burdens and challenges on education for girls" (Saine & Saine, 2012, p. 313).
Saine and Saine also suggested there was little evidence that the mission statements and policy objectives of the introduction of local languages into formal school curriculum had been implemented, although during my fieldwork in The Gambia, between March to May, 2011, there was curriculum being developed toward this.