As noted earlier in this report, the difference between Christian and Muslim educational attainment in sub-Saharan Africa is among the largest intraregional gaps in the world. The region’s rapid projected population growth – both Christians and Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to double in number by 2050 – suggests that determining the reasons for the attainment gap will only grow in importance.60
Some scholars suggest that the source of the Christian-Muslim attainment gap is rooted in the location of Christian missionary activity during colonial times. Missionary-built educational facilities were often located in what became heavily Christian areas rather than predominantly Muslim locales.61 For example, while school establishment was widespread as a result of
missionary activity in many regions under British colonial rule, in northern Nigeria, which is now overwhelmingly Muslim, British colonial administrators discouraged missionary activity,
including development of missionary schools. Historic differences between colonial policy and missionary activity in northern and southern Nigeria are likely an important factor in the present- day Christian-Muslim education gap in Nigeria.62
Some Muslims, in any case, feared that missionary schools would attempt to convert their children to Christianity.63
60 Population estimates are from the 2015 Pew Research Center report “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010- 2050.”
61 Nunn, Nathan. 2010. “Religious Conversion in Colonial Africa.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 100. Also see Woodberry, Robert D. 2004. “The Shadow of Empire: Christian Missions, Colonial Policy, and Democracy in Postcolonial Societies.” 62 For discussion, see Frankema, Ewout H.P. 2012 “The origins of formal education in sub-Saharan Africa: was British rule more benign?” European Review of Economic History. Also see Thurston, Alex. 2016. “Colonial Control, Nigerian Agency, Arab Outreach, and Islamic Education in Northern Nigeria, 1900-1966” in Launay, Robert, ed. “Islamic Education in Africa: Writing Boards and Blackboards.” Also see Melina Platas. 2016. “The Religious Roots of Inequality in Africa.” Dissertation.
63 See Moore, Leslie C. 2006. “Learning by Heart in Qur’anic and Public Schools in Northern Cameroon.” Social Analysis. Moore writes of Cameroon: “Public schooling is believed by many Muslims to interfere with the social, moral, and spiritual development of their children. Time spent in public school is time not spent in Qur’anic study and in learning tasks and responsibilities from one’s father or mother. Moreover, parents are concerned that their children do not learn much of any use at school, and that much of what they do learn — nasaaraaji (things of
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As a result, Christians gained an educational edge over Muslims that lasted decades. Writes Nunn: “The presence of Christian missionaries, particularly Protestant missionaries, has been shown to be strongly correlated with increased educational attainment and the effects appear to persist for many generations.”64
In his study of Christian versus Muslim primary school enrollment, Holger Daun, an expert in educational policy at Stockholm University, argues that religion counts as much as economic factors in determining attainment. He finds no definitive explanation for the gap, but posits that one factor may be that religious schools set up by local Islamic leaders are viewed as an alternative to government schools. Some of the Islamic schools follow the curricula of state schools, while others teach only religious subjects.65
Melina Platas, an assistant professor of political science at New York University-Abu Dhabi, argues that the Christian-Muslim attainment gap, particularly in Muslim-majority areas, is only partly explained by poverty and access to schools. Surveys she conducted in Malawi found that Muslims and Christians express similar demands for formal education and do not perceive a trade-off between religious and formal schooling that would affect educational attainment.66 She offers two alternative explanations for further research. One, she writes, is that parents with low levels of education are less able to help their children attend and succeed in school “even if they have similar expectations for the economic returns of schooling as more educated parents.” This intergenerational pattern may be stronger in Muslim-majority areas, where many parents have low educational attainment.
64 Nunn, Nathan. 2014. “Gender and Missionary Influence in Colonial Africa.” In Akyeampong, Emmanuel, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn and James A. Robinson. 2014. “Africa's Development in Historical Perspective.” Melina Platas also writes in her 2016 dissertation, “The Religious Roots of Inequality in Africa”: “Seeking to avoid unrest that may have come from proselytization among Muslim populations, colonial administrators were not only more likely to prevent missionaries from establishing churches but also Christian-founded schools and health facilities in areas with Islamized political institutions as compared to those without.” At the same time, Platas finds some evidence for a contradictory trend: That Muslim-run schools increased when missionary-built schools appeared in or close to Muslim-majority areas. “There is some evidence,” she writes, “that Muslims responded to missionary investments by building their own schools, but these remained relatively few in number throughout the colonial period.”
In a 2013 conference paper, “Muslim Education in sub-Saharan Africa,” Platas writes that in the Buganda kingdom of Uganda, the degree to which Muslims put resources in educating their children during colonial times depended on the type of political structure prevailing in their ethnic communities. Those who had a more centralized, hierarchical system were more effective at creating educational facilities and advancing attainment.
65 Daun, Holger. 2000. “Primary Education in sub-Saharan Africa – a moral issue, an economic matter, or both?” Comparative Education. 66 Some studies, however, suggest that many Muslim parents prefer their daughters attend traditional Islamic schools, because they preserve traditional female roles and may preserve religious values (See Ogunjuyigbe, Peter O. and Adebayo O. Fadeyi. 2002. “Problems of Gender Differentials in Literacy and Enrolment Among the Yorubas of South- West Nigeria.” Journal of Social Sciences. Indeed, a 2010 study of women in three villages in Nigeria finds that a Quranic education is more common than other types of school among young Muslim women. See Adiri, Farouk, Habiba Ismail Ibrahim, Victor Ajayi, Hajaratu Umar Sulayman, Anita Mfuh Yafeh and Clara L. Ejembi. 2010. “Fertility Behaviour of Men and Women in Three Communities in Kaduna State, Nigeria.” African Journal of Reproductive Health.
Platas suggests that a second possible explanation, particularly for Muslim-majority areas, is that some Muslims may believe that secular government schools are Christian-oriented. As during the colonial period, therefore, they may fear that attending these schools poses a threat to their religious identity and to the practice of their faith.67
Sociologist Nicolette D. Manglos-Weber of Kansas State University offers a similar insight based on her research in 17 sub-Saharan African countries, finding that “religious identity shapes the odds of completing primary school.”
“At both national and local levels,” she writes, “there is an association between Christian groups and the state, which potentially discourages those of other religions from seeing state-sponsored schools as legitimate.”
As a result, Muslims may not favor state-sponsored schooling for their children to the same degree that Christians do, preferring instead to send them to Islamic religious schools. Muslim
participation is even lower in countries that have mandatory teaching of religion in government primary schools, Manglos-Weber adds. She characterizes the perceived lack of legitimacy as a “legacy of the historical links between Christian missionization and the colonial project.”68 A major challenge for African nations is that their populations have been rapidly expanding even as their governments struggle to allocate resources for universal education. In Ivory Coast, for example, anthropologist Robert Launay contends that an economic boom following independence favored those who had been educated in the colonial era and convinced many Muslim parents of the economic benefits of state schooling. However, he laments, “As the economy contracted, the population continued to expand, so that it would have been necessary to continue an aggressive policy of building schools and hiring teachers simply to maintain the quality of universal state education. … [I]n the face of mounting debts, Côte d'Ivoire was obliged by the international community to embark on a policy of structural adjustment, and in particular to rein in
government spending. Under such constraints, expanding the education system was out of the question.”69
67 Platas, Melina. 2016. “The Religious Roots of Inequality in Africa.” Dissertation. The perception of government schools with Western-style curricula being seen as a tool for conversion of Muslim students also is discussed in Csapo, Marg. 1981. “Religious, Social and Economic Factors Hindering the Education of Girls in Northern Nigeria.” Comparative Education.
68 Manglos-Weber, Nicolette. 2016. “Identity, Inequality and Legitimacy: Religious Differences in Primary School Completion in sub-Saharan Africa.” Forthcoming in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
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In sum, scholars are still exploring the reasons behind differences in educational attainment between Muslims and Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. The gaps appear to be partly a result of historical developments, especially Christian missionary activity and colonial policy. A host of contemporary economic, social, cultural and religious factors may also play a role.