Abstract:
Education in Kenya during the colonial period was provided based on
three races namely European, Asian and African. Various educational
reforms and structures were based mostly on racial ideology (Lidundu
1996). Africans were given inferior education for manual work, that is, to
prepare them to work for the whites and Asians, while Asians were given
education for middle class level work such as artisanship, trade and
vocation (Sheffield 1973). However, Europeans went through a specialised
education system meant to equip them for leadership. This type of
segregated education could not unite the three races in Kenya.
Kenya was partitioned to the British to protect Britain’s naval “sphere
of influence” during the partition of Africa at the Berlin Conference of
1884-85 in Germany (Mwiria 1991). The main motivation was to forestall
competition and to control areas of strategic economic value. Cunningham
(2006), citing Ntarangwi (2003, 221), relates that this motivation was
aided by Christian missionaries who provided a mechanism for replacing
indigenous value systems.
After independence in 1963, the government of Kenya embarked on
the reform of the education sector in line with the physical, political, social
and economic conditions and challenges faced by the independent state of
Kenya. This was done through the establishment of various education
commissions which have shaped the education system since independence
(Bogonko 1991). The government implemented the reforms through
policy documents which are statements of its commitment to undertake
specific programmes directed at the achievement of certain goals. The
documents also constitute a notice to citizens at large that reforms on
particular issues would occur within a given timeframe. Educational
reforms after independence took two forms, that is, two methods were
used to achieve the process of educational reforms (Otiende et al. 1972).
First, there was the establishment of commissions to deal with matters of
education on a periodical basis, and second, the recommendations of these
commissions were to be used to reform and develop education in Kenya.
The current education framework in Kenya is based on colonial education.
It was built on a colonial foundation, and it attempted to reform the
education system to reflect the needs and aspirations of national
development. Legislations, commissions and policies constitute the legal
framework of the country’s education system.
The government placed emphasis on education as a vehicle for human
resource and national development. Indeed, education plays a key role in
the development of human capital, which is an important input in
production. For this reason, educational reforms in the post-independence
era through education policy documents have consistently stressed the
need to offer education that addresses the importance of national
development, national integration, economic growth and poverty
eradication (MoEST 2005, 6), all of which are in line with Vision 2030.
Another theme that the policy documents focused on is the need to
promote equality and social justice in Kenya. The colonial government
perpetuated a system of education that was characterised by inequality,
discrimination and racism. Policy documents on education commissions
and committees at the time emphasised a curriculum for Africans that
confined them to inferior roles such as menial work, religious codes and
vocational training. Ochieng’ (1989) refers to this as “education for
hewers of wood and drawers of water,” which was supposed to equip them
with skills to serve at the bottom of the social ladder/hierarchy. Since
1963, the main education commissions and their findings include the
Ominde Report (1964), Bessey Report (1972), Gachathi Report (1976),
Mackay Report (1981), Kamunge Report (1988), and the Koech Report
(1999). This study is the product of a systematic desktop review of related
literature. It focuses on the Ominde report which was purposively selected
because it was meant to de-colonise the Kenyan education system.