The Age of Reason is an impetus for arrival of new stance regarding cosmogenesis or natural philosophy since new scientific advancements are being discovered. During this time, Age of Reason becomes the emancipating precursor from shackles of dogmatism that held the classical skepticism and religious perspective of the cosmos. The principal precursor in the change of thought is Rene Descartes who rebels against the dogmatism of his present time, while providing valid arguments on doubting and on ideas in relation to Providence, thus his philosophy landscaped a new philosophical stance during the Age of Reason. Descartes is the first philosopher who goes against a prevalent thinking established during the Dark Ages, which only accepts ideas bounded by the church. Descartes’ definitive doubt is the mirror image of his definitive certainty. Having raised, as he claims, all possible doubts, he will be able subsequently to claim that whatever principles survive his skeptical scrutiny has been established with metaphysical finality. Classical skepticism, even if used as a methodological device, could support no such claim. With the emergence of a new idea, the balance, even if at present dramatically tipped, might always be restored or even tipped the other way. Ordinary doubting, and its sophisticated extension, classical isosthenia, are always contingent on the current state of knowledge. They offer no test for absolute certainty. The first point Descartes makes is that he cannot trust his senses without qualification, because they have often deceived him about objects that are barely perceptible or very far away. Nevertheless, this leaves untouched beliefs about objects close by and in plain view. To call these in question, he needs the dreaming argument. But even the dreaming argument, as Descartes understands it, leaves unscathed beliefs about things that are ‘very simple and very general’, and to undermine the credibility of these, he has to raise questions about his origin, nature, and relation to Providence, a line of thought encapsulated in the conceit of the evil deceiver. Moreover, even this final, hyperbolical doubt seems implicitly to concede Descartes some knowledge. This stratification of doubt imposes a corresponding stratification of knowledge. Through the progressive development of his doubt, Descartes effects a context- and subject-matter-independent partitioning of his beliefs into broad epistemological classes, ordered according to how difficult it is to doubt them. First in the order come the beliefs that are never doubted, subsequently to be identified as those that involve Descartes’ immediate knowledge of his own ‘thoughts’, whose exemption will be retrospectively justified on the grounds of their supposed incorrigibility. The progressive development of Cartesian doubt insinuates, without ever directly arguing for, a foundational conception of knowledge, the view of knowledge that sees justification as constrained by just the sort of context- and subject-matter-independent order of epistemic priority that is implicit in Descartes’ stratified doubt. One of the major criticisms in Descartes philosophical stance is its appeal to epistemological solipsism, which means that everything an individual thinks is to be considered as truth. In epistemological solipsism, all ideas that reside in the mind are indubitable truth, and those that exist in the external world are nothing but unnecessary hypothesis. The problem here is that Descartes failed to realize that the there is a certain extent wherein human mind cannot explain or elucidate certain ideas that can be elucidated through empirical ways. On Hegel Geist makes itself what it implicitly is, its deed, and its works; in that way it has itself before its own eyes as object. So is the spirit of a people. . . . In these its works, its world, the spirit of a people finds enjoyment of itself and is satisfied. Lectures on the Philosophy of History) We come to self-awareness by finding ourself in our ‘Other’, that which is distinct from us, set over against us. So if the Idea is to rise to self-consciousness, as the ultimate purpose of things demands, there will have to be something set in opposition to it which is its ‘Other’, and yet which is at the same time a reflection of it. And so there is: nature, concrete where the Idea is abstract, particular where it is universal, thing where it is thought, but none the less its embodiment and manifestation, in Hegel’s vocabulary ‘identical’ with it. Geist, the third element of the great triad, arises out of this opposition of intimately related items which provides the necessary basis for the emergence of self-consciousness. The better Geist’s grasp of this ‘identity’ the closer has the Idea come to full consciousness of its own essence. The dialectical progression which Hegel saw in cultural forms and social institutions, in short in the life of the human race, he also saw in the life of the individual; the fall from childhood happiness and its reattainment so hardly won, the suffering that goes with nobility of soul and the subsequent recovery of joy. He is also able to assimilate the story of the fall of man, treating it as mythical representation of aspects of the history of mankind which are then played out again in each human life. It tells of a fall from a state of unthinking, unknowing wholeness to one of separation and the pain that comes from consciousness of it. And in his diagnosis Hegel seizes another chance to link arms with a theme of romantic as well as religious literature: what brings this fall about is the increase of knowledge. ‘Would I had never gone to your schools! is Hyperion’s cry; and what so afflicted the graceful youth of Kleist’s tale was knowledge as well, the realization of his own beauty; for Schiller, writing ‘Die Gotter Griechen-lands’, it was the knowledge of the natural scientist which had banished spirit from the world and left it alien and hollow. Historicism for Hegel is defined as a means of understanding the world and all human activities in terms of the historical context of the world and such activities; anything is circumstantiated based on the history of a given phenomenon. Historicism is important because it concretized the mechanism of dialectical materialism such as the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis of the event. Organicism is a means of understanding a single developing organism operates on its interdependent parts, in order to grasp its whole meaning in terms of human psyche and behavior. Hegel develops this idea along lines indicated by his highly individual conception of logic and strongly encouraged by the communal romantic metaphysic. Precisely because the dialectic works, in Hegel’s view, with fluid boundaries, the connections it reveals to us are invisible to the understanding. Reason, by virtue of its appreciation of fluidity and its disdain for divisive conceptual barriers, in short by its acceptance of the romantic principle of Unity-in-Difference as a principle of logic, is to let us see the aspect of identity between items which Verstand had hitherto represented as unalterably different and opposed. Hegel’s dialectics influenced Karl Marx in conceiving a utopian society with his structuring of Dialectical Materialism. Hegel also influenced Marx in terms of his stance on master-slave relationship, which is viewed by the former as the prevalent form of government. Hegel rebels against it because the person is deemed as a thing. On Husserl My transcendental method is transcendental-phenomenological. It is the ultimate fulfillment of old intentions, especially those of English empiricist philosophy, to investigate the transcendental-phenomenological “origins†… the origins of objectivity in transcendental subjectivity, the origin of the relative being of objects in the absolute being of consciousness. Husserl’s lectures of 1923–1924) Edmund Husserl’s transformation of phenomenology from an unfortunately named “descriptive psychology†to transcendental idealism thus extended the earlier critique of naturalism and psychologism in logic to philosophical naturalism generally. The crucial move in this transition is the methodological procedure of the phenomenological reduction, the suspending or “bracketing†or “putting out of action†all of the existential posits of the natural attitude. Considered as a “transcendentalâ€, this operation first opens up the “absolute being of pure consciousnessâ€, the “residuum of the world’s annihilation†(Residuum der Weltvernichtung). With it, phenomenology necessarily becomes transcendental inasmuch as phenomenological investigation is concerned to give an exhaustive description of this revealed region of “transcendental subjectivity†together with its structures of intentionality. Consequent to the phenomenological reduction, all reality (Realitat), ideal as well as actual, is exhibited as having being in virtue of “sense-bestowal†(Sinngebung), and indeed, the notion of an “absolute reality†independent of consciousness is as nonsensical as that of a “round squareâ€. By the same token, “pure consciousnessâ€, the ultimate origin of all “sense-bestowalâ€, “exists absolutely and not by virtue of another (act of) sense-bestowalâ€. It is the ultimate conferee of sense or meaning, the source of all representations, and so of all objectivity. Martin Heidegger position on second intuition is greatly influenced by Husserl. Like Husserl, Heidegger also espoused that in order to elucidate a phenomenon, one must take into account all the descriptive experience of that phenomenon, and this understood in Husserl’s term as intentionality and for Heidegger it is care. Hence, for Heidegger phenomenology is encapsulated in the catchphrase: “to the things in themselvesâ€. Jean-Paul Sartre Transcendence of the Ego is greatly affected by Husserl’s intentionality. Sartre elucidates how the power of consciousness and intentionality can unravel or show the authenticity of object in relation to the being, and of course of the ontology of the being-for-itself. For Sartre, constitution should not be misconstrued as means of “creation†because the former should only be viewed in context of consciousness. Hence, constitution is a way of conceiving things that surrounds the being, or when being makes sense of the things that surrounds him/her. And through constitution, being is able to individuate himself/herself from other beings and the tings that surround the being. Thus, objects are elucidated in their own-ness and the object of consciousness is ego, which is a departure from Husserl. On the other hand, Soren Kierkegaard influenced Sartre in terms of objectification the being, which can lead to angst or nausea, and bad faith. Kierkegaard posits that the crowd can lead to the objectification of the being that can cause fear, and eventually leads to untruth. Sartre postulates that once the being is consumed by the others and being-in-itself, the being is automatically in bad faith and objectified, thus losing its authenticity. On Plato and Aristotle Plato’s theory of forms suggests that the world that we know of and that which we live in is not the real and objective world. This world is where the material objects exist, and the very material objects are not the essences of these very objects. Rather, in the Platonic view, real objects are the forms, such that latter is the very essence of these objects, that it is where objects of the material world are framed upon. These forms are not of this material world but exist instead in the world of forms or ideas. Thus, real knowledge for Plato is not the commonsensical notion of knowledge derived from what we directly experience through our senses but is rather the knowledge of the forms. To know and understand the forms is to know the very essence of things. Hence, this leads to the dichotomization of world of object and world of ideas, in which the latter is the end-all of all things, or the truth in-itself. Quite on the contrary, Aristotle believes that knowledge can be obtained empirically and that a grasp of the nature of things can be acquired through careful observation of phenomena. The senses of man, then, pose great centrality to Aristotle’s method of arriving at the understanding of objects. Through the use of sensory perception, one can obtain the critical facts which are directly observable from the object and are constitutive of its physical existence. The observation on objects allows one to acquire the basic information about the object. The corresponding sensory experience on the object creates the very core of what seems to be the ultimate components that comprise the very form of the object of the perception. The way the objects represent themselves before the senses is the real way things are as they are. Roughly speaking, the very form of the object is its unique characteristic which is primarily constitutive of its overall existence. The very essence of objects for Aristotle cannot be separated from the object itself and, hence, the way to understand the essence of a thing is to experience the object through sensory perception. Aristotle tries to arrive at generalizations out of specific observations. More generally, he attempts at proceeding to the general knowledge on the essences of things from an analysis of specific phenomena. This ascent from particulars to generalizations is considered to be inductive in principle and deductive to a certain extent since these generalizations derived can then be utilized as the general claim upon which specific claims can be inferred from. Yet, broadly speaking, Aristotle’s logic revolves around the notion of deduction (sullogismos). Aristotle then says of deduction: A deduction is speech (logos) in which, certain things having been supposed, something different from those supposed results of necessity because of their being so. (Prior Analytics I. 2, 24b18-20) Thus, the form of an object for Aristotle is its specific characteristic, its very essence or essential attribute manifested by its physical existence or the very fact that it is tangible, and this we can derive principally through the use of deduction and of logic in general to our immediate sensory perception of objects. On the other hand, Plato’s method of philosophizing is seen to be as deductive in nature. From an understanding of the universals or generalizations, specifically that of the forms, man can derive the particulars through contemplation on the objects, objects which are mere imitations of the forms in the Platonic sense. Thus, Plato’s mode of inference can be seen as a descent from the general a priori principles down to the specifics.
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Education policies Essay Education is so important in any given society. For this reason, it forms a major part of any government’s plans. The plans that any government wishes to implement as regards their education system is determined by existing policies. Factors which influence formulation of policies form the subject of this discussion. For orderly presentation, the essay is divided into three chapters namely the introduction, the main body and conclusion. The introduction gives definitions of key terms used in the essay as well as conceptual frame work, the main body outlines and discusses major factors which influenced education policies in African countries after achieving their independence and lastly the conclusion draws a summary of the essay. 1. 1 Statement of essay purpose This essay aims at discussing the factors which influenced education policies in African countries after their achievement of independence. The essay will outline these factors and later give a detailed discussion of each factor. 1. 2 Definitions of terms In order to make this discussion meaningful, it is imperative that definitions of key terms that are involved are done. The key terms involved in the discussion are education, policy and independence. The definitions of the terms are as given below Education. According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Culture Organisation (1975:1), education is defined as “organised and sustained communication designed to bring about learning†Thus education in this context involves a lifelong process by which an individual is incorporated into the group and made capable of behaving in the ways expected by the society for an individual of a particular age, sex or status. Education can take place formally, non formally and informally. However, in this context the emphasis is on formal education. Policy A policy is defined as a deliberate plan of action which is put in place to guide decisions and achieve intended outcomes. Policies differ from rules or laws. Rules or laws are established to compel or prohibit certain behaviours while policies guide actions towards desired goals. This discussion, however, focuses on education policies. Bartlett and Burton (2012:134), define an education policy as the “rafts of laws and initiatives that determine the shape and functioning of educational systems at both national and local levels. Therefore, education policies give direction to the functioning of an education system. Independence This is defined as the freedom from being governed or ruled by another country. African countries in this discussion acquired the freedom to rule themselves from colonial mast 1. 3 Conceptual Framework Blackmore (1999), states that there are three models of policy making namely popular participation, decree and delegation models. This discussion will refer to these three models in outlining and discussing the factors which influenced education policies in African countries after achieving their independence. These models are discussed in detail below. (a) Popular Participation Policy making model. (b) In this model, everybody is given an opportunity to contribute to the formulation of policies. People in African countries were given opportunities to make suggestions on changes to make to the education system. For example, Zambia’s educational reforms of 1977. (c) Decree Policy Making Model In this model, the head of state makes pronouncements on the direction to be followed in a given education system. (d) Delegation Policy Making Model This involves appointing a commission to review the education system of a given country. For example the Onide Commission was appointed to review the education system of Kenya in 1963. Policies are made with respect to the findings of the commission. CHAPTER TWO 2. 0 Main Body This chapter outlines and discusses the major factors that influenced education policies in African countries after achieving independence. These factors are as given and discussed below. Education for Economic Development The consideration given to education as an important vehicle for economic development is one of the factors which influenced education policies in African countries after achieving independence. Investment in formal education was considered as an essential precondition for economic growth. African countries learnt lessons from developed countries that a high basic platform of education was a catalyst to rapid economic development. There was a belief among developing countries that the modernisation, industrialisation and wealth of developed countries were the direct consequence of their educational systems. Coombs (1970) argues that during the 1960s education in developing countries was regarded as a sort of intellectual yeast which would ferment and transform pre industrial societies by promoting knowledge, skills and attitudes which were favourable to economic and social development. Therefore, education policies in African countries after the achievement of independence were directed at promoting education pro vision expansion in order to achieve meaningful development. In fact an argument is advanced by Anderson (1965), that analysis of evidence from major developed countries such as Britain, France, United States of America and Russia that in general terms, a thresh hold male literacy rate of 40 percent was required before there be any significant take off of economic development. To this end, African countries directed their policies on education after attaining independence towards increased access to education in order to reach the required thresh hold of literacy. Therefore, in the 1950s and 1960s, demand and plans for investment in formal education by African countries increased. Education was regarded to be a principal weapon in achieving economic growth. To this end rapid quantitative expansion of the education system became the order of the day in newly independent African countries. Man power Shortages. After attaining independence, African countries were confronted with shortage of manpower in various sectors of the economy. As a result of this scenario, they experienced economic stagnation. Man power shortages were heavily felt in technical and managerial fields. Thus, education policies in most African countries were directed towards resolving the man power shortages experienced. This situation was evident from what obtained in Kenya. As Eshiwani (1993:26), observes ‘’at independence in 1963, Kenya found herself with a high shortage of skilled manpower to run the economy. In order to solve this problem, a commission was appointed to advise the government on the formulation and interpretation of national educational policies. †Therefore, it can be stated that man power planning in newly independent countries of Africa gave a direction to the formulation of education policies. Consequently, the governments of newly independent countries of Africa saw it paramount to expand the education systems of their countries in order to produce more graduates from the education system that would fill the manpower gaps which were experienced in various sectors of the economy. Most technical and managerial jobs at independence in most African countries were occupied by foreigners. Therefore, the aim of most African governments was to decolonise the education systems, produce more output from secondary and higher education so that manpower to participate in national development could be realised. Fafunwa (1974), Contends that education development in African countries like Nigeria was treated as a national emergency for the reason of curbing manpower shortages in crucial areas of the economy. In order to meet the requirements of manpower in various sectors of the economy, the policies of African countries after independence were directed at increasing school enrolments, especially at the post primary level. Rapid expansion of secondary and higher education was considered as a pre requisite for sustainable economic growth. Enhancing education as a basic human right Newly independent African countries were confronted with a task of providing to every child their basic, essential right to education. The kind education that was to be provided was supposed to be relevant to the child in his or her African setting. For this reason, most newly African countries had massive capital and recurrent budgets towards the financing of primary education for all. The provision of education especially at elementary level to citizens of newly independent African countries was prompted by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights in which education is enshrined as a basic human right. As Bishop (1989:1), postulates, “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. â€Therefore, from the foregoing, newly independent African countries were compelled to provide education especially primary education on the grounds of human justice and equity. The newly independent African countries were supposed to consider primary education as the birth right of every child. This was due to the fact that education was seen as an effective way to give all children regardless of sex or family background an equal start in life. Furthermore, the leadership of newly independent African countries considered education to be the great equaliser that would help to narrow the wide disparities which were apparent in conditions of living in rural and urban communities. Before the attainment of independence, education in most African countries was a preserve for the elite. In order to correct this, African leaders made radical changes to their education systems to make them more accommodative to everyone. As Carmody (1994:23), contends “As in most African countries, from the early days Africa’s leaders viewed education as a powerful, often the most powerful vehicle for social transformation. Thus, as the UNIP government assumed power, among its immediate priorities were the elimination of racial segregation in schools and expansion of education provision. Tuition and boarding fees were abolished. †A point was also made by Bishop (1989), which in the days of the 1950s and 1960s massive expansion of education provision was regarded as the best means available for rooting out old prejudices and socio economic injustices. Therefore, education was regarded as basic human right which everyone needed to enjoy as provided in the foregoing arguments. In the pursuit of providing universal primary education, newly African countries set for themselves benchmarks. For example, the Addis Ababa conference on the development of education in Africa held in 1961 recommended that primary education was to be universal, compulsory and free by 1980. The conference further recommended that secondary education was to be provided to 30 percent of the children who completed primary school. Similarly, the conference of Arab states which met in Tripoli in 1966 also set 1980 as the target date for achieving universal primary education. To this end, it can be argued that one of the factors that influenced the formulation of education policies of African countries after achieving independence was related to the consideration that education was a basic human right which every citizen of a given country was supposed to enjoy . Hence, massive investment in the provision of education was undertaken by African countries after attaining independence in order to promote the achievement of universal primary education. As Court and Kinyanjui (1978:14), comment on the provision of Universal Primary Education in Tanzania. “President Nyerere had the choice of expanding the number of classes at grades V to VII so that those children entering primary education received seven years of schooling instead of fourâ€. It can be concluded from the foregoing statement that the decision was arrived at because it enabled finances to be spent on the provision of 7 years of education to one child which helped him or her to become a useful member of society. African countries aimed at improving the access to education by increasing the number of school places which was facilitated by expanding already existing schools as well as construction of new schools in different parts of their countries. Promotion of Modernisation. African countries formulated their education policies with respect to the purpose of attaining modernisation. In order to influence modernisation in their countries, there was massive investment in education. This was a result of the belief that schooling would assist in the inculcation of modern ideas and attitudes. Bishop (1989), postulate that evidence seemed to indicate that schooling influenced the development of modern traits and ideas. To this end, schooling had some impact on modernisation. This was manifestated in higher levels of modernity among urban people and lower modernity among rural people. Consequently, many African leaders in newly independent countries felt modernisation of attitudes and behaviours was an important pre requisite for their countries’ development. According to Carmody (1994), education should socialise a nation’s population into modern values, attitudes and personalities. For this reason there was more emphasis on the expansion of education systems in newly independent African countries in order to enhance the access levels. Increased access to education meant increased modernity levels within a given country. In studies which were conducted be Inkeles and Smith (1974), indicate that education was the single most variable for modernisation. The studies indicate that each year of schooling improved a person’s score on their modernity scale by about 2 points. Education was also very effective in the development of positive attitudes and values. For this reason, formulation of education policies in newly independent African countries was influenced by the idea of modernisation. Modernisation was to be attained by every citizen in the newly independent African countries through education. Ensuring Citizens’ Political Participation The citizens’ participation in political affairs of their countries could be seen as one of the major factors which influenced education policies in African countries after achieving independence. Political participation of citizens of a particular country was linked to the notion of modernisation. This was due to the fact that knowledge was regarded as power. For this reason, many political leaders of African drafted educational policies which were responsive to the promotion of political participation of citizens in nation matters. This was highly evident in the content of education which was offered to the citizens . Again this could only be realised through the wide spread of education in African countries which most leaders promoted through the expansion of the education system. Cowan (1965), stressed that any political principle which governed education policy in independent African countries was supposed to regard as a top priority the provision of an education that would establish the most vigorous form of self government and independence. Therefore, extending schooling to a larger population would make more people politically and socially conscious and more active in the process of nation building. Thus, if equal political rights were to be enjoyed by everyone then everyone ought to have at least an adequate primary school education to participate more fully in the political process of their country. Promotion of Social Equality and Removal of Divisions The attainment of social equality is among the major factors which influenced education policies in African countries after achieving independence. Education was regarded as an instrument of social equality which was critical in the upbringing of social responsibility. Therefore, education policies which were put in place by African countries after attainment of independence were directed towards the promotion of social equality within their countries. Consequently, more and more school places were created in most parts of African countries to bring about the issue of equality within their countries in the provision of education services. Equality in the provision of education was called for as it ensured that child was provided with varied and challenging opportunities for collective activities and corporate social services. Furthermore, Eshiwani (1993), points out that the promotion of social equality in the formulation of education policies in African countries after achieving independence helped young people to acquire positive attitudes of mutual respect which enabled them to live together in harmony and to make a positive contribution to the national life. This contribution to national life was not supposed to be extended to every part of the country, hence the need of social equality in the provision of education. Respect and Development of Cultural Heritage The formulation of education policies in African countries after achieving independence was influenced by the need for promoting respect and development of cultural heritage. Education policies were directed towards the promotion of respect, fostering and developing the rich cultures which African countries have. For this reason, policy formulation as regards this situation was clearly addressed in the content of education which African countries were to provide to their people. The content of education was adapted to the culture of the people in any particular African country. In support of this assertion, Eshiwani (1993), states that the commission which was assigned to review Kenya’s education system in 1963 recommended that Kenyan schools were to respect the cultural traditions of the people of the country, both as expressed in social institutions and relationships. Similarly, Damachi et al (1978), reports that education policies in African countries after attainment of independence were influenced by the need to enhance every aspect of human development which included the promotion of cultural heritage. Consequently, African countries were to state clearly their language of instruction in their education system both at lower and higher levels. This was done with the sole aim of promoting the preservation of cultural heritage and national unity. To this end the education policies which most African countries drafted after the attainment of independence were geared towards learners understanding of past and present cultural values and their valid place in contemporary society. Education for Self Reliance The education policies of African countries were influenced by the need for the curriculum offered to respond to the attainment of self reliance. Thus the recipients of such education were supposed to engage themselves in self employing activities. The curriculum of African countries emphasized practical subjects in order to ensure the acquisition of self reliance by learners. It was realised that the kind of education which was offered in some countries in Africa was too bookish and academic. The education system in most African countries separated manual work from learning. Thus theory was separated from practice. This situation further alienated young people from their societies. Therefore, education reforms in most African countries were inevitable so as reverse this trend. As Bishop (1989:116), reports “By the mid 1950s it was being argued once again that schooling should be reformed principally through curriculum reform to include more practical and vocational studies’’ Similarly, Carmody (1994), reports that Zambia’s First National Development Plan pointed to the need for increasingly relating secondary education to the needs of the country by diversifying the secondary school syllabus into technical and commercial fields and giving a new place to agriculture. Therefore, it can be pointed out that education policies in African countries were supposed to address the concept of self reliance. Academic schooling was to be placed side by side with technical and vocational training in African countries. Improvement of Education Efficiency The education policies of most African countries after achieving independence were influenced by the need of improving the efficiency of the education systems. In education systems of African countries, it was felt that there was no correlation between inputs and out puts as well as between costs and returns. Education policies were centred on the need of making the systems of education to be more efficient. That is, the education systems were supposed to achieve their output at the lowest cost and also get the greatest return for a given cost. According to Bishop (1989), most education systems in African countries after achieving independence were inefficient, particularly at secondary and higher levels. The inputs such as expenditure per student or teacher training did not seem to have the effects on test scores which educators anticipated. Therefore, education policies were designed in a manner that would make the education systems in newly independent African countries to be more efficient. Additionally, education in many African countries was dysfunctional. It relied heavily on rote learning and led to an inappropriate reverence for paper qualifications. Furthermore, most curricular in African countries were irrelevant to pupils’ future lives and created an imbalance with many school leavers unemployed. Consequently, African countries formulated policies which were aimed at addressing the challenges which were faced in education systems. Education as a means of fostering international consciousness Education policies in African countries were influenced by the need to foster international consciousness in learners. Education policies as complimented by the content of education provided to learners was supposed to ensure that positive attitudes towards other countries as well as the international community were upheld. This was emphasized because no country existed as an island. Each country depended on others for its prosperity. Therefore, it was essential that learners were provided with education that would instil international consciousness for the purpose of promoting cooperation among countries. CHAPTER THREE. 3. 0 CONCLUSION Education policies in African countries after their achievement of independence were influenced by a number of factors. Some of the major factors which influenced education policies in African countries included manpower shortages, recognition of education as a basic human right, consideration of education as a tool for development, modernisation, improving education efficiency, need for citizens’ political participation, and promotion of international consciousness among learners as well as self reliance. Changes in education policies were inevitable due to the fact that African countries experienced change in government. A change in government is associated with an ideological shift, thus aspects of the education system in a given country will be in a continual state of reformation. Hence, changes occurred in education aspects such as content, teaching methodologies, assessment and structure. REFERENCES. Anderson, C. A (1974), Education and Development Re considered, Newyork: praeger Publishers. Bartlett, S and Burton, D (2012), Introduction to Education Studies, Los Angeles: Sage Publishers. Bishop, G (1989), Alternative Strategies for Education, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Carmody, B (1994), The Evolution of Education in Zambia, Lusaka: Book World Publishers. Coombs, P. H (1970), The Need for a New Strategy of Education Development, Paris: UNESCO. Court, D and Kinyanjui, K, K (1978), Development Policy and Education Opportunity: The Experience of Tanzania and Kenya, Paris: Macmillan. Cowan, J. O (1965), Education and National Building in Africa, London: Macmillan Damachi, U. G, Routh, G and Abdel, R. A (1978), Development Paths in Africa and China, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan. Eshiwani, G. S (1993), Education in Kenya since Independence, Nairobi: East African Education Publishers Fafunwa, A. B (1974), History of Education in Nigeria, London: Macmillan Press. Inkeles, A and Smith, D (1974), Becoming Modern, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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