8 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INDIGENOUS EDUCATION AND WESTERN

EDUCATION

1. PURPOSE
The missionaries and the colonial master who championed the course of western education were
concerned mainly with training Nigerias to make their missionary and colonial assignments
easier. In this wise the purpose of western education was to train clerk and interpreters to make
them read and write in order to serve the missionary and colonial interest. On the other hand,
indigenous education aims at making th recipient integrated and functional members of society.
2. EXAMINATION AND CERTIFICATION
Western Education involves writing formalized (written) examinations at various stages/level,
while there are no formalized (written) examinations in indigenous education. In addition,
certificates are issued at the completion of a course under the western education system, while no
certificate is issued in indigenous education.
3. LANGUAGE OF INSTRUTIONS
The main language of instruction in western education in Nigeria is English language, while the
native language is mainly used in the indigenous education.
4. METHOD OF INSTRUTIONS
Instruction in western education is formalized. it involves the use of writing, reading and at times
memorization. Indigenous education makes use of rote learning, without writing since it is
informal education. Instruction in western education involves direct teaching by designated
teachers as well as some practical experience. Instruction in indigenous education involve
everybody in the community(elders, peers, parents, sibling etc) and it is done through imitation,
direct observation, role learning, and the use of stories, tale and taboos
5. ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT
Western education is formalized and handled by the formal institutions known as schools, while
indigenous education is not formalized and it takes place everywhere. Schools have opening and
closing time whereas indigenous education takes place anytime throughout the day. Instruction in
western education is supervised by designated officials (inspectors) while everybody (peers,
parents, siblings etc) supervise the operation of indigenous education. Specialized teachers
handle given subject in the school curriculum while everybody in the communities is involved in
the act of training in indigenous education. Everyone want the child to be sociable, honest,
courageous, humble, persevering and of good character, moral training is emphasized

6. COMMUNITY INTEGRATION
Western education encourages rural-urban migration. It alienates recipients from their
community, erroneously described as uncivilized. For instance, boarding school not only sees
themselves as superior to those who lived in villages and towns, they equally tend to shun and
disregard their people's culture. On the other hand indigenous education integrates recipient to
the society since it is not only socializing but it includes community development in its
programme.
7. CURRICULUM
The curriculum of western education consisted of the 3Rs (reading, Writing, Arithmetic) and
later gardening and music with other subject. On the other hand, the curriculum of indigenous
education cover all aspect of learning (cognitive, affective and psychomotor).In addition the
curriculum of western education is compartmentalized on subject basis and instruction was thus
formalized, while there is no subject compartmentalization in indigenous education where
instruction was informal, In other words the curriculum of indigenous education was integrated
rather than benign compartmentalized on sublet basis
8. EMPLOYMENT PROSPECT
Western education is characterized by unemployment of school leaves since many of them are
interested in white-collar jobs due to nature of the education received. In indigenous education,
there is no room for unemployment since it is preparing recipient for the world of work of work
particularly through apprenticeship system. Entrepreneurship education is emphasizing in
indigenous education whereas recipient of western education preferred working in office thus
unemployment of youths is rampant.
Similarities and differences between indigenous African education and missionary
type of education
Posted on January 8, 2011 by Sitwe

Mkandawire Sitwe Benson (2005) similarities and differences between indigenous African
education and that type of education which was brought by the missionaries. The discussion will
start with aims, objectives, organization, administration, content and the methods of teaching.
The term education has got a lot of definitions. Different scholars in the world give different
definitions in trying to capture the subject matter. Some scholars like Snelson (1974:1) define
education as
A condition of human survival. It is the means where by one generation transmits the wisdom,
knowledge and experience which prepares the next generation for lifes duties and pleasure.

Although this definition may not cater or address all the issues raised in education, it helps us to
have a wide knowledge about all aspects of education. This also helps us to act with more insight
and more intelligence in molding the youths in an acceptable manner. As human beings, the kind
of personality one becomes will depend very much on the home he/she is born into, on his
parents, on his village in which they are brought up. It can also be based on his or her school and
on the tribe or nation to which they belongs. The kind of personality will not only depend on the
things mentioned but also on beliefs and ideas that he will encounter throughout his life.
Education existed as early as mans history. It existed for a long time as human beings started
living in societies of Africa and this education is referred to indigenous African education. We
find evidence of possession of knowledge, skills and customs told by the old generation. On the
other hand the missionaries of the Christian church brought modern education to Africa, who had
concluded that Africans where completely uneducated. A mistake which they had.
However, there are a lot of similarities and differences between the two terms. One of the
similarities between indigenous African education and the type of education brought by
missionaries is that they had the same purpose of preparing of the young generation into a useful
adult life in household, village and tribe. Both aimed at bringing up an individual as a
responsible person in the society. This was done through the transmitting of attitudes, values,
skills social understanding and the various customs of the society.
Both indigenous and missionary types of education had an aim of equipping leaders on how to
perform social functions respecting of their adults and other people in the society.. For instance
in the village or denomination to which they belonged, children were taught different survival
skills.
Both types of education prepared individuals for employment in their own environment because
they believed that people must have life. To this effect they taught people how to find food
through farming. Areas which had fertile soils were identified as farms and various crops such as
maize, beans and groundnuts where grown. Furthermore, they both believed that shelter was very
important for people to live in. hence, construction of houses was encouraged and some of them
developed the skill of building such shelters.
Both types of education believed in good morality that is how to live well. Education tended to
focus on instruction as they were taught how to live in order to be accepted in the society.
Accepted values and norms such as honesty, generosity, diligence and hospitality where part of
civic education.
In terms of differences, we can say that, although both were agents of transmitting culture to the
young generation, indigenous African education taught children their own African culture based

within their own society while missionaries brought in their culture from another society
specifically European to which African children were not very familiar with.
Indigenous African education was for everyone in Africa and existed for the purpose of
strengthening the African community while missionaries aimed at promoting the growth of their
church. The aims and objectives of indigenous African education according to Kelly (1999) were
to teach or instilling of the accepted standards and beliefs governing good behaviour, creating
unit and general agreement by people. However competition on practical and intellectual basis
was encouraged while the education of the missionaries mainly focused on spreading
Christianity
In terms of organization structure, the education brought by the missionaries was hierarchically
structure from lowest to the highest level while African education according to Farrant (1980:30)
states that indigenous education had no schools or buildings or formal organization of either
nation or local educational systems.
As for indigenous African education, this clearly tells us that it had unstructured type of
education in terms of hierarchy. This explains why education took place anytime and anywhere
in the indigenous African education. It could take place under a tree, in the bush as they were
hunting or collecting fire wood or fruits. In some societies where education was largely informal
parents where predominatly responsible for teaching using their house holds as the school. This
house hold education covered practical skills and continued as long as the child lived with
his/her parents. In short, this type of education was informal and there was no sort of
organization at local or national level. In the economic sphere education depended on
geographical point of location for that society to satisfy their own needs.
In terms of agriculture, Sherington (1987:8) pointed out that a person learnt how to grow crops in
the indigenous African education such as finger millet, rice, wheat, sorghum, maize, sweet
potatoes and pumpkins. This was an economic system of education. Apart from this type of
education system the indigenous African education also practiced technology in which they
learned how to manufacture metal tools such as axes, hoes, spears, merchants, knives, arrows
and bows. There was also a political stability of life among the indigenous African people which
led to the political system. Society was based first of all on family relations; the smallest social
unit was home stead in which a child learnt how to behave with the mother and father. Chief was
recognized as a leader of all civil, military, judiciary and religious matters affecting the people in
his area. This type of education had religious teachings centred on supreme beings with strong
believes in the ancestral spirits. The young people had to learn when and why spirits of the
departed had to be propitiated on ceremonial purification had to be performed. The value of
certain charms and protective medicine.

Unlike indigenous education the missionaries had structured type of education since they had
buildings where learning took place. This explains why they had an organized link between local
and international institutions (outside). This type of education was formal and school building
were well established. However, these established structures were divided into three categories
that is lower level, middle level and upper level. They had curriculum and time table in place.
In spite of both indigenous and missionaries education having teachers, the indigenous African
teachers were not specific. The teaching included any one elderly or knowledgeable person that
the teachers. Missionary education had an obligation to train teachers and these were paid in
kind. The trained teachers were those who could read, understand and interpret the bible.
Training of teachers took place at normal schools.
On content of indigenous education, the physical environment influenced the content of the
curriculum. This shows as that what was taught meant to assist the child to adjust and adapt to
the environment so that the child could exploit and derive benefit from it. The child learnt about
landscape, weather and about plants and animals so as to come to term with the environment. In
addition, the physical situation influenced what practical skills the child acquired in order to be
prepared for the future responsibilities. For instance, boys and girls who lived in fishing areas
learnt such skills
In addition to what has been highlighted on above, the principle aim of the African education
was to prepare an individual for self-reliance; there was early introduction for adult life from six
years. This was to free the infancy from dependents upon parents. To this effect, education was
based on the assumption that an individual can participate in community life and benefit from the
education the community had to offer. Learners were impacted with knowledge on survival skills
such as carpentry, forming pottery and basketry. Unlike indigenous African education,
missionaries type of education had a sore objective to spread the knowledge about religions
among forefathers and other nations. The aim of spreading the word of God was to have people
who are literate to read and interpret the bible. Most of the Christian leaders were nurtured
through education in order to sing hymn songs in foreign language. The type of education that
was brought by the missionaries was aimed at making Africans learn how to read and write so
that Africans can easily be converted to Christianity. Thus, the missionaries were motivated to
give formal education, (that is literacy and numeracy) so that Africans could read the Bible
(evangelization) and spread the gospel to others.
To a large extent the missionaries discarded our way of life. They thought we are ignorant and
know nothing. They rejected much of tradition way of life because their desire was to convert as
many as possible to Christianity religion. Thus, the education provided was biased towards
religion.

Ocitti (1973) states that

African indigenous education, was highly centralised the powers were limited to tribal social
division (family, lineage or village, clan, chiefdom). Organizations mainly describe the social
relationships that existed, that are the rights and duties of husbands, wives and children. It also
looks at whether a particular tribe is patrilineal, that is, Children belong to the husband or
matrilineal where descent is towards the mothers side or family. The relation between relatives
(for example mothers or fathers brother) was also seen to have special importance to a childs
growing up.
In terms of facilitation, African indigenous education administration was being managed by the
elders and not youths.
In the indigenous African education, children were strictly taught about land ownership and how
people were to treaty. The whole land would be administered by the kings or chiefs who used to
get into the throne through the matrilineal system of kingship in which someone gets into power
through hereditary.
Politically, the indigenous African education was highly organized with strong beliefs in
guardians. They belied in working in groups and generally the content of indigenous education
had much stress on the communal and social aspect rather than on an individual. This was done
mainly to prepare boys and girls for adult life in households, villages and tribes as mentioned
earlier.
Mwanakatwe (1974)) argues that
The indigenous type of education is not flexible. That is why the type of education provided was
static. This means that it was unchanging from generation to generation, in other words it was
rather conservative and not innovative. Thus it was the same education that was practiced over
and over for years. The content of indigenous education had its paramount importance on the
detailed knowledge of physical environment and the skills to exploit it. For instance, hunting on
the part of men and farming the part of females. It also had its stress on togetherness or unity as
well as understanding the rights and obligation of each individual in a particular society. The
concept of togetherness would teach the indigenous people on how to live and work with others
within the societies or chiefdoms. The rights and obligations will put in place the extent and
limitations of individual rights. This was responsible for making sure that boys and girls
understand what is required of them in a particular society.
In summary, indigenous African education was more practical than the kind of education brought
by the missionaries. Indigenous type of education had a bearing to the traditions, norms and
cultural being to the society to which the children belonged. African education was not well
structured while western education was well structured and it was bookish. African education
gave a sense of belonging to the culture while the missionaries kind of education did not.

References
Kelly, M.J. (1998). Origins and Development of Education in Zambia, Lusaka : Image
Publishers Limited.
Mwanakatwe M.J. (1974). The growth of Education in Zambia Since Independence,
Lusaka : Oxford UNZA Press.
Ocitti, J.P (1973). African Indigenous education. Nairobi : East Africa Literature Bureau
https://sitwe.wordpress.com/, http://sitwe.blog.com/, http://bmsitwe.blog.com