LECTURE NOTES

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

WHAT IS EDUCATION?
Students to give their conception and understanding of
education.

Education is that which is supposed to give the recipient an

intelligent approach to life, a search for truth, a sound sense
of judgement, an appreciation of beauty, rhythm and order
(an awakening of an aesthetic sense), a deep concern for the
welfare of humanity, a great sense of responsibility coupled
with sincere devotion to work in the service of one’s country.
Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that
has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical
ability of an individual. In its technical sense education is the
process by which society deliberately transmits its
accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one
generation to another.

On the other hand being educated may also be described as

knowing your own ignorance and beginning the journey to
knowledge of the unknown. But when does this journey
begin and when does it end?

According to Jomo Kenyatta in FACING MOUNT KENYA, (Jomo

Kenyatta, Foundation, Nairobi, 1972), the journey begins at
birth and ends with death. It should therefore be recurrent.
That is why Tuijuman in RECURRENT EDUCATION AND
SOCIAL ECONOMIC SUCCESS (Institute of International
Education, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, 1986) calls it
structured learning from cradle to grave. By now we should
not have any doubt as to what education is. It is a learning
process. This learning process must pass on survival skills to
individual members of any society. It is those skills, which
will in turn lead to development.
Education is meant to be for sustainable development by
helping people to develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge
to make informed decisions for the benefit of themselves
and others, now and in the future, and to act upon these
decisions.
Sustainable development is seeking to meet the needs of the
present without compromising those of future generations.
We have to learn our way out of current social and
environmental problems and learn to live sustainably.
Sustainable development is a vision of development that
encompasses populations, animal and plant species,
ecosystems, natural resources and that integrates concerns
such as the fight against poverty, gender equality, human
rights, education for all, health, human security, intercultural
dialogue, etc.

However, despite hundreds of years of exposure to the white

man’s education, Africa’s situation is pathetic. This is largely
because of wrong approaches to education. There have been
two domineering theories or approaches to education;

1. MODERNIZATION THEORY
This theory stands on the premise that a society can be
functionally restructured and brought to a level of another
considered to be higher on the development scale.

2. HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT THEORY

The theory looks at education as an investment in human
beings by spending resources on them to teach them
knowledge, skills, technologies, values and norms that are
considered to be able to bring about economic development.
It has been argued that high rates of education are essential
for countries to be able to achieve high levels of economic
growth. Empirical analyses tend to support the theoretical
prediction that poor countries should grow faster than rich
countries because they can adopt cutting edge technologies
already tried and tested by rich countries. However,
technology transfer requires knowledgeable managers and
engineers who are able to operate new machines or

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production practices borrowed from the leader in order to
close the gap through imitation. Therefore, a country's ability
to learn from the leader is a function of its stock of "human
capital." Recent studies of the determinants of aggregate
economic growth have stressed the importance of
fundamental economic institutions and the role of cognitive
skills provided through education.
At the individual level, there is a large literature, generally
related back in time on how earnings are related to the
schooling and other human capital of the individual. But
there is a big chief controversies revolving around how to
interpret the impact of schooling on our society.

However, in pursuit of development, third world countries

have invested heavily in education and have sung the
modernization song for time immemorial but development
still eludes them. It has been assumed that the more
education one acquires the more wealth and therefore
positive change – modernization. Wealth accumulation and
modern life styles are not devoid in Africa. However, the
continent still remains as one of the most backward. And the
major drawbacks of these approaches are best manifested in
third world countries. We have already described the
objective living conditions in Africa and there is no need to
repeat them.

THE PROBLEM WITH THIRD WORLD EDUCATION

It has been observed that third world countries have adopted
a mechanical approach to education. Education ought to be
a product of a society’s development and not the catalyst of
development. It should be imparted as a means of
conserving, perpetuating and sustaining the development
achievements of a society. Education should enhance
development by passing on knowledge, skills, science and
technology, values and norms of the society. At the same it
must improves upon societal aspects. Education should not
be imported. It must evolved and a product of a society.

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Misconceptions between education as an acquisition of
modern tastes and life styles or an accumulation of learned
men and women have led to major contradictions, which
have tranquilized the third world into a false illusion of
development. The North has also petted the third world with
words like “developing world” or “least developed world”
whereas the truth of the matter is that for the last 40 or so
years, countries like Uganda have retrogressed and are best
described as “underdeveloping”.

First and foremost, modernity is an attitude of mind

associated with progress, efficiency, innovation and
technological advancement. Advocates of this theory believe
that a society without individuals with modern attitudes is
out of the development race. But, Freire also observes that
while all development is modernization, not all
modernization is development (Freire Paulo; CULTURAL
ACTION FOR FREEDOM, Penguin, victoria, 1974, EDUCATION
FOR CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, The Seabury Press, New
York, 1969). In many third world countries, modernization is
an inspiration and aspiration to lead the coveted lives of the
western world or white man (mzungu). That is why Africans
or third world people end up consuming what they do not
produce and are unable to maintain such life styles. In the
end the educated become parasites on the less educated.
Thus, the hydra of CORRUPTION.

The school has been the main culprit in inculcating such

archaic modern values and attitudes. Many of these are not
direct products of classroom teaching but are taken up
informally. Besides, the classroom teaching itself has no
relevance to the objective survival techniques of the society.
The people are not equipped to be instruments of
fundamental change in their society. The people are changed
without changing the society they live in. So they live
assumed lives of modernity in the midst of a sea of
backwardness. For example, when a chair breaks in
professor’s house, instead of fixing it himself, he goes to

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Wandegeya and picks up semiliterate carpenter to do the
job.

Nevertheless, the truth of the matter is that many Africans

have been debased to a level of wishing themselves white.
And at the heart of all this is the idolization of the white man.
For example, my youngest son calls himself Rambo. His
favorite play games are of war. At the age of three, he asked
me to buy him a gun.

The theory of modernization presupposes an embodied

element of progress, which implies development. But what it
has done is to move people up and down the social ladder
without changing the society and has become an obstacle to
development. It has failed to bring about change in the
entire labyrinth of society. What it has done is to cause a re-
socialization. It has undone traditional social values and
norms and introduced alien ones. The traditional education
based on survival theory has been eroded. It has created
modern people who frown upon their own cultures, values
and norms. The modern man or woman is an alien to his own
people. This is the type of education dispensed by our
schools, colleges and universities. It is formalized to prepare
the “native” for his/her new role of servicing and oiling the
international capitalist establishment.

The well-trodden path of the African, which had been

founded on his society’s needs, has been dismantled by
education. Its place has been taken by a distorted mind and
heart that makes Africans inferior to other races, primitive,
inhuman, and worth nothing but the white man’s
“civilization”.

To make it palatable, it has been seasoned and tinged with

the sweet taste of “Human Capital Investment”. It is the
catchword for development. Invest in education and behold
development is yours. This has ensured that the education
tranquilizer works homogeneously. The theory can not
explain why there are thousands of educated people roaming

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the streets in search of employment. Even then the wealth of
educated people in the third world has not automatically led
to development. Education has made the people go after a
“flying goal” or “mirage” called modernity. It has not also led
to improved and increased productivity. Its adoption as a
mass tool for economic development has met with little or
no success at all. Education has become a “Diploma
Disease” (Dore Donald; THE DIPLOMA DISEASE;
QUALIFICATION AND DEVELOPMENT, George Allen and Union,
London, 1976). It is merely a passport to a coveted job, a
status symbol or a license to a good income and access to
national resources. The “diploma disease”, has smitten
almost everybody from government planners, leaders our
president inclusive to the poorest of parents in Kisenyi or
Gadumire.

To many people education is the magic wand and key to the

world of plenty. Yet, this individual expectation is far from the
aspirations and objectives of society at large. The world of
plenty is the modern world, where exploitation is the order of
the day. A world without respect for the culture of others and
threatens to subjugate them. A world more ready to
subjugate and domestic those it considers inferior. In a
nutshell, education has been used to lead individuals
through the dark tunnel of development but has left the rest
of society behind.

This is the education everybody clamors for under the false

illusion that it will bring about development. The largest
proportion of products of this education are primary and
secondary school graduates. Their values, aspirations and
expectations have been raised but not fulfilled. They have
been uprooted from the soil, which is the main source of
livelihood and stay of our economy. They look down upon
and despise manual labour. They have flocked to the cities
and towns in search of non-existence jobs. Production on the
farms has been left to the old men and women. Agricultural
production is going down the drain and the main catalyst has
been education.

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This education has neither produced new production modes
nor tools of production. But it has re-socialized people
creating an elite parasitic class. The poor peasants are now
saddled with a new class of people, which has neither
respect for their culture or modes of production. This class of
people is more prepared to wrestle from the poor peasant,
by hook or crook, the produce of their labour. It is a class of
affluent consumers and producers of nothing. This is the
“Education Dilemma” in Africa (Simons John; THE
EDUCATION DILEMMA; POLICY ISSUES FOR DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES, Pergamon Press, New York, 1986).

The expected returns from education have become a far cry

in the wilderness. Education has uprooted people from
production roles to parasitic roles. It has bred conformity
other than innovatiness. It has brought to a standstill
scientific and technological development. This is the reason
why despite a lake of salt, Lake Katwe, Uganda imports salt.
A hoe, a primitive tool of production, is still imported. People
can not even produce enough to feed themselves. The
people are unable to provide for their basic needs – they
must wear mivumba, use imported drugs at the risk of being
poisoned etc. There are no factories worth talking about. The
people are being fed on pre-masticated culture, political
philosophy, economic policies, science and technology,
values and norms from either the capitalist West or socialist
East. Education appears to have completely disrupted modes
and relations of production in the third world and has
rendered third world societies unable to usher in social
economic development. It has been the main vehicle of
Africa’s underdevelopment.

As a matter of fact, there is still the unanswered question

whether education is the key to solving the problems of
poverty or is education part of the problem, at least the kind
of education that prevails in so much of the developing
world? Is education a sure pathway to economic growth and
better living standards, or is this not much more than wishful

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thinking? In fact, we might be spending too much on
education (especially of the wrong kind) divert scarce
resources from other means of tackling poverty? (Jones,
2006:3)

In order to fight poverty through education, one problem for

developing countries like Uganda has been the
establishment of inappropriate education policies by
multinational agencies through what Klees (2002:452) has
been described as ‘one size fits all’ analysis and
recommendations’. It is argued that decisions by
multinational agencies like the World Bank targeting poor
countries can aggravate the poverty scourge instead of
offering a remedy for economic recovery. This is particularly
so when the young people who graduate from the basic
education level become unable to help themselves and their
communities due to the wide gap between what they learn
in the class rooms and the real life experience in their
communities.

In Uganda for example, disconnections between the

education policy design and the context, is partly to blame
for ongoing wide spread poverty. Moreover, most people who
influence the nature and shape of policies are not members
of the community, and are therefore less informed of the
context.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
This involves the formulation of education policies that
target poverty reduction in developing countries also need
critical attention from in-depth research by insiders. Such
research could give an insight into understanding the
aspects of development that such community already posses
and what aspects need support. This may challenge the
construction of education policies that were introduced by
the colonial administration that emphasized literacy and
numeracy as has been the case with many multinational
agencies.

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We need to critically examine the contributions of
development agencies like the World Bank, United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and
Department for International Development (DFID), to
educational development and the role of education in
poverty reduction.

Today, educational policies are the focus of considerable

controversy and public contestation … Educational policy-
making has become highly politicised’. (Olssen et al. 2004:2-
3).

Therefore, this study aims to show how the World Bank

documents and strategies on education policy are influenced
by global trends and its own ideology rather than the needs
and aspiration of the communities the policy are intended to
support in alleviating poverty. As hermeneutical studies
asserts, a researcher cannot remain neutral or objective in a
study like this because their perspectives and biases are
integral to their understanding of the text and the context.
This is the dilemma most African countries find themselves
in.

The solution to this dilemma is multi-faced;

Education for Self-reliance

Mwalimu Nyerere Julius calls for “education for self-reliance
(EDUCATION FOR SELF-RELIACE, United Republic of Tanzania
Government Printer, Dar-es-Salaam, March 1967).
It is argued that, African educational policies have been
carried out in a cultural and educational policy and
developmental vacuum in terms of African people’s
everyday lives (Jagusah, 2001). Nevertheless, the
importance of cultural relevance in educational processes is
acknowledged by Marxist and neo-Marxist educational
scholars as well as by some conservative, capitalist and

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colonial-oriented writers (Jagusah, 2001:114). The lack of
cultural values inclusion into the educational policies of
many developing countries could create a gap between
education and poverty alleviation.
While this background is important, the irrelevance of
curricula to context in supporting educational development
towards poverty alleviation in African countries is a major
concern as discussed below.

The high drop-outs rates in developing countries in general

and Uganda in particular could be attributed to inadequate
connections between formal education and the local
environment. For example, in Uganda, it is alleged that the
administration of education policies with little consideration
for the context created a gap between what children learnt
in the classrooms and what they interact with in their local
environment. Learners are not motivated to learn because
they do not know how useful their learning is and what it
could do for their personal development or for developing
their local communities. It is hard to imagine what education
is all about if not passing examinations and becoming an
officer in the public service in the long run. It is argued that
the real and most fundamental problem facing education in
Africa is the fact that the formal philosophy and organization
of the educational system has remained predominately
foreign (Namuddu, 1991:41).

Education for Self-conscientization

Freire Paulo calls for “education for self-conscientization and
freedom” (EDUCATION FOR CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS,
Seabury Press, New York, 1969). The choice and usage of
language in a social research plays a pivotal role in shaping
our understanding and how we construct our realities of the
world (Crotty, 1998). The perception of hermeneutic that is
adopted in this study is derived from the Greek word
(hermeneuein), which means ‘to interpret’ or ‘to understand’
(Crotty, 1998). As Palmer (1969) points out:
Underpinning this [hermeneutic] meaning in ancient Greek
usage are the notions of ‘saying’, ‘explaining’ and

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‘translating’, which already suggests the idea of addressing
something that is in some way strange, separated in time or
space or outside of one’s experience, with the purpose of
rendering it familiar, present and intelligible (cited in Crotty,
1998:88).

Education is Cultural Imperialism

Martin Carnoy in Fanon Frantz Education as Cultural
Imperialism advocates for a “revolution” to topple the
current political leadership in Africa (BLACK SKINS WHITE
MASKS, Gove Press, New York, 1977).

Language of Instruction
Teaching and learning whether unidirectional, bi directional or
multidirectional is in essence a communicative process. For the teacher
and the learner to communicate effectively, they must use a language
that both understand. More importantly, the language of instruction
mediates learning to the extent that it is primarily through words that
one can access new information and connect it to what one already
knows. It is also primarily through language that one can display what
one has learned when the opportunity arises. Indeed, language and
thought are inextricably interwoven (Dembele and Ndoye, 2005).
Language policy has thus been identified as one of the key problems
deterring development progress in developing countries. To emphasise
this point further, Fafunwa (1990) argues that:

…there seems to be a correlation between underdevelopment and the

use of a foreign language as the official language of a given country in
Africa. We impart knowledge and skills almost exclusively in these
foreign languages, while the majority of our people, farmers, and
craftsmen perform their daily tasks in Luganda, Luo, Runyakitara,
Yoruba, Hausa, Kiswahili, … The question is; why not help them to
improve their social, economic, and political activities via their mother
tongue? ... (cited in Brock-Utne, 2001:119)

Bottom up Approach to education

McNamara, former World Bank president calls for a bottom up
approach based on a radical revolutionary approach to the question of
education and development. Today, educational policies are the focus
of considerable controversy and public contestation. Educational
policy-making has become highly politicized’ (Olssen et al. 2004:2-3).
The politicization of education policy definitely calls now for the
democratization of education policy-making process if solution to the

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many social challenges including productivity and poverty reduction is
to be realized.

The School
School must give pupils the capacity to acquire the relevant
knowledge and interpret new values that will, in turn,
guarantee them the ability to remain up to date with the
evolution of the environment. If a concerted effort is not
made to strengthen the autonomy of the individual, then
human integrity is under threat from influences that are
replacing traditional standards. (Hallak, 2000:28)
On the other hand, the school, the formal source of
education must be made to relate to the needs of the
community that it is meant to serve. For example I went to
King’s College Budo into whose compound the village
community was forbidden to step. The villagers even
trembled when talking to a mere student. That is why
despite more than 80 years of existence, Makerere is
surrounded by slums. And this to many of us appears to be a
normal phenomenon.

The Teacher
The teachers should play a role model status but as things
stand today, the teachers are the most poorly remunerated
professionals. They are poorly trained and equipped for their
job. They are poorly clothed, malnourished and poorly
housed. In many of our village schools, the teachers go class
drunk and reeking or stinking like a brewery.

Teaching
Teachers need to understand a subject enough to convey its
essence to students. The goal is to establish a sound
knowledge base on which students will be able to build as
they are exposed to different life experiences. The passing of
knowledge from generation to generation allows students to
grow into useful members of society. Good teachers can
translate information, good judgment, experience and
wisdom into relevant knowledge that a student can
understand, retain and pass to others. Studies from the US
suggest that the quality of teachers is the single most

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important factor affecting student performance, and that
countries which score highly on international tests have
multiple policies in place to ensure that the teachers they
employ are as effective as possible. [16] However, in the
Ugandan environment the effectiveness of teachers is highly
questionable as teachers are often paid less than other
similar professions.

Technology
Technology is an increasingly influential factor in education.
Computers and mobile phones are used in developed
countries both to complement established education
practices and develop new ways of learning such as online
education (a type of distance education). This gives students
the opportunity to choose what they are interested in
learning. The proliferation of computers also means the
increase of programming and blogging. Technology offers
powerful learning tools that demand new skills and
understandings of students, including Multimedia, and
provides new ways to engage students, such as Virtual
learning environments. Technology is being used more not
only in administrative duties in education but also in the
instruction of students. The use of technologies such as
PowerPoint and interactive whiteboard is capturing the
attention of students in the classroom. Technology is also
being used in the assessment of students. One example is
the Audience Response System (ARS), which allows
immediate feedback tests and classroom discussions.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are a
“diverse set of tools and resources used to communicate,
create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” These
technologies include computers, the Internet, broadcasting
technologies (radio and television), and telephony. There is
increasing interest in how computers and the Internet can
improve education at all levels, in both formal and non-
formal settings. Older ICT technologies, such as radio and
television, have for over forty years been used for open and
distance learning, although print remains the cheapest, most

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accessible and therefore most dominant delivery mechanism
in both developed and developing countries.
The use of computers and the Internet is in its infancy in
developing countries, if these are used at all, due to limited
infrastructure and the attendant high costs of access.
Usually, various technologies are used in combination rather
than as the sole delivery mechanism.
The Curriculum
For the purpose of this study, curriculum relevance will be
understood as a set of courses that are purposefully
designed with considerations for the cultural values of the
particular community for whom the curriculum is intended.
As Winch and Gingell (2004) point out, The curriculum must,
by its very nature, draw upon the culture of the society for
which it is a curriculum. If it is to be a worthwhile curriculum
it must involve making value choices as to what items of our
culture should be included and what should be excluded
(Winch and Gingell, 2004:33)

In order to reduce poverty through education in post-conflict

Africa, the learning process of the communities need to
progress from known to the unknown. This means that some
aspects of the cultural practices of these communities need
to be integrated into the curriculum development process to
strengthen the ownership of such curriculum by that society.
While there is no one single definition of culture, functionally
there is an overwhelming acceptance that it is ‘…a system of
norms and control’, as well as ‘a map’ that gives a group a
sense of direction (Pai and Adler 1997:23). As Jagusah
(2001:114) argue:
This map of, or for, a group of people or a society, is what
enables the group to evaluate where it has been, where it is
now, and where it hopes to go. A mastery of this ‘system of
norms and control’ – this ‘map’ – enables one to connect the
past to the present as well as the future. (Jagusah, 2001:114)

One of the major problems that hindered quality education in

Uganda since independence has been the inappropriate

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curriculum that are designed with little or no consideration
for the local context in terms of the local culture, customs
and values. When the values and ways of livelihood of the
community is ignored in the curriculum development
process, education is perceived as a foreign idea, a tool of
subjugation that has very little to contribute to the lives of
the community apart from speaking in a foreign language
and rural urban migration.

The school curriculum has to be changed to cater for the

aspirations, objectives and ideals of the community. The
curriculum has to impart knowledge, skills, technologies and
political and cultural attitudes, values and norms that relate
to real objective conditions in the society. The knowledge
learnt should be a tool of our revolution. Education should be
a “master key” to the development process. There is a major
draw back today is that education is becoming increasingly
international. Not only are the materials becoming more
influenced by the rich international environment, but
exchanges among students at all levels are also playing an
increasingly important role. This is where our schools have
produced people who are ill-relevant in our societies. They
have nothing to offer to the African society but confusion.

Education is a Human Right

The right to education has been described as a basic human
right: since 1952, Article 2 of the first Protocol to the
European Convention on Human Rights obliges all signatory
parties to guarantee the right to education. At world level,
the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 guarantees this right
under its Article 13. All members of society should be able to
access this education and it must be recurrent – education
for life.

As we talk today, if you have passed through the current

regular gradation of classroom education and you have not
been made a fool, you must consider yourself very lucky. If
the education you have received has given you an intelligent

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approach to life, it must have made you a radical subjective
element of your political, social, economic and physical
environment. It should turn you into a subjective instrument
of change not an object of change. Are you that kind of
person?

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