| dc.description.abstract | This is a study of the origin of the origin and the reproduction of educational inequality at the primary school level in colonial and post-colonial Kenya. Regional and class inequalities are the two aspects of education that are studied.
The origin and reproduction of educational inequality is analysed within the context and framework of the establishment and development of the capitalist mode of production in Kenya. The relationship and interaction betw een the political and economic developments and
the emergence and reproduction or inequality forms the main focus and
emphasis of our study. Educational policies in colonial independent Kenya are discussed and analysed as part and parcel of the economic and political structure of the society. The impact of the white settlers' control of agricultural land, African labour, commerce and, above all, political power on the overall development of education and regional and class inequalities in particular is explored at length. The study has also analysed the role played by international capital, Asian labour and capital,and the colonial and pest-colonial state in the emerging uneven deveIopment and class struct ure. These are important elements in understanding the political economy of educational inequality. The study also focuses on the initiatives and struggles
of Africans in dealing with western education and the interests that controlled the content and the allocation of resources for provision of education.
The study focuses on the conflicts that dominated the early stages of capitalist development in Kenya, and goes on to show how reforms initiated in the 1958 were intended to deal with those conflicts, and to pave the wayfor the incorporation of the indigenous people into the mainsteram of the economic and political system. The educational changes carried out during this period are analysed and
it is shown how they relate to and interact with the structure of the emerging post-colonial social formation. Our anaIysis pays particular attention to the transformation of the racial structure of education
in colonial Kenya. This structure is most developed in urban areas and the class structure of schools in the city of Nairobi is given as an illustration of the emerging pattern of class inequality in Kenyan education. Uneven development in primary education resulting from changes initiated in the transition to a post-colonial society are given detailed analysis.
Conflict theory forms the theoretical framework utilised in this study. In the section dealing with theoriticaI perspectives, recent theories relating to the emergence and reproduction of inequality in society are reviewed . Theoris with emphasis on economic, cuItural, ideological and hegemonic dimensions of education in the reproduction of inequality are given particular attention. A theoretical framework which recognises the complex and specific circumstances that education developed in colonial and post-colonial Kenya is then formulated. In this sense, our theoretical f ramework recognises the educational inequalities which emerged as a result of the imposition of colonialism on pre-colonial societies, and those inequalities that were later re
lated to the reproduction of the existing economic and political struc
ture.
The study ends by looking at the determinants of educational inequality in the period of establishment and tiledevelopment of capi talism and its articulation with pre-capitalist modes of production.
In this process the study concludes that the educational system is
both a dependent and an independent variable of the economic and poli tical structure of the society whor e it exists. As such, the articu lation between the educational sector and the economic and political structure is critical in the emergence and reproduction of regional
and class inequalities. | en |
