Universal Education and Nation-Building in Africa

Abstract

This paper is concerned with an analysis of facts socially relevant to the formative significance of compulsory education for nation-building-i.e., its relationship to political advancement and economic planning. Specifically, the focus is on primary education and political economy. Decisions about educational planning are of economic as well as political concern and consequences. The basic proposition of the paper is that structural education-i.e., the educational system of a polity-has direct social relevance for political development in new African nations. It has been usually thought that schools are apart from politics, an agency to equip young people with the basic skills of literacy. Prima facie evidence shows that the critical role of education is societal adaptation to increase the role specialization and structural differentiation in the achievement of political capacity. It has generally been accepted as a truism that a primary need of African states during their postindependence period, was for immediate and widespread programs of elementary education. Our hypothesis is that,