Ugee

COLONIAL EDUCATION

The religious frictions that affected the politics of the country also affected the rest of society and the education sector was not spared. The first schools in Uganda were built by the missionaries: Gayaza High School and Kings College Buddo were the first to be established by the Protestants; St. Mary's College Kisubi by Catholic White Fathers; and Namilyango College by the Mill Hill Mission from London. Wherever there was a Catholic school, there was a Protestant one of the same level nearby, and these institutions were hostile to each other. Colonial and later post-colonial education did not set out to teach people to acquire productive skills. There was little or no vocationalisation of education and this lack of technical skills affected the development of a middle class in Uganda. A skilled middle class would have been job creators rather than job seekers. No child was allowed to attend a school if it belonged to a denomination different from the one its parents subscribed to. Muslim children were not able to receive education since both Catholic and Protestant founded schools mostly refused to accept them; and no funding was available from outside to establish Muslim schools since they had lost their benefactor, Turkey, in the First World War. The colonial government did not participate in the establishment of formal education until 1925, when they started giving grants and facilitating the already established schools. They did not enter the education sector formally. The Muslims, therefore, as a result of lack of Muslim schools and neglect by the colonial government, were not able even to find clerical jobs, join the civil service, or even work as office messengers. These Ugandans ended up in petty business, such as butchery, driving trucks and generally lagged behind other religious denominations. The new religions not only divided people on who should go to which school, but the people also started discarding their cultural identities. As a result the people lost their unity, which was based on their cultural heritage. These religious based factions later became political parties, which exacerbated sectarianism, based on religious differences. Alongside the divisive colonial education system, there was also the local government system that was based on tribal entities, with each district being treated as if it were an independent state. The Lango district council knew little about the Ankole district council and vice-versa- all they had in common was the colonial governor at Entebbe. The separation of districts and localization of district issues due to lack of unifying factors at the national level hindered the growth of supra-tribal national consciousness. The isolation later affected the emergence of nationally based political parties because the population lacked unifying causes and institutions across the country.

 

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