Kingsley, J. Donald (1966) “The Ford Foundation and Education in Africa” in African Studies Bulletin, v. 9, no. 3. pages 1-7.
Kingsley writes as the then Director, Middle East and Africa, for the Ford Foundation
From 1958 to publication of this article in December of 1966, Ford Foundation had given more than $56 million in African development, with $34 million of that focused on education giving. $8 million went to East Africa. Major commitments in only a handful of countries (17 countries overall got some level of assistance): Nigeria, Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.
Kingsley’s terminology is decidedly modernization-ist – for example, on page 2, he uses the term “economic take off” to describe how expanded access to primary education and economic growth are teamed.
He then debates the choice – previously he had described the choices Ministries of Education had to make throughout Africa as “Hobsonesque” – between supporting more university level programs (so as to meet the need created by so much attention to primary school, and to give secondary school students a sense that their success could land them somewhere at the university) or allowing the “secondary school bottleneck” to be maintained as a mechanism for closing off school ambitions for the multitude of African families who seek economic prosperity through more schooling.
p. 2: “It may be a strange way to run a railway; but given political and economic realities, stemming the tide at the secondary level may make sense in the short run.”
p.2: “What priority, if any, should be assigned to assisting a university of a particular facility which according to all objective criteria should never have been established?”
Materials shortages abound, as do facilities and equipment. Manpower shortages abound, as well, for already existing schools.
Ford Foundation interest in Africa (which – by the way – does not include Egypt – the old united Arab Republic, since that is a Middle East-ern country!!) is about development of manpower resources –teacher training – providing teachers and scholars for existing institutions throughout the countries and regions with which Ford Foundation deals. Social sciences and law are also supported – as much to produce people able to teach in those fields as to support public administration in related, practical ways.
p. 5: “One of the first grants made under the Africa program was to Makerere College to provide a block of flats as housing for visiting scholars. This had the dual objective of helping to strengthen Makerere and of expanding research opportunities of foreign Africanists. . . .
The presence of such facilities has undoubtedly furthered scholarly intercourse and has made possible the presence on African campuses of many American and European scholars. Presumably, this has been useful both to them and to their African colleagues.”
Note it isn’t help with Makerere’s existing infrastructure.
p. 6: “Finally, mention should be made of the provision of salary topping funds which enable African universities to secure the services of American professors without destroying their own lower salary scales. Such funds have been incorporated in grants to particular universities in both West and East Africa and in a general grant to Education and World Affairs for administrations by its Office of Educational Services.”
Curriculum development was another focus – explicitly mentioned is the Curriculum Development Center in Kenya, and its predecessor, the Special Center, each of which did work on developing “the New Primary Approach” (7), which began as a means to study the use of English as a foreign language in class rooms, and evolved into an investigation of what should be taught in primary schools in Kenya.
