The International Library of Sociology
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN GHANA
Founded by KARL MANNHEIM
The International Library of Sociology
THE SOCIOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT
In 18 Volumes
| I | Caste and Kinship in Central India | Mayer |
| II | Economics of Development in Village India | Haswell |
| III | Education and Social Change in Ghana | Foster |
| IV | Growing up in an Egyptian Village | Ammar |
| V | Indias Changing Villages | Dube |
| VI | Indian Village | Dube |
| VII | Malay Fishermen | Firth |
| VIII | The Mende of Sierra Leone | Little |
| IX | The Negro Family in British Guiana | Smith |
| X | Peasants in the Pacific | Mayer |
| XI | Population and Society in the Arab East | Baer |
| XII | The Revolution in Anthropology | Jarvie |
| XIII | Settlement Schemes in Tropical Africa | Chambers |
| XIV | Shivapur: A South Indian Village | Ishwaran |
| XV | Social Control in an African Society | Gulliver |
| XVI | State and Economics in the Middle East | Bonne |
| XVII | Tradition and Economy in Village India | Ishwaran |
| XVIII | Transformation Scene | Hogbin |
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN GHANA
by
PHILIP FOSTER
First published in 1965
by Routledge
Reprinted in 1998, 2000, 2002
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Transferred to Digital Printing 2007
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
1965 Philip Foster
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Education and Social Change in Ghana
ISBN 0-415-17569-0
The Sociology of Development: 18 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17822-3
The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17838-X
Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent
TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER
I took various opportunities of ascertaining from working men themselves, their opinion as to the value of education. When I asked them whether education was of any use to their children, they seemed to doubt whether I was serious; or if they supposed that I was, they seemed to consider the question rather insulting.
An Irishman whom I met driving a cart summed up the case in favour of education, thus: Do you think reading and writing is of any use to people like yourself? I asked. To be sure I do, sir, the man answered with a strong brogue, and do you think that if I could read and write I would be shoved into every dirty job as I am now? No, sir! Instead of driving this horse Id be riding him.
MR. CUMIN
testifying before the Newcastle Commission of 1861
PREFACE
AS the first of the newly independent nations of Africa, Ghana has received fulsome attention from scholars in many fields. Yet I make no apology for adding to the library of books on social and political changes in that country, for education has been a Cinderella topic among writers on the new states. Numerous writers do accord the schools a central part in the processes of modernization, but few have perceived the diffusion of formal, western education as one of the basic contributors to the very emergence of the new nations. There is over much of the world a disconcerting gap between the volume and the quality of discussion on educational changes as compared with the treatment of economic and political matters. However, Ghana has been better served than many African countries and I am much indebted to the earlier work of F. L. Bartels, F. H. Hilliard, W. E. F. Ward, H. O. A. McWilliam, C. G. Wise, and more recently David Kimble.
I was drawn to Ghana as a suitable area for an intensive case study in educational development by two principal considerations. The documentary materials relating to the earlier history of the Gold Coast and adjacent areas were unusually extensive and well organized. Then, Ghana has in many respects been a bell-wether for many of the other emerging African states, and not least so in the area of educational development. It now possesses the most elaborated school system in sub-Saharan Africa. But the expansion of this system has given rise to many perplexing problems and revealed many unexpected consequences, and I suggest that similar experiences will be the lot of many other countries, even outside Africa. I hope the reader will not regard this work as a study of Ghanaian education alone but view it rather as a case study wherein some of the basic processes underlying educational growth in states newly emerging from colonial rule are delineated.
I shall be criticized rightly for a rather cavalier treatment of some themes by writers particularly concerned with Ghanaian historiography. On the other hand, readers with principally comparative interests will criticize my neglecting to develop more fully many central themes in a broader context. I hope both sorts of readers will acknowledge that I have provided a serviceable framework within which educational development in Africa can be related meaningfully to other aspects of social and political change.
Clearly, this work could never have been completed without the counsel and support of many individuals. First, I must acknowledge a great debt to my associates at the Comparative Education Center and notably to C. Arnold Anderson, a colleague and friend since I joined the University of Chicago. I have benefited greatly from the advice of numerous members of the Committee for the Comparative Study of the New Nations, particularly Edward Shils, Clifford Geertz and Lloyd Fallers. We at the Comparative Education Center are grateful to the Ford Foundation for its continued support of our programme while fruitful discussion at the Committee for the Comparative Study of the New Nations has been made possible only through the assistance of the Carnegie Corporation.
It would be impossible to list those individuals in Ghana who have rendered me notable assistance but I must particularly mention the names of Andrew Taylor, Adam Curle, Paul Baxter and David Brokensha, all former faculty members of the University of Ghana. I also acknowledge a considerable debt to those numerous officials at the Ministry of Education who gave freely of their time and who permitted me to undertake the survey of secondary-school pupils reported in this volume. Many secondary-school principals kindly allowed me to conduct my research in their schools and welcomed me with warmth and hospitality. That the survey was effectively completed was in no small measure due to the patience, enterprise and good humour of my research assistant and good friend R. B. Sevor. A great debt of gratitude is also due to my wife. It was her greater knowledge of African ethnography that enabled me to develop a framework of investigation and her extensive fieldwork experience was of inestimable help in our survey of a Fanti fishing village.
