Recently the topic of the Malian education system was brought up and
discussed. I thought you might be interested in what was discussed.
It explains in many ways why Mali continues to be poor and not very
forward-thinking. Perhaps it is a similar situation for other
countries.
This information comes from Balla, a Malian professor (who thankfully
speaks English) and a co-teacher of mine who is doing her Master's
paper on the subject of Malian education.
Prior to the French colonial period, education of children
was handled by the individual villages. Children were taught those
things that were pertinent to the needs of the family and village.
There was no reading and writing, since Bambara and other local
languages were strictly oral languages.
The French arrived, eager to exploit whatever resources they
could find in Mali and other West African countries. To aid in the
clerical work and other civil servant positions (all of benefit to
France, not the Malians), Malian students were needed. Balla recalled
being gathered up with his siblings in his rural village. The French
people guessed how old he and his siblings were by their height. The
French didn't want children who were too old - they wanted ones that
they could completely re-educate.
So, at age 6, Balla was whisked away from his family
(required, or the parents faced jail) to be educated in the French
system. At first the instructors were French people. Then, Malians
who were trained in the French system became the teachers,
indoctrinating the next group of children. Class sizes were large
(60-70) and all instruction was done in French. You weren't even
allowed to speak your native language. Doing so would result in
beatings and humiliation. Students were taught to read and write
French, in addition to other skills that the French felt necessary to
assist in the exploitation of the country's resources. Students were
not allowed to question or challenge or think creatively. Balla
described the experience as "brainwashing."
Even when you returned to your family, things didn't get
easier. You weren't allowed to speak your native language, except to
your parents who wouldn't know French. Those educated in the French
system felt like outsiders, unable to perform the tasks deemed
necessary by the people of the village. After all, what good is
reading French in a small village where knowing how to plant millet
or hunt are the desired skills? Thus, the education system imposed
upon the young Mailan children became viewed as irrelevant and
mistrusted.
When the Mali received its independence in the mid 60's,
things didn't change in the education system. Even today, children
are taught in overcrowded schools with inadequately trained teachers,
few or no supplies, in a language that's not their own. The Malian
educational system is run by a large bureaucratic system who is out
of touch with the realities and needs of the people. Instead of
involving the villages and educators, the system has made a lofty set
of unachievable goals which are supposedly to magically be achieved
in 10 years. True, some of the ideas sound good pedagogically, but
solutions to very real obstacles are ignored and not addressed.
For example, one of the goals is that students are to be
taught in their native language for the first several years of
schooling. Being an ethnically diverse country, does this mean that
all students will receive instruction (including a teacher) who can
teach them in their own language? Are there textbooks for each of
these languages? In schools that can barely find chalk, how are they
to come up with textbooks, much less those in the native languages?
Villages still have not been involved in any of the process.
They still mistrust the education system and don't see how what is
being taught will benefit their children. Balla suggested that even
if the schools incorporated such things as first aid, some of those
doubts would disappear. He said that more needs to be done to train
students in vocations that would directly benefit the villages, such
as improved agricultural practices. In addition, he wished that more
creative thinking, discussion, and problem solving would be involved,
such as in the American system. The French style did not work then
and it won't work now. Balla wished that the input of educators and
local people would be considered - without their help any system or
goal will likely fail. People want to see a purpose and a direct
benefit to their education. What good is it if you can't find a job
or lack the skills required in your village?
