The Catholic Church and Schools in Kenya: A Historical Perspec tive on Education for Holistic Development. Part I: From the Colonial period to Foundations of an Education dispensation for Independent Kenya
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Date
2012
Authors
Beatrice, C.
Philomena, N. M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
This is the first of a two part paper which
attempts a critical analysis of the success of the
mission of the Catholic Church to educate holistically in Kenya. The milieus discussed are
the schools set up by Catholic missionaries, during the colonial period. The missionaries’
primary goal was evang
elization; the schools were increasingly recognized as a preferred
forum and strategy for reaching it. Many benefits to the foundation of Christian
communities in Kenya were reaped from these Catholic schools. Regrettable however, in
Catholic education in
the colonial period, was the failure to mediate a concurrence of values
between its missionary protagonists and the African families and communities, who, as
partner educators of the recipients of Catholic education also had their own aims for the
educati
on of their children. Very often, there was little regard for the latter. The missionaries
were recognized by the Africans as being distinct from the colonizers. Yet their attempt to
play into the advantages of collusion with the colonial government at the
service of their
evangelizing goals led many Africans to a sense of betrayal for their course, and a
fragmented approach to Christian commitment. While recognizing that the said
fragmentation has other roots besides, the authors decry the shortness of vis
ion because of
which the Catholic schools have played into this liability whose damages are experienced in
many other facets of the African community lives.