Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.

The problem of education in Africa The history of human achievement illustrates that when an awakened intelligentsia emerges from a subject it becomes the precursor of the struggle, against alien rule. There is a direct relation between this fact and the neglect of the imperial powers to provide for the proper growth of educational facilities in their colonies. I saw this connection quite soon in my career, and it was one of the main reasons why I became a teacher for a time. The marvelous enthusiasm for education in Africa never fails to impress visitors. A school boy once wrote: “I think the happiest event in my life was when my father told me to go to school.” Another said: “the most unfortunate thing that could happen to me would be to have no education, or to be sent away from school now, for then all my life would be wasted.” The burning desire for education among both children and adults received little encouragement from the colonial powers, and one of the worst legacies of colonialism has been the absence of a trained body of African technicians and administrators. The problem of education was highest in my mind and in the minds of my party… The fact that most of my colleagues had, like me, been trained as teachers reflected their faith, too, in education as the key to our liberation and advance. Little attention was given to technical training, and as a result educated Africans have acquired a bias towards clerical work and a dislike for manual labor. A significant consequence of this accent upon a literary education has been the denial to our country of a skilled labor force. This irregular state of affairs has created for us one of the biggest of our problems: that is, how to create a skilled labor force and a body of trained technicians in the many fields of modern agriculture, industry, science and economics in the quickest possible time. We sat down on March 1957 to consider, not what we had done but what remained to be done. We needed to plan an educational system that will be more in keeping with the requirements of the economic and social progress for which our new development plans are aiming. We were trained to be inferior copies of Englishman caricatures to be laughed at… We were neither fish nor fowl. We were denied the knowledge our African past and informed that we had no present. We were taught to regard our culture and traditions as barbarous and primitive. Our text-books were English text-books, telling us about English history, English geography, English ways of living, English customs, English ideas, English weather. All this has to be changed. And it is an astonishing task. Kwame Nkrumah, Africa must unite 1. Reading comprehension: (08pts) A. Vocabulary in context: Find in the text words close in meaning with the following definitions (02pts) Words Definitions Something that comes before and leads another thing Extraordinarily wonderful A person somebody works with Relating to the first stages of something B. Find in the synonyms or antonyms of the following words and phrases: (01, 5) 1. Foreign domination = …………………… 2. Refused = ……………………………….. C. True or false: Say whether these statements are true or false, justify by quoting from the text. (02pts) 1. The author did not have a long experience of teaching ………………………………………………………………………………………… 2. The colonizers favored technical education as much as literary education ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3. The colonizer wanted to train people to look down upon their own culture …………………………………………………………………………………………… 4. The author thinks that the project changing the educational system is not important ……………………………………………………………………………………………… D. Cloze text: Fill in the gaps with words from the text. (02,5pts) Due to the……………………………. imposed to Africa by the…………………, many Africans tempted to refuse manual……………. And worst of all they used books that has nothing to do with our tradition but…………………. that only dealt with English history, English geography, English ways of living etc… This is the reason way the author and his………………... organized a party for the awakening of their people. 2. Linguistic competence: (07pts) E. Complete the following dialogue meaningfully. (02pts) A: What do you prefer? Public or private schools? B: I prefer private school because its courses are…………………….. (regular). A: Besides, the students………… are in private schools are not concerned with strikes. B: Be it private or public I think the………..... exercises you do, the…………… (Good) your level will be. F. Ask or answer the following questions. (03pts) A: I think that you are doing your courses, ……………………………? B: Yes,………but not so regularly. A:………………………………………………………………………..? B: It’s due to the teachers’ strike. A:………………………………………………………………………..? B: They are asking their allowances. A: Yes, they are right but I think they should care about our future,………………………….? B: Of course,……………………….let’s hope that everything will be alright. G. Complete this story with the right forms or tenses. (02pts) “I remember my first day at school; I……………………. (sent) to school very young. After seven years of studies I……………………… (decide) to stop because daddy was very sick. But I sure that if he…………………………. (not/be) sick, I……………………………….. (become) a very big and respectable professor.” H. Essay writing: Choose one topic and write about 150 words. (05pts) Topic1: Make an evaluation of the Senegalese educational system including alternatives to the present situation. Topic2: two students are discussing about the differences between private schools and public ones. Try and imagine their conversation.