[Keywords:] Kenya's higher education development dilemma
【 China Library Classification Number 】 G640 【 Document Identification Number 】 A 【 Document Number 】1005-5843 (2012) 04-0136-04.
Kenya is located in eastern Africa, with the equator running through its center and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. Its neighbors are Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania. China has a total area of 582,646 square kilometers and a total population of about 365,438+900,000 (2004). After more than 60 years of British colonial rule, a centralized state was established in 1964 12 12, and the ruling party was the Kenyan African National Union (KANU).
Kenya has been actively developing education for a long time. At present, education expenditure accounts for 7% of GDP, which has reached the international average level. According to the latest data released by the African Education Development Association at the education conference held in Tunisia, Kenya's education expenditure in 20 1 1 was 1 8 billion Kenyan shillings (1US$ 80 Kenyan shillings), of which15 billion was used to develop basic education and 30 billion was used to develop higher education. Education expenditure accounts for the recurrent expenditure of the Kenyan government. Since Kenya exempted primary school tuition in 2003, the number of primary school students in China has increased by nearly 2 million, and the dropout rate has also decreased. According to statistics, in recent years, the average length of education of Kenyan nationals has been extended by four years. The enrollment rate of school-age children in China reached 100% in 2065, and the average literacy rate of 438+00% was second to none in Africa. In 2008, the Kenyan government spent $42 million to launch a new policy of free secondary education, and Kenya became the second country in sub-Saharan Africa to implement free secondary education after Uganda. Although Kenya's basic education has made some achievements, its higher education still faces difficulties in the development process.
First, political reasons lead to the slow development of higher education.
Kenya's higher education started late. From 1885 to 1963, Kenya was under British colonial rule. In order to consolidate the colonial regime, British colonists did not provide high-level education to African people at first, so higher education was the weakest and most neglected link in Kenya's colonial period. Until 1956, the first national university in Kenya, Nairobi University, was established, which marked the beginning of modern higher education in Kenya with western model. 1963, with the joint efforts of African people, three universities, Makril in Uganda, Nairobi in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, jointly established the East African University. By 1970, due to the liberation of African countries and the reform of universities in various countries, East African University was disintegrated. Until 1980, there were only 1 public universities in Kenya, namely the University of Nairobi. 1980-2002, Kenya's higher education entered a period of great development, and the number of public universities increased from 1 to 9. At the same time, private colleges have become an important part of Kenya's higher education. At present, Kenya has 18 private colleges and universities.
Since 1980s, Kenya's higher education has developed rapidly. After upgrading the running level of university colleges or secondary colleges, Kenya has built six new universities, namely Moi University, Kenyatta University, Eggerton University, jomo kenyatta Agricultural Science and Technology University, Masino University and Western University of Science and Technology College. At the same time, some private colleges and universities in Kenya have begun to enroll students, which greatly increases the enrollment of Kenyan universities. The number of registered students in public universities increased from 87,565,438+0 in the academic year of 65,438+0 to 45,286 in the academic year of 2003-2004, which met the demand of Kenyan people for higher education. (See table 1)
Although the enrollment rate of Kenya's colleges and universities has improved, since the 1990s, the enrollment rate has increased slowly and declined from time to time, resulting in a low overall enrollment rate of Kenya's colleges and universities. Compared with 5% in sub-Saharan Africa, the enrollment rate of public universities in Kenya is less than 1%. Private universities are the most important part of Kenya's university development plan. Kenya has established 65,438+08 private colleges and universities certified by the Higher Education Commission, of which 7 have been chartered, 5 have been temporarily authorized and 6 have been registered. Only these three types of schools have the right to publicize or implement approved degree and postgraduate certificates and diploma courses. Private colleges and universities enrolled 10050 students in 2004-2005, accounting for 18.2% of the total enrollment of colleges and universities in China. This shows that the development of higher education in Kenya still has a long way to go.
Second, the enrollment ratio of science and engineering and liberal arts is seriously unbalanced.
When examining the quality of higher education, the proportion of students in science and engineering and humanities and social sciences is a problem that cannot be ignored, that is, there should be a reasonable proportion of students between them. 1982 1 The meeting of presidents and vice presidents of African universities jointly convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African University Federation proposed that the enrollment ratio of science and engineering in African universities should reach 60: 40 as far as possible. Because the teaching of science and engineering needs the corresponding input of laboratory equipment and chemicals and the allocation of specialized teachers, by 1990, the ratio of arts and sciences in Kenya is still 69: 32. At present, Kenya's arts and sciences are still at this level. Due to the restriction of religion, market and running cost, some colleges and universities only offer humanities and social sciences with low running cost, and do not offer natural sciences, industry, agriculture and medicine courses with large investment and slow effect (see Table 2).
Third, the imbalance of teachers leads to the imbalance of teacher-student ratio in colleges and universities.
The teacher-student ratio is an important index to evaluate the quality of colleges and universities. There is a gap between the number of teachers and students in Kenyan universities and those in other African countries. It is manifested in the imbalance of teaching staff, such as the imbalance of academic qualifications, gender composition and age composition, and the shortage of teaching staff. In 2005, Kenyatta University had 747 teachers, 33 male professors and 366 male lecturers. There are two female professors, and female teachers only account for 30% of the total number of teachers in the school. In 2006, the average teacher-student ratio in this university was 747: 265,438+065,438+050 (65,438+0.30), and the lowest ratio was 65,438+0.247. In 2004, Nairobi University had 65,438+0,330 teachers and 36,000 students, with an average teacher-student ratio of 65,438+0: 25. Similar problems exist in other universities, resulting in a serious imbalance between teachers and students, with fewer teachers and more students, which greatly affects the teaching effect.
Fourth, gender inequality leads to the imbalance between male and female students in colleges and universities.
Like many developing countries, "Kenya has long had the problem of gender inequality since the colonial period; This inequality occurs not only in the field of education, but also in the fields of labor market, political leadership and social economy. The proportion of women receiving higher education is very low, which is obviously at a disadvantage. Although the proportion of female college students has been increasing since Kenya's independence, it has never exceeded 30% (see table 5). Even in 199 1, the proportion of girls exceeded 30% for the first time, which is still on the low side. In addition, among the 9,000 international students in Kenya, the proportion of girls is only 1 1%.