ndia, and are in English.
There is a single national education system consisting of three educational levels and broadly patterned on the British system, viz. primary: 7 years in duration; secondary: 6 years: and tertiary or higher education: 3 to 5 years. Emphasis is on technical education.
"Primary schooling is the terminal step of schooling for children in most African countries, and most children leave school without passing the school leaving examination. Primary schools, especially in rural areas, are overcrowded. Teachers are poorly trained. Classrooms lack sufficient textbooks for self-study" (Eisemon, 1988).
In the coastal region of Kenya, there lives a predominantly Muslim population. As a result, Koranic schools are flourishing. Most African countries lack a literate tradition. In Kenya, the large Muslim communities have brought the population a certain level of literacy through religious instruction. This is particularly true of the Msembwani, Kisii, and Kwale districts of Western Kenya. In these districts, the Muslims have offered strong resistance to Christian missionary activity, preferring to dispense Koranic instruction.
Children there attend secular government schools in Swahili for the first three years. Note that Swahili may already be the children's second language. English (now their third language) is the medium of instruction for the five-year upper stage of the primary cycle and is the language of the school-leaving examination. Muslim children attend Koranic schools simultaneously and are taught literacy in Arabic (their fourth language). However, "they are not encouraged to understand [Arabic] until they have memorized large sections of the Quran" (Eisemon, 1988).
Instruction, whether in Arabic, Swahili, or English emphasizes memorization and recitation. English has been retained as the language of "educated" Kenyans, because "the attitudinal consequences of exposure to the factor...