Class Formation and Civil Society The Politics of Education in Africa

First published in 1999, this study of the politics of education in Cameroon, the Congo and Kenya presents arresting empirical evidence that urban elites exiting public sector educational systems they have dominated in favour of private school networks of their own creation. Seeking to enhance their offspring’s chances for survival and even domination in a world of scarce resources and limited opportunities for employment, elites see private schools as tools to shape newly emerging civil societies in Africa in their own image. From a theoretical perspective, the fresh evidence presented here shows that schooling has once again become a major social force influencing the balance of state and society in modern Africa. Re-examining an older political tradition of class analysis and integrating it into more recent civil society perspectives, the author shows that the abandonment of the unreliable education services of dysfunctional African states in favour of private schools has profound consequences for class articulation in societies dividing, once again, according to educational opportunities.

1. Introduction. 2. The Promise and Deception of Modern Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. 3. Social Class, Civil Society, and Political Analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa. 4. Schooling and Social Stratification in Sub-Saharan Africa. 5. Cameroon: Parents’ Organizations, Private Schools, and the Development of Educational Privilege. 6. Returning to Class: Congo and the Social Costs of a Collapsed Education System. 7. Enhancing the Status Quo: Kenya and the Consolidation of Educational Privilege. 8. Schooling for a New Century: Diversity for All, Opportunity for the Few.