TANGANYIKA (GIRLS' AND WOMEN'S EDUCATION) (Hansard, 25 November 1957)

§ Miss Joan Vickers (Plymouth, Devonport)

First, I wish to express my thanks to Mr. Speaker for being allowed to change the subject of this debate. The request to withdraw my original subject was made, not by Her Majesty's Government, but by the San Marino Government, who asked whether it could be postponed. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary for agreeing to the change in the debate. The subject about which I wish to speak tonight gives me the opportunity to say a word of thanks to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, who were the 946 hosts of myself and my colleagues in Tanganyika. I hope that the remarks I propose to make concerning the facilities for the education of women and girls will be sufficient to prove that my journey was really necessary.

In Tanganyika, as far as I could make out, the Africans have an unbalanced society. For some time, the men have had far more education than the women. It appears that many years of intensive education will be required, among both girls and women, for this situation to be rectified. In my opinion, this lack of balance between the two sexes is dangerous, both politically and economically.

It is dangerous politically because the men tend to find other interests. They are apt to drift into the towns, where politics are largely spoken. They leave their wives and children in their shambas, with the result that many women, as happened in Kenya, resort to other means to retain a hold over their husbands and families. There is evidence that many resort to witchcraft and to the old traditional methods of trying to keep families together. This means that, instead of going forward, the African women look backwards to the ways in which in past generations they have succeeded in keeping their families together. It is therefore politically dangerous for one sex to be more advanced educationally than the other.

It is also dangerous economically, particularly in the case of women and girls. Consider, for instance, cotton picking. Women do most of that work. Cotton crops have been very successful in Sukumaland and because of this the people are becoming much more prosperous, but when they have plucked enough to meet the needs of their families they are apt to leave the rest of the crop, and it has been very difficult for those in charge to convince them that they should go on plucking the crop after they have sufficient money for their needs. Economically it is necessary to point out to them how they can increase the wellbeing of their families and their community by having not only sufficient for their needs but more to invest for the future. For these reasons, both economically and politically the women should be more educated.

I do not want to belittle in any way the excellent work done by the missions. 947 There are more than 36 different missions in Tanganyika, and I gather that many of them have been there over 50 years. The Government have also provided schools, and helped with the education of women, and so has the Department of Community Development, the voluntary organisation, but there is still a great need for extra personnel.

I was very pleased to see on 28th of last month that the Minister of Education put out a suggested new scheme to enable more British teachers to accept overseas posts for a limited period. I think only 100 went overseas last year. I hope this new scheme will be a success. I hope, too, that Tanganyika will be one of the territories which will have a share of any of the people who are willing to go overseas.

I would suggest, however, that many of those who are willing to go, and who have a great interest in overseas work, and who are probably excellent teachers in this country, have not the background knowledge requisite to teach Africans in Tanganyika. Therefore, it would be far more satisfactory if, before going, they are given in this country a prolonged course to give them better knowledge of their future environment and the type of teaching they are to do. For instance, teaching biology to children in this country is a very different thing from teaching that subject in Africa. The background knowledge of the individual is so different in the two countries.

The lack of this background knowledge of the African environment is, perhaps, one of the reasons why many of these schemes for sending people overseas have come to grief. The teachers have not sufficient knowledge of what they are going to; they take a considerable time to settle down; their period abroad may be nearly up, and they wonder if they should start all over again. If they were given the requisite background knowledge before going the schemes would be likely to be more successful.

I would point, too, to the language difficulties. There are different opinions about teaching in Swahili and teaching in English. In Tanganyika Swahili is by far the more natural language of the people. It is probably more the lingua franca than in Kenya. It is much easier to pick up than English. I know that 948 it is politically desirable to teach English, as there is a great demand among Africans in Tanganyika to learn English, but I think the Africans there, especially the women and girls, are apt to fall between two stools, because there are not enough teachers to teach them English, and so while many get a smattering of it, far too few have a real, fundamental knowledge of the English language.

Consequently, I suggest that the question of language should be looked into. It may be necessary for some period to decide that all primary school teaching shall be done in Swahili. It is easy to produce books in that language which are sufficient to teach primary school children, and those who are considered fit to be educated to a higher standard should then go on to a school in which they will do all their learning in English. By this means we might be able to get better progress.

There is another outstanding difficulty. I do not want to say anything against the excellent work done by the missions. However, I have referred to the number of missions, and, besides British, there are nine different nationalities teaching English. Often it is "English as she is spoke". Sometimes it is difficult to comprehend the grammar as spoken by those who are supposed to be teaching English.

I also suggest this particularly in relation to girls—that we should give up the Oxford and Cambridge examination and go over to the General Certificate of Education examination. I say this for several reasons. There is a large wastage in the education of girls between the seventh and eighth standards, and when they come to these examinations they may become rather depressed. The other day I was presenting prizes in a girls' high school in this country, and I was interested to find out that out of twenty-three girls only seven had credits for mathematics. I suggest that, particularly for African girls at the beginning of their education, it would be far better to have the type of examination that I have suggested. It would be very encouraging to them; even if they got a certificate for only one subject, it would give them an incentive to stay at school longer and try other subjects. I hope consideration will be given to having this far more flexible type of examination than the present one they are forced to take.

949 I have been to a number of teacher training schools. I am not saying that the visual aid is no use at all, but I think far too much time is spent in the centres in making visual aids. I think those concerned should have sufficient knowledge to be able to make visual aids as and when needed without having continually to practise when training.

I realise there are many difficulties. The Provincial Commissioner for the Eastern Province reported how the proportion of girls to boys in his province varied from 1 per cent. in Maffia to 42 per cent. in Ulanda. He said that if a Government girls' school were not provided soon it would be a serious discouragement to the enrolment of girls in primary schools. I think that goes for other provinces as well. Also, there are not sufficient middle schools. In the Lake Province no new girls' school was built in 1956.

Another difficulty encountered by both Europeans and Africans, particularly Africans, relates to the quality of leadership. There is still a great deal to be desired in leadership, which can be achieved only by giving the teachers further responsibility and training.

To conclude on this part of girls' education, I would quote from a United Nations Report of 1954. The Report says, in paragraph 662: The Mission has recorded also a good deal of evidence to suggest that there is an increasing demand in the Territory for greater opportunities of education for African girls. What the Mission saw of the product of the girls' schools, especially at the middle and secondary levels—alert and intelligent young women, greatly superior in physique and self-confidence to those who have not been at school—convinced it that education can bring about enormous changes in the present depressed status of the African women generally, and in turn a radical improvement in the African society. The enrolment of girls at all levels, however, falls far short of that of boys; it is less than half even at the primary level. The Report goes on: The Government on the other hand has reported lately an increasing awareness of the value of education for girls, and at the same time those girls now passing through the higher standards have proved themselves in every way as susceptible to education as boys. The next paragraph, which is also important, says: It will be under continuously increasing pressure from the Africans themselves to accelerate the pace of expansion. In their turn, the Africans should be expected to take a 950 greater share of the burden of financial and administrative responsibility. This point was driven home in many of the provincial officers' reports.

I want to turn from that matter to deal with those women who are over the age for being educated in the normal schools, who still have very great power, as I tried to explain, over the education of their children and influence in the home.

At present there are seven excellent European women who are trying to run women's clubs. They are considerably over-worked and have some difficulty in getting sufficient travel allowances to travel round their areas. In his report, the Provincial Commissioner for the Western Province says: There are 17 clubs and more in progress of being formed. But for the untiring work of the Woman Social Development Officer, these clubs could well collapse. In the Southern Province there is an excellent African woman, Mrs. Thekla McHauru, who has eleven clubs formed despite the initial suspicion of the women. It is worth mentioning that thirty women of one club took part in sports in the Territory. This was for the first time.

I suggest that women's clubs on the lines of those run in Kenya might be run in Tanganyika. The difference is that those in Tanganyika are individual clubs dependent on individual club leaders to run them, whereas those in Kenya are organised and registered with the Department of Community Development and all the leaders are trained at Jeanes School. The clubs are run on democratic lines and each club elects is own chairman and officers and nearly every club is self-supporting. There should be a training centre of that type in Tanganyika and as soon as possible a woman should be appointed as an assistant commissioner to the Department of Community Development in Tanganyika.

Adult women should be taken on more travel courses—"look and learn" courses. My hon. Friend may remember that last summer we had a visit of eight women from Nigeria. They had only a working knowledge of English and in the eight weeks they spent here untold good was done, not only in what they were able to learn, but in the knowledge they were able to pass on to their communities when they returned.

951 I should like to suggest that women who have just a working knowledge of English, and who are not necessarily highly educated, should be brought here if they are club leaders or primary school teachers or nurses, and given this type of eight weeks' course. It would give them a far better standing in their community and they would gain in that short course more knowledge by looking and learning than they could do in a year at school doing the various courses.

I want to say a word about voluntary organisations. The work in Tanganyika at present for women and girls could not continue unless we had these many voluntary workers. In particular, I want to praise the Tanganyika Council of Women. This council brings together all races. The only difficulty about it—and I hope that it will change its constitution eventually—is that it is really not a council of women. In other words, it is another form of a club. I would hope that when we have the proper clubs formed with the other women's organisations this will be a co-ordinating body to bring all the women's organisations together.

Furthermore, there is an excellent way of further educating girls through the girl guides, and I want to pay a tribute to the excellent work done by the people who give up their time to work for these girl guides, some of whom came here for the Jamboree. This is a very fine way of educating the girls and bringing races together, and I hope that every help and consideration will be given to this organisation.

There is one further voluntary organisation which I should mention, namely, the Red Cross, to which I also pay tribute. One of the difficulties is the lack of knowledge of hygiene among the women. There are a great many diseases against which the Africans have to battle, and their work with the Red Cross is giving them knowledge in this direction. It is interesting to find that a number of men are also joining the Red Cross, which is proving to be a very beneficial development in the society's work.

The Commissioner in the Southern Province has stated that he has two social workers, but he further adds that social development schemes are left to voluntary workers, Government officials and, more particularly, their wives. That is 952 where schemes are apt to fall down, however good they may be. As we all know, Government officials and their wives are very often moved from district to district, and then the work that they have been doing must be done by the persons who replace them, or the scheme collapses.

There should be more evening classes. Literacy is in great demand. In fact, the Provincial Commissioner's report says that it is in more demand among women than men. I hope that my hon. Friend will give adequate consideration to the points I have put forward, which I regard as important for the development of Tanganyika.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. John Profumo)

I am most grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Devonport (Miss Vickers) for having initiated a debate on this important topic. I hope that she will acquit me of any discourtesy if it is not possible in the short time available to answer all her points; indeed, in view of the very short notice that I received it is quite understandable that I have not been able to get all the facts and figures.

Under the educational system of Tanganyika schools are divided into three classes; primary, middle and secondary, each group comprising four standards. Primary schools are co-educational, but it is the practice to have separate middle schools for boys and girls so that attention can be given to the separate activities and bias that are developed from Standard V onwards. The standard of work in the two sets of schools is, generally speaking, the same.

With regard to girls' education, as compared with boys', I should in the first place make it clear that there is no sort of restriction by local legislation upon facilities for the education of girls.

Unfortunately, however, in common with other parts of Africa, in the past in some parts of the Territory there has been a prejudice against girls' education on the part of the people and the native authorities. This opposition has tended to diminish recently, although it is still encountered in some places, and not all facilities for girls' education are fully utilised. There is also difficulty in persuading parents to keep their daughters at school through even the whole of the primary course.

953 Furthermore, although in many areas, I am glad to say, there is now a growing demand for the education of girls, the effects of the attitude taken in the past are still with us and show up principally in the shortage of locally trained African women teachers and the consequent need to recruit European expatriate, staff who, of course, are more expensive.

Turning to the separate provision for girls' education, the facilities provided in girls' middle schools are in no way inferior to those available for boys, but the schools are fewer because of the need at present to use expatriate staff. Training facilities for teachers including female teachers, are being increased as rapidly as possible.

The position in respect of girls' middle schools at the end of 1956 was that there were 38 schools in existence, of which nine were managed by Government and 29 by voluntary agencies. It is planned to double this number in the next few years, about two-thirds being managed by voluntary agencies.

In secondary education, there is one permanent school for girls, and a temporary stream has been started at a Roman Catholic Mission. Generally speaking, it is considered that development in the higher classes of girls' secondary schools is likely to be less pronounced than at other levels because of the claims of marriage and because of the large number who, it is expected, will wish to enter the courses for teachers training after completing Standard X.

In the school curriculum, academic subjects are the same for girls as for boys, but whereas boys are taught handwork and, where appropriate, agriculture, at girls' schools emphasis is laid upon domestic and homecraft subjects.

My hon. Friend talked about the provision of teachers. As I have already indicated, the provision of adequate teaching staff presents a very serious continuing problem for the education authorities in Tanganyika. In particular, it is difficult to recruit and retain the European staff who are so necessary if further substantial progress is to be made. Nevertheless, the situation has been greatly improved by measures taken under the plan for the ten-year period ending in 1956, as a result of which thirteen training centres for African women teachers are now in operation, three of 954 them run by the Government and ten by voluntary agencies. A fourth Government training centre intended mainly for Moslem students is now being built.

I understand the point which my hon. Friend made about examinations and I will note what she said.

I agree that sometimes there are difficulties in the case of the mission schools conducted by foreign missionaries where English is the medium of instruction, but the position is improving and steps were taken some years ago to institute special courses for foreign missionaries at a teacher training college in England.

My hon. Friend talked about women's clubs. At present there are seven European women social development officers, and it is clear that many more will be needed if the women's club movement is to be expanded. The Home Economics Division of F.A.O. has recently sent a Home Economist to the Territory and it is hoped that as a result the programme of women's clubs will become broader based. In addition to the women's clubs, which operate chiefly in rural areas and smaller townships, there is a number of women's groups in the larger towns, formed chiefly for more formal adult education. In all, there are 178 women's clubs with a membership of about 6,300.

Generally speaking, the concentration on work with women and on the rights and status of women has been very apparent in the last few years in Tanganyika. The growth of such organisations as the Women's Service League and the Tanganyika Council for Women, which are open to all races, has drawn attention to the importance of women's education, both formal and informal, and particularly the influence of the women through the family in raising the standard of living.

My hon. Friend also mentioned the question of evening classes. The Tanganyika Government recognise the need for more evening classes in town schools. I must make it clear, however, that this is not a problem in Dar-es-Salaam, where the new technical institute and Arnautoglu Hall can more than meet local demand for evening classes.

Travel courses must be encouraged. The Education Department sends teachers abroad, some for periods of about three months to the United Kingdom. The 955 British Council arranges for short visits to this country. An expanding bursary scheme has recently been inaugurated which will enable Government and private donors to send many more students for higher education. The number of girls who receive such bursaries will be limited only by the necessity of selecting those who have, or who are capable of obtaining educational qualifications to enter colleges in the United Kingdom.

Many other questions were raised by my hon. Friend which I found indeed fascinating, and I am not replying to them tonight in detail only because I have not been able to study them sufficiently well to make definite comments on them. I think, however, that it remains for me to say that the Governor and the Government in Tanganyika are, I am sure, at one with my hon. Friend in recognising the 956 importance of girls' education, and also of adult women's education, in forming the homogeneous society that we all want.

Considerable progress has been made, and had I had the time I would have outlined the progress made in education over the last ten years in Tanganyika. Quite naturally, there are limitations, but I want my hon. Friend to know that what she has said tonight will be most carefully studied by my right hon. Friend and myself. I feel sure that other hon. Members present here will feel that she had made a considerable contribution to this important matter, and I will do my best to follow the various points that she has made and which time does not allow me to deal with now.