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Under-Education in Africa: From Colonialism to Neoliberalisma collection of edited essays on diverse aspects of educational systems that were written over a period of four and a half decades. With the focus on Tanzania, they cover education in the German colonial era, the days of Ujamaa socialism and the present neo-liberal times. Their themes include social function of education, impact of external dependency on education, practical versus academic education, democracy and violence in schools, role of computers in education, effect of privatization on higher education, misrepresentation of educational history, good and bad teaching styles, book reading, the teaching of statistics to doctors and student activism in education. Two essays provide a comparative view of the situation in Tanzanian and the USA. Deriving from the perspective of an activist educator, these essays connect the state of the education system with the society as a whole, and explore the possibility of progressive transformation on both fronts. They are based on the author's experience as a long term educator, original research, relevant books, newspaper reports and discussions with colleagues and students. The author is a retired Professor of Medical Statistics who has taught at colleges and universities in Tanzania and at universities in USA and Norway.
About the author
Karim F Hirji is a retired Professor of Medical Statistics and a Fellow of the Tanzania Academy of Sciences. A recognized authority on statistical analysis of small sample discrete data, the author of the only book on the subject, he received the Snedecor Prize for Best Publication in Biometry from the American Statistical Association and International Biometrics Society for the year 1989. He has published many papers in the areas of statistical methodology, applied biomedical research, the history and practice of education in Tanzania, and written numerous essays on varied topics for the mass media and popular magazines.
