CH8.Ewout Frankema.education.pdf

societies (Pakenham, 1992). Although the Protestant societies worked mainly outsidethe orbit of the colonial administration, their presence had important consequences forthe missionary schooling potential that was to develop in later years, especially after theannexation in 1908. The improved prospects of long term political stability enhancedthe influx of Catholic and Protestant missionaries competing for converts. The newadministration supported this development. Missionaries provided important publicservices such as education and (primitive forms of) medical care at very low costs,which was welcome in view of the extremely limited government budgets of theCongolese colonial state. Moreover, the Christian churches had access to a far greaterlabour potential which it could mobilize for an adventure in the tropics than the colonialgovernment.The ultimate goal of the missionary zeal was the conversion and salvation of as manyindigenous souls as possible. The missionary effort thus supported a widespreaddiffusion of mass education, with low quality standards and limited opportunities toenroll in a post-primary school trajectory. In the distant rural areas mission schools weregenerally ungraded and managed by one or two native missionary-teachers with acurriculum confined to the lower grades of primary education. Post-primary educationwas offered in the larger cities, but focused on teacher training programs in order toenlarge the group of indigenous missionary-teachers. The missions thus formed anextremely efficient medium to civilize and socialize colonial subjects without raising aclass of indigenous intellectuals that could challenge the legitimacy and authority of thecolonial state.The disadvantages of this system became apparent only in the course of time. Thedemand for high skilled native labour increased with the expansion of the stateadministration and the development of industrial production in the major copper areas(Katanga). The public call for increased government involvement in African education,endorsed by the report of the Phelps-Stokes committee in 1925, rose the pressure oncolonial governments to increase education budgets. The conflict over educationalaffairs between the state authorities and the missions which arose during the 1920s weresustained until decolonization. The political weight of the Belgian Catholic church hadalways been considerable and traditional privileges proved hard to give up. Hence, themissions firmly resisted the plan to introduce state inspection in return for additionalfinancial support. The state program of lay education that was developed after WWIIwas attacked by the Church for its supposed support to condemnable atheisticideologies, such as communism (Depaepe and van Rompaey, 1995).In the Dutch East Indies the power-contest between the state and the, predominantlyProtestant, missions had been settled long before. In the last quarter of the 19 th centuryaround a quarter of the students in ‘recognized schools’ on Java and Madura attended amission school (zendingschool) and in the Outer Areas the mission schools formed themajority (Hartgerink, 1942, p. 39). Yet, the financial resources of the missions werelimited and the colonial administration refused to hand out public subsidies to privateschools (bijzondere scholen), following the arguments that were put forward about theseparation between Church and state in the Schoolstrijd (1889-1917), a longstandingpolitical debate on the financial treatment of private religious schools. Since the 1870s4