Origins of the educational system of Southern Rhodesia

Abstract

In april 1899 Rhodes gave advice to W. H. Milton on the formulation of the first Rhodesian Education Ordinance and predicted rightly, that what was decided on then would ‘practically be the educational system of the country in the future’; the genesis of this Ordinance (No. 18 of 1899) therefore deserves attention, particularly as the only published account is brief and ignores relevant data.' Furthermore, the system that was created was unique because of local factors, although, of course, contemporary ideas on education, particularly from England and the Cape were of some influence. Also, this system in its main features has endured down to the present day, and Rhodes’s prophecy therefore proved remarkably accurate. By this ordinance, a disproportionate emphasis was laid upon the development of education for Europeans compared with that for other races, a segregated system of schools for the various races in Southern Rhodesia was established, initiative for the provision of schools for Africans was left exclusively in the hands of Christian missionaries, and the type of education to be given to African children was defined differently from that given in European schools.