ANALYZING THE EFFECT OF THE DISCONNECTION BETWEEN THE CURRICULUM AND AFRICA’S INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE ON EFFECTIVE LEARNING

Abstract

One of the purported legacies of colonialism is the imposition of the Western education curriculum bequeathed to Africa. This curriculum was deceptively imposed on Africa in a bid to repudiate Africa’s originality and belittle its authentic experiences and indigenous knowledge. With this, the European psyche was superimposed on that of Africa, thus relegating its indigenous knowledge system. This has had severe implications for effective learning in Africa. Although studies have been conducted to decolonize the Western curriculum bequeathed to Africa, without the deployment of the mechanism of African indigenous knowledge.  The main objective of this paper is to examine the implications of the disconnect between the Western curriculum and Africa’s indigenous knowledge on effective learning in African higher institutions of learning. This paper, through the use of desktop document analysis, argues that effective learning that can effectively solve most of Africa’s problems largely depends on incorporation of AIK into school curricula.  The findings indicated that overreliance on the Western curriculum is among the reasons why Africa’s institutions of learning produce knowledge that can hardly be used to solve its problems, but that of Europe. It concludes that a blend of AIK and formal curriculum currently in use will enhance effective learning and development in Africa.