Education as social control: the response to inequality in Kenya and Tanzania

The present paper examines the attempt of Kenya and Tanzania to deal with the universal problem of how to reconcile inequalities in the distribution of rewards with a concern for equality. It argues that in both countries the mainspring of educational policy is a desire to alleviate the potentially disruptive consequences of inequality although for different purposes and by different means. Contrasting educational practice in Kenya and Tanzania is compared from this perspective as a way of illuminating two distinctive modes of development. Some of the contradictions and dilemmas inherent in their particular use of education are indentified. Finally, the analysis is used to make a speculative assessment of how each is faring in the task of building a relatively integrated polity. Notes, ref., tab.