From Chika Ezeanya writing in the Legatum Institute's 2014 Africa Prosperity Report:
In much of sub-Saharan Africa, curricula have not fundamentally changed since independence (Brock-Utne 2000). They are often detached from local realities, biased towards Western knowledge,and do not emphasise African cultural heritage and history (Le Grange 2010). The result is a mismatch between what students learn at school and the challenges they face in their countries.One way to remedy this is to include indigenous knowledge and local languages in curricula and teaching methods. Indigenous knowledge is both culture and context specific. It is generally orally transmitted and non-formal, dynamic, and adaptive (UNESCO 2003). Evidence shows that teachers teach better and students learn better in local languages (Bangura 2012). Moreover, approaches to learning which are more in line with sociocultural characteristics help the interpretation of scientific concepts and long-term storage of information in the memory(Jegede 1995). Indigenous knowledge is also an invaluable tool to foster students’ motivation and self-esteem (McKinley 2005)...[more]
