Abstract

This research work entitled the Educational Development and the British in Lebang from around 1916-1972 sets back to examine the advent of the British colonial administration of Lebang. It starts from how the British administered Southern Cameroon and how they implemented their policy of Indirect rule in Lebang.

The British stay in Lebang has brought a lot of development to the area such as; schools, good roads, health centers, churches, employment, literacy, and politics. It was due to these developments by the British that the Cameroon government had to create more schools for the Lebang people.

In order for this work to be realized, I had to use primary and secondary sources as my main source of information. I adopted a historical approach to studying the educational development and the British in Lebang. In applying this method, a qualitative method of analyzing data gathered from the field was used.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Education according to the historian named Ukeje in 1966 defined it as an activity that promotes positive participation in social improvement, in order to influence people’s ways of doing things in accordance with changing times. Also, a historian by the name of Good came forth with another definition in 1973, and to him, education is the aggregate of all the processes which means people develop abilities, attitudes, and forms of behavior that are of positive values to themselves and to the society in which they live.

That notwithstanding, in the universal view, education can be recognized as playing a key role in sustainable social and economic development. Regardless of the ideology underlining approaches to development, education is always cited as a priority area for attention and the investment of resources.

Development on its part can be defined as a change over time. Bijou and Baer (1961, 1978) viewed psychological development as progressive changes in the interactions between the behaviors of a person and the events in his or her environment. Therefore development is either a gradual or speedy growth process of something or activity so that it becomes strong or more advanced after some time.

Before colonialism, there was the existence of a traditional form of education in Africa, it involved home and community training of the youth in warfare, farming, hunting and other activities, and this was an informal education. Western education only came in by 1884 with the setting up of formal schools by missionaries of the London Baptist missionary society.

Statement of the problem

Educational development in Lebang has always been analyzed by historians from different perspectives. The problems to be resolved by this research are questions such as the advent of the British colonial administration in Lebang and the administering of Lebang by the indirect rule policy. The development of education in Lebang under the British and the contribution of education to the development of Lebang.

The objective of the study

The study seeks to examine the contributions of the British in the development of education in Lebang specifically. How the British established educationally in Lebang. The number of primary and secondary schools they opened, the number of teachers trained, the assistance they gave to the missionaries, the problems the people encountered in education and how the British solved the problems.

This study therefore tries to clear some doubts or bring out answers to some questions like: was there any formal education in Lebang during German administration? Did the British play any parts in the educational development of Lebang? Did Lebang evolve educationally? It equally sets forth and understanding of other issues related to British indirect rule policy in Lebang and problems in herent in relating to educational transformation in Lebang.

Significance of the study

This academic work is carried out in order to create awareness to the Lebang people on the role which the British played in the development of education in Lebang from 1916 to 1972. Accordingly, it exhibits how the British administered Leband and adopted favourable educational policies. The importance of this study lies in the fact that it shows the educational transition of Lebang and addresses the role of the British in the development of education in lebang. It also makes us understand how this knowledge is useful to the Lebang people, the government; other researchers, and I as a researcher.