The Phelps-Stokes Commissions and the Politics of Negro Education

Abstract

Debates about education have always been a central concern of development aid and international cooperation. Right back to when Christian missionary endeavours spread outwards from Europe and North America to the rest of the world, there have been discussions about the most appropriate education for the peoples reached by missions. Colonisation added a layer of complexity to this debate about education. Even after the end of empire, education remained a key dimension of the programming of the bilateral aid agencies that came into being during the 1960s, just as it had been for the UN specialised agencies, such as UNESCO and UNICEF, from the 1940s. Provision of educational aid was not confined to the European and North American nations, however; it was also associated with China, India and Japan from at least as early as Western nations established their development agencies.