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Ethnicity, Exclusion, and Exams: Education Policy and Politics in Burundi from the Independent Republics to the Civil War (1966-1993)
Ethnizität, Ausgrenzung und Prüfungen in Burundi: Bildungspolitik von der Unabhängigkeit bis zum Bürgerkrieg (1966-1993)
[journal article]
Abstract Education policy can embed ethnic inequalities in a country. Education in Burundi, with its historically exclusive political institutions and education, represents an important case for understanding these interactions. In this article, I interview twelve Burundians about how they experienced and pe... view more
Education policy can embed ethnic inequalities in a country. Education in Burundi, with its historically exclusive political institutions and education, represents an important case for understanding these interactions. In this article, I interview twelve Burundians about how they experienced and perceived ethnicity and politics in their schooling from 1966 to 1993. I argue that education contributed to tangible and perceived social hierarchies based on ethnic inequalities. I show that this exclusion reflected both overt and covert policy goals, through proxies used to identify ethnicity in schools and through the exclusive nature of national exams at the time, which promoted members of the Tutsi minority at the expense of the majority Hutus. This study has implications for understanding how perceptions of inequality in education manifest as grievances against the state. It sheds light on the importance of understanding covert education policy as a potential mechanism for generating exclusion and contributing to conflict.... view less
Keywords
Burundi; exclusion; inequality; education system; educational policy; ethnicity; Central Africa
Classification
Sociology of Education
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 151-171
Journal
Africa Spectrum, 56 (2021) 2
ISSN
1868-6869
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed