ICH4801
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,UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS
January/February 2023
ICH4801
TAKE-HOME EXAMINATION
INTERNATIONAL, COMPARATIVE AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION
100 marks
Duration: 4 hours
This paper consists of 7 pages.
INSTRUCTIONS:
• This examination is presented in the form of extracts from the textbook and questions.
• This answer script must be submitted online.
• Please indicate the sections and headings of the answers clearly.
• Take careful note of the time allowed for completing and submitting this portfolio.
• The portfolio consists of two sections: Section A – History of Education (50 marks); and
Section B – Comparative and International Education (50 marks).
• Answer all the questions.
• The mark allocation per question is indicated.
DECLARATION
(Your portfolio/examination script will not be marked if this is not completed.)
I, …………………………………………………………………
(Name and surname)
Student number: …………………………
Module code: ……………......................
hereby declare the following:
I understand Unisa’s policy on plagiarism. This examination is my original work produced by myself.
I have duly acknowledged all the other people’s work (both electronic and in print) using the proper
reference techniques as stipulated for this module.
I have not copied the work of others and handed it in as my own, nor have I made my work available
to any fellow students to submit as their own.
Signature………………….
Date:……………………….
, 2
ICH4801
January/February 2023
SECTION A: HISTORY OF EDUCATION [50]
Section A is based on the extract below, which was taken from chapter 7 of the prescribed
textbook, Decolonising education in the global South: historical and comparative international
perspectives (Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter, 2020). Read the extract and then answer the
questions that follow.
Background
Timbuktu is a city on the crest of the Niger River in Mali, West Africa. Timbuktu is known for its
wealth of thousands of written manuscripts that are under restoration after a long period of
decline and neglect. Timbuktu was once the centre of African teaching and learning, when in
the 15th century, the University of Sankoré had a student enrolment of over 25 000 (UNESCO,
2007:7). The history of Timbuktu is inextricably connected with Muslim Andalusia, which was
the world’s intellectual centre for arts and science before it was invaded by Christians
(UNESCO, 2007:7). Timbuktu is proof that Africa’s intellectual legacy was not confined to the
oral tradition. The presence of untranslated manuscripts refutes the stereotype that Africa
possesses no written texts, thus dismissing a deliberate attempt by colonialists to discredit
Africa’s linguistically based intellectual heritage. Nearly 1 000 years ago Timbuktu was a
meeting place for traders from the northern and southern areas. By 1100 it was an established
trade centre for goods from Europe and Asia. Goods such as salt, cereals, cloth, utensils,
weapons, paper and manuscripts were traded. The people of Timbuktu became very rich. They
had money to build houses, buy art and books and Timbuktu became a central place of learning
and education to people as far as Asia, Middle East and Europe. By the 1500s, Timbuktu was
a city of 100 000 people. By the end of the 1500s, it was attacked by Tuareg nomads and later
taken over by the Moroccan army. France colonised Timbuktu in the early 1830s and it became
an independent country in 1960.
Timbuktu as a learning centre of the world. At the beginning of the 1100s, a number of
African rulers had converted to Islam. In the early 1300s, Timbuktu became part of the great
Empire of Mali under the leadership of Mansa Musa. Mali became an important place for Islamic
teaching and learning. Sankoré Mosque had large, excellent libraries and teaching faculties
that attracted scholars from all over medieval Europe and North Africa (Jeppie & Diagne, 2008).
These scholars wrote thousands and thousands of manuscripts. Over the past eight centuries,
the manuscripts, written on delicate paper, have become hard and damaged by neglect, dust,
the dry climate and even insects such as termites. Many manuscripts have begun to
disintegrate or break up. Thousands of tourists visit Timbuktu every year to see the famous
mud buildings, such as the Sankoré Mosque (Obilade, 2013). The scholarship of Timbuktu
existed before Europe became an important centre of knowledge and culture. The emergence
of Western scholarship is normally ascribed to the 16th century Renaissance and
Enlightenment movement – a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries
in which thoughts and notions concerning God, reason, nature and humanity were synthesised
into a worldview that transformed the developments in artistic expression, philosophy and
politics. It is now acknowledged that the Renaissance was influenced by the ‘Golden period of
Islamic culture’ (Gearon, 2017), which included the places of knowledge production in Africa
such as Timbuktu and Andalusia – modern Spain and Portugal. Since the incursion of
colonialism on the African continent, there has been a decline in intellectual activities and
knowledge production. African villages began to fall apart as the colonisers gradually replaced
