ABSTRACT
Like the Africans and Europeans, the Asians placed a high value on education and were willing to sacrifice in the extreme to achieve the best possible instruction for their children. The earliest Asian schools were the Muslim Koranic institutions, which were housed within the mosques, admitted only boys, and offered only traditional religious instruction. The non-Muslims, and the Muslims who valued secular as well as religious training, had to make their own educational provisions. Throughout East Africa, usually in the small settlements where they were not sufficiently numerous to support communal schools, Asians formed common schools. Government subsidies to Asian education conferred a mixed blessing. All the initial communal and common schools were formed through voluntary contribution. The Asians helped to found a number of other secondary schools. Among them are the Aga Khan Academy of Nairobi and the Shaaban Robert Secondary School of Upanga.
