Abstract
This paper examined the major concepts in education and morality in Africa, focusing on the moral education of the African child. This is with particular reference to the child’s obligations and duties to self, family, local community and the nation. The point is emphasised that much of what we call education today is no more than schooling, which focuses mainly on literacy and numeracy. In other words, we learn to read and write and calculate in schools, but we are educated in the wider society. Most products of the educational institutions in Africa today could not claim to be educated, in the sense that we are defining education in this paper, because they fall short of the moral expectations of the society in which they live. On the other hand, most of the Africans who have never been to school behave better at home and in the community in which they live. So, they are educated, in the sense that Socrates, the Greek philosopher, and the writers of the African indigenous ‘Education for the African child, have used the word ‘education’. The politicisation of institutionalised education in post-colonial Africa has led to an explosion in the schooling process, a high turnout of unemployed youths, and a questionable abandonment of the major values of indigenous education. It is recommended that in the new millennium, what is good in African indigenous education should be synthesised with the valuable aspects of Western culture. This would ensure that we move closer to the standard of morality and life in the indigenous African education system.