The girls who went to Alliance Boys

Alliance Girls High [Courtesy]

When formal education was introduced by British colonialists in the early 20th century, there were no secondary schools for girls. So when 17 girls outperformed boys, they had to be admitted to the best boys’ school before similar institutions could be established for them.

The British had initially intended for education to remain at the elementary level where Africans could learn to speak a smattering of English and do basic algebra even as they worked as farmhands and store-keepers in European farms.