A mission school or missionary school is a religious school originally developed and run by
Christian missionaries. The mission school was commonly used in the
colonial era for the purposes of
Westernization of local people. These may be
day school
A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...
s or
residential schools (as in the
Canadian Indian residential school system).
Mission schools were established in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
as early as the 16th century. They eventually appeared on almost every continent, and persisted in some regions to the late 20th century.
These schools often adopted an evangelical and "heavily denominational" approach to religious education, with the intention of producing new teachers and religious leaders to propagate Christianity among the local population. They also provided academic and vocational training, and usually discouraged the traditional practices of the local people. Mission schools were sometimes government-funded, for example in the US "when Congress felt less inclined to provide the large sums of money needed to establish government schools" to educate the
American Indian population.
See also
*
List of missionary schools in Malaysia
References
{{reflist
School types
Christian missions