From your link in post #10933; he did take a correspondence course:
Senior’s life began to change when he encountered two American women missionary teachers. They helped him to sign up for a correspondence course leading to a secondary school certificate. He took the equivalency test at the US Embassy, and passed. He then applied to numerous universities in the United States, and in 1958, with the help of Tom Mboya, won a scholarship at the University of Hawaii.
More on Senior’s time as a student at Maseno School here.
Well done...however, what you have quoted is from:
http://bataiosu.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/barack-h-obama-the-unauthorized-biography.pdf
See page 20 of the unauthorized biography which provides no sources for that information.
book listing
Excerpted from “The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama’s Father,” by Sally H. Jacobs:
In the crowded Ribeiro Street office, Obama started out as a low-level clerk assigned to basic office tasks. He took dictation, helped organize the office, and assisted with translations in Luo and Swahili. But he was soon promoted to the writing committee, composed of half a dozen young men assigned to write elementary adult readers in their native language.
Dressed in jacket and tie, Obama and the other writers sat at long wooden tables, carefully penning the pamphlets used as follow-up to the literary primers. If the high-arching Obama grumbled that the work was somewhat menial, he also realized that the job was a critical first step toward fulfilling his dream. First, the work was exceptionally well paying. But more important, teaching literacy was a critical component in the advance toward independence.
In all, Obama wrote three books in Luo that employed “Otieno” the wise man as a model instructor.The first book was Otieno Jarieko, Kitabu Mokuongo: Yore Mabeyo Mag Rito Ngima, or “Otieno Jarieko, the Wise Man, the First Book: Wise Ways of Health.” Otieno describes a variety of healthy foods, demonstrates how to use a knife and fork, and gives instruction in the proper way to build a latrine.
Wise ways of farming
The second and third books center on Otieno’s teachings of the wise ways of farming and citizenship, respectively. Obama worked on the three books almost the entire year and a half that he assisted Mooney, and he proudly included them on his résumé.
Working closely with the American women and a handful of their Kenyan assistants, Obama kept his bravado under close wraps and toed the line. The style in the office was highly cooperative and the staff represented a host of different tribes, due in part to the need for materials written in varied tribal languages.