This article overviews the
Cameroon Anglophone educational system from the origins, through the period of
Reunification with La République du Cameroun, to the present time. In
the process, it highlights the issues that have pushed Anglophone lawyers and
teachers to launch a series of protests that have plagued the economy of West
Cameroon and seriously affected close to two academic years. Some of the issues
identified include the poor state of technical education in the area, the use
of French in Anglophone courts and in secondary schools, the difficulty
Anglophone students face in tertiary level education
where French is dominant, and when writing competitive entrance
examinations into professional schools, the programme of which is French-based.
Possible solutions to these problems include the creation of technical schools
like the former Ombe reference technical school, either the creation of
Anglophone professional schools or the transfer of the duties of existing
professional schools to university faculties, the re-designing of the English
syllabus for francophone secondary schools and that of French for Anglophone
schools and, most importantly, the systematic certification of bilingual
competence in Cameroon which will, in due course, be made a requirement for
recruitment, appointment and posting of civil servants.
References
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[2]
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Sokeng Piewo, S.C. (2011) The English Language Proficiency of Francophone Secondary School Leavers in Cameroon. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Yaounde I, Yaounde.
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