English in Francophone Elementary Grades in Cameroon

Resource type
Journal Article
Author/contributor
Title
English in Francophone Elementary Grades in Cameroon
Abstract
Since Reunification of French Cameroon and British Cameroons in 1961, the country has adopted French and English as its joint official languages and recommended the promotion of bilingualism in these two foreign languages in official domains. This paper focuses on the primary school level in the francophone sub system of education and examines the various measures that successive governments have taken. The first two measures failed to bear fruit, for various reasons including insufficient teachers and lack of teaching materials. The most recent measure still to be implemented makes the teaching of the second official language a compulsory subject in all primary school classes and a subject in both the First School Leaving Certificate and the "Certificat d'Etudes Primaires" (CEP), its French equivalent. This decision seems to have been taken hastily, as the problems of staff and materials are still not resolved. The position of the present researcher is that, as the Government is at present better prepared to provide teaching in one or other of the two official languages, it should make some French-medium and some English-medium schools available in as many localities as possible, and give parents the choice of which system they want for their children. (Contains 1 table and 5 notes.)
Publication
Language and Education
Volume
17
Issue
6
Pages
408-420
Date
2003
Language
English
ISSN
0950-0782, 0950-0782
Archive
Social Science Premium Collection
Loc. in Archive
61918956; EJ789517
Citation
Kouega, J.-P. (2003). English in Francophone Elementary Grades in Cameroon. Language and Education, 17(6), 408–420. Social Science Premium Collection. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/english-francophone-elementary-grades-cameroon/docview/61918956/se-2?accountid=8630