PROMOTING FRENCH-ENGLISH INDIVIDUAL BILINGUALISM THROUGH EDUCATION IN CAMEROON

Journal of Third World Studies, Spring 2005 by Kouega, Jean-Paul

In 1963, the Anglophone state carried out an experiment in bilingual education at the secondary school level. It brought together an equal number of the 'best' students drawn from Francophone 'Cinquième' classes and Anglophone Form Two classes to form a single Form Three class. These bright students were taught each content course in French and then in English for two consecutive years. By the third year, it was observed that these students had acquired enough French and English to complete their secondary school education in either a French-medium school or an English-medium one. This experiment in bilingual instruction worked very well and did produce some bilinguals, the number of which is not available on record. However, it could not be extended from its initial location, the Molyko Bilingual Grammar School,9 to other schools, for a number of reasons. First, it was observed that it placed a heavy burden on students as a result of the duplication of courses. secondly, the students selected were highly gifted, which developed in their mates some sort of inferiority complex, as they did not understand why they were left behind. Thirdly, too many teachers had to be set aside to teach a handful of students at a time when there was a generalized shortage of qualified staff.

In 1965, the Francophone state conceived its own bilingual education program. It started up with the teaching of the same content subjects in French and English to both francophone and Anglophone students brought together in the same school; this program rapidly developed into a juxtaposition, on the same school premises, of Francophone students who were taught through the French medium and had English as a subject, and of Anglophone students aught through the English medium and taking French as a subject. Such bilingual schools still exist: most of them have two principals, one for the English section and one for the French one, and they are reported to differ Tom other government schools simply in that they bring together two communities of students on the same campus.

In 1972, the two federated states merged into one unitary state, but he merger did not assuage the wish of the state to develop its bilingualism program. The first action taken during the post-unitary state period came up η 1975: the OL2 was introduced in the last three of the six classes of primary school education. Francophone pupils were taught English as a subject for 2.5 iours a week, and so were Anglophone pupils taught French. This program nas been going on for three decades, but strangely enough, many new students who enroll in the first year class (Form One) of secondary school education ;laim that they have never had any OL2 lesson before, and this forces OL2 teachers to start their lectures from scratch. This program failed to bear fruit for a number of obvious reasons, including the shortage of OL2 teachers, sspecially in rural areas, and of teaching materials, including textbooks.

In 1985, the State realized that its administration was not bilingual and its workers were not projecting an image of a bilingual country. In an attempt to solve this problem, it decided to create a number of post-school language centers called 'Pilot Language Centers' throughout the country, beginning with provincial headquarters. For close to twenty years, five such centers have been set up, and many localities in the country have been waiting for their own centers to be created. In these centers, civil servants are taught the very OL2 course that they failed to acquire when they went through the education system put in place in the country: Francophone learners, who are by far the most numerous, take English classes while Anglophones learn French. At registration, the level of these civil servants ranges from complete beginners to elementary, and it takes a long time for them to reach an advanced level. As there is no limit to the duration of the training, many workers attend classes for several years and do not graduate. It is even rumored that some workers use the OL2 course as an excuse to stay away from work. This again raises the perennial problem of incentive: in Cameroon, bilinguals hardly get any benefit simply because they have bilingual skills. Worse, they have been pushed to believe that being bilingual is a curse rather than an asset. In public offices, where there are no translators, for example, they are often called upon to translate or summarize documents written in the other official language so that limited OL2 proficient workers can make sense of them, and this is done for no extra pay.