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ERIC Number: EJ789517
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 13
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0950-0782
EISSN: N/A
English in Francophone Elementary Grades in Cameroon
Kouega, Jean-Paul
Language and Education, v17 n6 p408-420 2003
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.)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Cameroon
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A