Mirabel Azangeh Tandafor
If all resolutions taken at a recent evaluation seminar on bilingualism in schools do not end in a dark drawer in some public office, then it will soon become a reality in colleges. The seminar comes after a recent one, which brought together pedagogic inspectors, charged with the promotion of bilingualism in the Secondary Education sector, principals of bilingual schools, and others.
Although many government colleges now go by the name "Bilingual School", most of them have separate sections and teachers for Anglophone and Francophone students, respectively. Consequently, students only learn the other language superficially, perhaps by interacting with friends during recess, despite being in a bilingual school.
Schools like Molyko Bilingual Grammar School in Buea where Francophone and Anglophone teachers lecture in the same class, are quite rare.
Reacting to this state of things, the Secretary General at the Ministry of Secondary Education, Professor Tambo Leke Ivo, who sat in for the Minister of Secondary Education, told journalists that the results of such a seminar are going to be very positive, given that bilingualism is still in a state of inertia in Cameroonian colleges.
He said that many other so-called bilingual colleges have been created, though they have not taken the same form. He disclosed that the Ministry of Secondary Education wishes to transfer the methodology of pure bilingual schools to other schools that only treat bilingualism as a subsidiary issue.
For this dream to come true, he said, existing bilingual schools must be reinforced with more competent teachers.
For their part, the pedagogic inspectors and principals who attended the two-day seminar, resolved, among other things, to promote the use of English Language in Francophone schools, and to meet frequently to evaluate their progress and to better coordinate the activities of the 2005-2006 academic year.
Comments