ERNWACA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE, LITERACY RATE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN

CAMEROONDr.Tohnain Nobert and Pr. Tamajong Elizabeth

PLAN

• - Introduction• methodology• Summary findings• Conclusion

Introduction• Cameroon is known for having one of the best educational

systems in Africa where primary school is free and obligatory.

• About 70 % of all children in ages between 6-12 years go to school. Adult literacy rate is 67.9 %.

• In the southern regions of the country almost all children of primary-school age are enrolled in classes. However, in the north, registration is low.

• There are two separate sub-systems of education in Cameroon-the English and the French sub-systems.

• Lay private and religious private schools are an important part of the education system.

• The country equally has public and private institutions for the training of teachers for the primary school system.

Introduction Cont.

• Basic education covers a period of 08 years comprising 2 years in kindergarten and 6 years in the primary. The normal length of the primary cycle alone is six years. The legal age of admission to this level of education is 5 years. The certificate for the end of cycle is the CEP (certificate d’étude primaire) for the Francophone subsystem and the FSLC (first school leaving certificate) for the Anglophone subsystem. Our study covers pupils of the upper primary that is, classes 5 and 6. This is because pupils at this level are better positioned to say why they go to school and why they opt for a particular career.

• The 1995National forum on Education in Cameroon identified several lapses in the primary school system and hence, sought to give a new vision to the entire system. This determination of the government to redynamise the system led to the promulgation of a law on educational orientation in 1998. Since then the new teaching programs have been introduced in the teacher training colleges.

• This law proposes a new vision for the training of children. The training needs to take care of their

- intellectual- Physical- Civic and moral welfareWith the view to have them better integrated into the

society, of course taking into consideration the economic, socio-cultural and political factors. Hence, new pedagogic approaches were born e.g, the NPA (tuned to the needs of the individual children.

• Our study looks at the level of LITERACY amongst pupils in primary schools in Cameroon and ascertain whether the level reflects these new orientations

Methodology

• The research methodology adopted for this study was the survey design.

• Two approaches were used for the study: the qualitative and the quantitative approaches.

• In the qualitative approach data were collected through interviews, observations and focus group discussions while for the quantitative approach questionnaires were used.

Sample characteristics• The study carried out in five of the ten regions in Cameroon. • The choice of these regions based on agro-ecological characteristics

of each region which makes them theoretically adapted to the educational system.

• From the agro-ecological resemblance, the following localities were identified: the Northwest and the West regions with same culture and social set-up.

• The almost identical nature of the northern region of the country led to the choice of Maroua as a site for the region.

• The East region was chosen as one of the study sites to represent the Centre, the South and the East regions.

• The Littoral and the Southwest regions with several similarities ,led to the choice of the Southwest region as another study locality.

• Its choice was equally based on its linguistic difference with the Littoral which has a significant impact on the quality of teaching and learning.

The Sampling Unit• To better understand this question on education, only the

primary schools from rural and urban areas in each region were retained as a unit of investigation. In each school, two types of units were observed:

• pupils• Teachers.• The type of schools selected were, the public (government

owned) schools, lay private schools and private missionary schools.

• A total of 284 pupils made up the sample with a continuous variable which is the mark obtained for each subject later characterized by six nominal variables notably: type of school, region, sex, the mark, locality and the subject. For the teachers, 140 of them were questioned.

Data analysis

• Cross tabulations, percentages and correlation coefficients are used for statistical analysis. Two key assumptions were used during the analysis to verify whether to reject or accept them according to proofs obtained from the sample. During the execution of our hypothesis test, the critical threshold (risk of wrongly rejecting the hypothesis) was set at 5%. So only a 5% possibility of wrongly rejecting the original hypothesis was considered. The risk of wrongly rejecting our hypothesis is quite small we confirm (approve) the results provided by these tests.

Results and Analysis

• Our study aimed at evaluating the performance of pupils in the final year of their basic education.

• We equally needed to know why pupils are registered in their respective schools.

• This is especially because the choice of schools is determined by social and economic factors even though the incidence of poverty equally plays a role. Enrolment ratios for a society which depends on the community’s economic level is a direct measure of it future man-power. Some specific data came from secondary sources as shown

Reason for the choice of establishment and school population

Reason for the choice

Region Seriousness Good results Low cost Proximity Easy admission

East 10.7 % 11.1 % 25.5 % 47.1 % 4.7 %

Far North 3.2 % 8.8 % 6.2 % 76.2 % 3.2 %

Littoral 22.4 % 9.9 % 22.9 % 33.2 % 6.0 %

Northwest 10.1 % 12.7 % 28.7 % 41.2 % 1.5 %

Southwest 16.6 % 9.8 % 21.9 % 45.8 % 4.9 %

Living standards

Poor 7.5 % 6.1 % 19.2 % 61.4 % 2.8 %

Non poor 17.7 % 14.7 % 20.7 % 36.0 % 6.0 %

Area of Residence

Urban 20.9 % 17.7 % 23.6 % 25.5 % 7.3 %

Rural 8.9 % 7.1 % 17.8 % 59.6 % 3.1 %

• The quest for education has given rise to the proliferation of several educational establishments. Uncontrolled creation of schools give little room for quality assurance. Children who go through their education process still roam the streets as if they have never been to school.

• Hence, difficult to distinguish between dropouts and those who effectively went through the system. Acute lack of teachers and basic infrastructure eg in the rural areas.

• Our study reveals that, only parents from the littoral region of the country (22.4 %) consider seriousness in the schools as a criterion for the admission of their children.

• About 28.7 % of the parents who come from the Northwest region of the country register their children in schools depending on the cost of the education offer. In the Southwest region, 45 % of the parents send their children to school depending on the school proximity to the home.

• We consider the search for educational establishment important in this study because the type of education that can lead to an appropriate socioeconomic integration of the learner needs to be an activity which aims at practical results especially in a system where professionalization is valued. Hence in our study we define education as an activity which aims at practical results in contrast with activities which aim at theoretical results (Schofield, 1972:33).

• In our central preoccupation we are stating that most of those referred to as dropouts are not necessarily citizens who left schooling before the final year of the course. The quality of education received does not distinguish dropouts from graduates especially at the basic level.

• To show the link between education and the future activity that learners could carry out, we had to assess the academic level of the pupils with the marks obtained as a variable.

• That is why each pupil in the sample was subjected to write one and only one subject or discipline selected from (grammar, reading comprehension and mathematics).

• We assume that the ability to assimilate what is being taught in these disciplines could adequately indicate their level of understanding and hence, what they are able to do in future.

• This means that the mark of the pupil on a single subject is indicative of the academic position that the pupil would have had if it were another subject.

• Hence, the pupil's academic position is indicative of his/her overall level and quality of education received by the latter in the overall program.

Educational approaches

This study looks at some of the benefits of primary schooling in the perspective of future benefits for the learners as well as the the different approaches employed in the learning process which can produce dropouts or useful citizens for national development.

For better output two different approaches are used in Cameroon as shown on the table below.

Different Approaches Used in SchoolsTYPE OF SCHOOL NPA (NEW PEDAGOGIC

APPROACH)GROUP CENTRED APPROACH (GCA)

No RESPONSE

Islamic school 33,30% 33,30% 33,30%

Government 89,30% 5,40% 3,60%

Lay Private 76,70% 23,30% 0,00%

Private Mission 88,90% 5,60% 0,00%

• In the Cameroon education system, the approach used in the basic education was the traditional one in which the teachers had to just lecture theoretically without being interested on the pupils understanding of the lectures. Later on this approach was transformed to the new pedagogic approach in which the child initiates the learning process. Now we are at the Child centred approach or the approach by competence.

• These approaches are not used with the same intensity in the different types of schools referred to under our study. For instance:

• - the new pedagogic approach is mostly used in the government and private mission schools;

• - The Islamic schools use both the new pedagogic approaches and the group centered approach.

• Each of the approaches has a differential impact on the educational output.

• - Teachers (66.7 %), with the grade I certificate as the highest professional qualification are found mostly in Islamic schools while other type of schools have teachers with lower qualifications.

• - Most of the teachers in private mission schools are teaching with the grade II and grade III certificates. Those with the highest professional experience (16-21) years in service are found in Islamic and government schools. For all the schools, children are very active during their lessons even though in terms of accessibility, only the government, the Islamic and lay private schools are very accessible to pupils. Despite the use of these approaches, dropouts are mostly produced by government owned schools with well trained instructors.

• The smaller p-value at 05 % significant level indicates that there is a relationship between pupils’ performance in the sample subjects (Mathematics) and the region where they are found. Besides, pupils’ performance in each subject equally depends on factors related to pedagogic approaches, available didactic material and the experience of the teachers. In each region even with trained teachers, children’s level of assimilation of lessons is highly related to available teaching material such as books and also to where the schools are situated. For instance, schools situated in market or commercial centers do not have the same performance as those in rural or remote areas.

Pupils’ Participation in lessonsType of School Participation of pupils in lessons

Very actiive Active Not active

Islamic school 12,10% 69,70% 12,10%

Government 33,30% 66,70% 0,00%

Lay Private 17,90% 64,30% 12,50%

Private Mission 43,30% 53,30% 3,30%

• For the Islamic schools, better results are produced when the Group Centred Approach is used. If more dropouts are produced by schools where appropriate pedagogic approaches are used, it is simply because the system of evaluation is different. For instance, promotion from one class to the other in government owned schools does not always respect appropriate criteria. Our study reveals that most of the learners (66 %) promoted to higher classes do not merit promotion. As one of our respondents stated “it is not acceptable to frustrate children by insisting that they should repeat a class. Even if they do not have the required average for promotion, they should go to the next class because as parents we can contribute by looking for home teachers to teach what the child could not understand in school (a respondent from the Southwest region of the country)”. This is a fundamental problem because not every parent is able to afford for a home teacher and even so, some of these home teachers are not efficient and hence cannot train the children adequately.

• To evaluate teachers effectiveness in the teaching process, relevant variables were retained for analysis. These variables were used to study the profile of the teachers in order to show how it has an impact on learning and teaching process. These composite variables include:

• - The number of classes taught;• - The number of hours per week;• - Work experience;• - The academic degree and professional certificate • Nevertheless, the type of school where the teacher

teaches as well as his/her religion and the area where the school is found are equally important determinants.

Number of classes taughtType of school Number of classes taught

1 2 3 More than 3 classes

Islamic 7.46 % 7.46 % 0 0

Public 32.09 % 4.48 % 7.46 % 4.48 %

Lay Private 8.21 % 67.10 % 4.48 % 3.73 %

Private Mission 10.45 % 14.93 % 14.93% 0

• The number of classes handled during the academic year has an influence on the teaching process as well as on the learning process for the pupils. Results from our results the number of classes taught increases as the number of teachers decreases. In schools where there are more teachers, 67.1 % of them teach two classes.

• Learner-teacher ratios especially in disadvantaged regions are often characterized by higher numbers of learners per teacher, which makes it extremely difficult to provide quality education.

• The needs of each individual learner in overcrowded classrooms are hard to achieve in this situation. As a result, the quality of education is being lowered and the learning environment is negatively affected (Amukugo, 1993).

• What we can say about this variable is that teachers have many hours to cover during the weekly schedule with 75% having between 21 and 40 hours of teaching per week.

Conclusion• Socio economic integration and development could be achieved

strategies are elaborated to promote the performance rate at the primary school level. For instance, improvements could follow if new pedagogic approaches especially those based on local realities are adopted. The application of new pedagogical approach (89.3 %) government schools could be used as an example to oriented policy decisions. From the results of this study, the fact that even with trained teachers, children’s level of assimilation of lessons is highly related to available teaching material such as books could be used by education stake holders to restrict frequent changes on the book list and other didactic material used in schools. Hence the elimination or reduction of school dropouts could be done through the adjustment of approaches used in teaching and in the provision of school needs.