Education And Media Cameroon

Media in Cameroon The major broadcasting organization is of Cameroon is state owned ‘CRTV’ which was established in 1987 from the merger of Cameroon’s radio and television networks. It’s officially called as Office de Radiodiff usion–Télévision Camerounaise (CRTV), which operates under the authority of the Ministry of Information and Culture. There are broadcasting stations at Yaoundé, Douala, Garoua, Buea, Bertoua, Bamenda, and Bafoussam. In 2004, there were about 20 privately owned radio stations operating in the country; however, these were not officially licensed. The state-owned Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) is the only officially recognized and fully licensed broadcaster in the country. 1 The information and program list in CRTV official cite reveals the fact that most of the programs are broadcasted in French and sometimes in English. The TV channels have specified time schedules for only French, Only English and bilingual news broadcasts. In case of a live broadcast (for example, President’s speech for the nation) CRTV mostly follows the policy to broadcast in French with subtitles in English or later translated broadcast in English. Most of the newspapers are published in French or English, but some appear in Bulu, Duala, and other native languages of Cameroon. The major daily is the Cameroon Tribune, the state owned newspaper which is published in French in Yaoundé, with a weekly English-language edition. Recently, in between 2000 and 2005, the marketplace for the press in Cameroon saw a massive growth in the number of newspapers and magazines, from around 50 in 2000 to around 500 in 2005 (UJC, 2005). A readership survey of national publications found the state-owned Cameroon Tribune to have the highest percentage of readers (20.02%). Apart from two magazines, all the top ten publications listed above are in tabloid format. 3 Language Medium of education As a bilingual country, Cameroon always faced challenges regarding the medium of education. Now a day, two subsystems exist in Cameroon simultaneously: the Anglophone system of education based on the Anglo-Saxon model (in English speaking provinces of the country) and the Francophone system based on the French model (in the French part of the country). Although these two models are used side by side, a bilingual system of education is also operational at the university level where studies are carried out in both English and French. In the Francophone subsystem, English is a compulsory subject up to the end of secondary education. But in case of French in the Anglophone subsystem, it is compulsory up to the GCE Ordinary Level. This makes a possibility that the Francophone students are generally more prepared to affront bilingual education at the university than the Anglophone students. Moreover, the two subsystems practice two

different methods of evaluation, which is very disturbing according to most of the educational experts of the country. The Anglophone subsystem the student specializes early by choosing a certain number of subjects, whether in the Francophone subsystem, all subjects are compulsory and success is based on scoring at least the average mark. Another big difference is, in Francophone secondary schools, Spanish and German are taught as subjects throughout the secondary school cycle whereas in Anglophone secondary schools they are not. So, these two systems clearly offer different opportunities for higher education in abroad. In four of the six state universities, English and French are used as languages of instruction in lecture halls wherein Anglophones and Francophone’s sit side by side in the same classroom. Thus the professor employs the official language he masters better for his lecture. On their part, students take down notes and do tests and assignments in the language of their choice. Most of the lectures are delivered in French in view of the numerical advantage of Francophone professors. Early studies carried out by Tambi (1973) and Njeck (1992) showed that at the University of Yaounde 80% of lectures are delivered in French and only 20% in English. 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_Cameroon

2

http://www.crtv.cm/

3

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/AMDI/cameroon/amdi_cam eroon7_newspapers.pdf

4

George Echu(2004) “The Language Question in Cameroon.”(Linguistik online 18, 1/04)