Geneses and Transitory Hallmarks of Education Boards in Southern/West Cameroon, 1954-1972

Abstract

The Southern Cameroons Education Board created in 1954 and transformed to the West Cameroon Education Board in 1961, was appropriated within a post-colonial context of divergent perspectives to educational management. Such diversity in perceptions though discordant, is depictive of the dichotomy in the colonial experiences of the regions presently conterminous with the French-speaking and English-speaking sections of contemporary Cameroon. This paper uses primary and secondary data to analyze the foundations and transient profile of the education board. The paper reveals that the foundation of Education Boards in Southern Cameroons and later West Cameroon imposed a new orientation to educational management reflective of the British/Nigerian experiences. However, Reunification introduced new exigencies in education policy making such as Indigenization, Harmonization, Bilingualism and Ruralisation. Attempts made by the West Cameroon Education Board to adapt to the changing times was rather perceived differently by the Federal Government. In its struggle for survival, sound traditions and practices of the inherited English subsystem of Education Boards gained roots in the mind of a majority of inhabitants in present day North West and South West Regions of Cameroo