Our schools our identity: efforts and challenges in the transformation of the history curriculum in the anglophone subsystem of education in Cameroon since 1961

Roland Ndille

doi:10.17159/2223-0386/2018/n19a5

Abstract

Our schools our identity: efforts and challenges in the transformation of the history curriculum in the anglophone subsystem of education in Cameroon since 1961

Highlights

The Conversation; an Australian daily newspaper published an article titled “history teaching has moved on, and so should those who champion it!” The paper made reference to the rejection of grants by several universities in Australia, to set up programmes for the award of degrees in WesternYesterday&Today, No 20, December 2018 R NdilleCivilisation proposed by a renowned research centre (The Conversation, June 6, 2018)
The study examines the extent to which this has been achieved in the Anglophone subsystem of Education by presenting what was learnt in the colonial history classroom in the British Southern Cameroons between 1916 and 1961
It goes on to discuss the process of reform in the History curriculum of the Anglophone subsystem of education in Cameroon since independence

Summary

Introduction

The Conversation; an Australian daily newspaper published an article titled “history teaching has moved on, and so should those who champion it!” The paper made reference to the rejection of grants by several universities in Australia, to set up programmes for the award of degrees in Western. She emphasised that instead of local history, modern topics like the Italian and German unifications and the First World War should be featured on the syllabus (File Sb/a/1934/2 NAB) These facts put together, counter the resistance and contestation theory and place the colonial history curricula in the Southern Cameroons within the context of colonial imposition. Of the more than 32 topics that constituted the tested curriculum of World Affairs Syllabus C at the GCE ordinary level and Syllabus D at the advanced level, only two questions represented the study of Cameroon history (Ministry of Education, 1992) This syllabus was broken down into the following sections; Africa and the Middle East, India and Pakistan, Europe and The USSR, China and Japan, USA, America and the Caribbean. Section A: Asia, including Japan, China, the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia and Australasia Section B: Africa and the Middle east Section C: The USSR and Eastern Europe

Section D: The USA and the Americas

Findings

Conclusion