105 This proportion is rough at best; other than the subjects of reading and writing and
arithmetic in the mother tongue, I could find no consistent allocation of subjects to a particular language medium of instruction.
96
Rather, PROPELCA teachers are trained to estimate how much time is being spent using the two languages respectively and to aim for
the percentages above - not by subject, but in terms of total teaching time. This programmed, intentional coexistence of the two languages in the classrooms in grades 1-4 is one of the
most significant learning advantages of PROPELCA.
The informal PROPELCA programme is implemented in grades 5-7, and involves inserting an extra time period one to three times a week into the timetable, in order to teach
mother-tongue reading and writing. It is not expected that the informal programme necessarily follows the formal programme; rather, the former is intended simply to teach
children in grade 5-7 to read and write in their mother tongue. The informal programme uses the same primers as formal PROPELCA does for mother-tongue literacy. Informal
PROPELCA is easier to staff and run than formal PROPELCA, and it is used in some cases e.g. Bafut, see below to build interest and support for the formal PROPELCA programme.
A total of nearly 16,000 primary students in the Northwest Province participated in formal or informal PROPELCA classes in 2001, and a total of 33,000 students in the entire country.
Appendix 13 lists the national distribution of PROPELCA schools and students in 2001. The decision to implement PROPELCA in any given school is that of the school
headmaster, who may be influenced in this decision by the interests of his teachers or the school manager. The PROPELCA class is not usually the only educational option open to a
given child, as primary schools are more and more numerous, even in the rural areas of the Province. A parents decision about where to send his or her child to school depends on
factors such as the schools proximity, religious affiliation, reputation and expense, and so the parents interest or lack thereof in PROPELCA is often one additional factor in making that
decision. Parents perspectives on PROPELCA are described in more detail in Section 6.1.2.
3.2.2. Institutional framework of PROPELCA
The goal which its DLAL founders set for the PROPELCA programme is to develop a complete educational structure for the teaching and maintenance of [minority] languages in
the school system … and to ensure that this system is completely state andor community
96
In the early grades, even English is taught with the help of the mother tongue.
106 supported in structures and funding Tadadjeu 1997:20. This goal statement highlights the
awareness that ownership by the language community is essential to the success of any programme of mother tongue use in schools. Therefore responsibility for the local
PROPELCA programmes actually belongs to local language committees, locally organised and locally led institutions dedicated to the promotion of the written mother tongue BALA
2001; KLDC 1991.
97
In the Bafut, Kom and Nso’ areas, the PROPELCA programme is sponsored and implemented by the Bafut Language Association BALA, the Kom Language
Development Committee KLDC and the Nso’ Language Organisation NLO respectively. At national level, the language committees work with PROPELCA is supported by
the National Association of Cameroonian Language Committees, NACALCO. Founded in 1987, NACALCO in French, lAssociation Nationale de Comités de Langues au Cameroun,
ANACLAC exists to support and represent national language committees in their efforts to promote the development of national languages. NACALCO provides consultant help in
PROPELCA programme development, as well as a limited level of funding for teacher training and materials publication. The association also serves as a representative body for
Cameroonian language interests at national level Gfeller 2000:23. As of 2001, NACALCO had a membership of 74 language committees, resident in nine of the ten provinces of
Cameroon NACALCO 2001:26.
3.2.3. Language development in Nso
Lamnso has been a written language since at least 1974, with locally authored booklets and basic linguistic descriptions of the language among the earliest Lamnso texts.
98
The Catholic Cathedral at Kumbo
99
published a service book in Lamnso in 1976, as well as a hymnbook and the prayer book for Mass. However, as mentioned above, it was not until the
formulation of a standard Cameroonian language alphabet in 1979 that Lamnso became easily readable by Lamnso speakers.
100
In the following 24 years over 70 titles were
97
Up to 77 language committees exist in Cameroon, according to the membership of NACALCO. Some are well organised and active, with years of experience. Others are much more recently formed, and operate under
less active leadership. BALA, the KLDC and the NLO are among the most active and experienced of the Cameroonian language committees.
98
Justin Suuyren, NLO secretary general, states that missions in Banso were attempting to write in Lamnso as early as the 1960s, but that the nonstandard writing systems used made it very difficult Suuyren 2 March 2003.
99
Kumbo is the largest town in Banso, with a population of approximately 52,000 1992 figures, taken from http:www.citypopulation.de.
100
My Nso research assistant, Nicole Barah Yinyuy, learned to read Lamnso fairly fluently while working with me. However, on being asked to read and translate Lamnso publications from 1976 before the standardisation
107 published in Lamnso: PROPELCA school texts, adult literacy materials, histories of the Nso
people, church materials primarily but not solely for the Catholic Church, portions of the Bible including the entire New Testament published in 1990, folk tales, descriptions of
Lamnso and a few titles on health and development topics. Not all 70 of these titles are available today, many being out of print.
Today the Nso Language Organisation NLO continues to produce titles they see as relevant to the Nso audience, including the highly popular Nso calendar and agenda book. In
addition to the literature production of the language committee, an independent author and publisher of Lamnso materials operates in Kumbo.
101
The sale of Lamnso literature is rarely a profit-making venture, however; most of the religious literature is sold at a subsidised price,
while titles produced by the NLO are priced to recover the costs of production. The NLO dates from 1982, when those interested in the Lamnso PROPELCA
programme formed it. This language committee consists of primary school teachers, local leaders and representatives of the Catholic mission education system. Its executive committee
roughly 13 members includes teachers, writers and traditional Nso leaders. From the beginning, the NLOs task was to promote and direct the PROPELCA programme in Banso
and to write books in Lamnso using the new orthography. These tasks, along with mother- tongue literacy programmes for adults, continue to be the raison dêtre of the NLO OI:
Suuyren 2 March 03. Lamnso was one of the first languages in which PROPELCA began, largely due to
the Catholic mission schools in Banso. The first four languages to have PROPELCA - Lamnso, Ewondo, Feefee and Duala - did so because of the interest of members of the
Catholic education system hierarchy OI: Mba 18 Oct 2002. According to Tadadjeu OI: 4 Oct 2002, the legality of using local languages in school was questionable at that time, since
the colonial-era laws against this practice had not been formally modified. PROPELCA was accepted by MINEDUC as an experimental programme of the University of Yaoundé, yet the
national government school hierarchy were not quick to try it. However, mission school authorities, particularly in the Catholic denomination, were very interested. This positive
stance towards PROPELCA reflects the fact that the missions earlier English language education policies had been formulated in response to pressure from the government and their
of the alphabet, Nicole found it extremely difficult to read and understand them; she said the alphabet was too hard.
101
Christopher Mengjo runs the Good News publishing house and bookshop in Kumbo, Banso.
108 Cameroonian clientele, and were not the result of their own beliefs about the
inappropriateness of local languages in school. The Catholic mission offered the first pilot schools for PROPELCA, and so the programme began in Lamnso and the other three
languages mentioned. Patrick Meliim, one of the first PROPELCA teachers in Banso, noted in an interview
that at the beginning, it was a struggle to gain acceptance from parents and community due to attitudes about the inferiority of the language compared to English, and the belief that
Lamnso was an inappropriate language for school. However, according to Meliim, after the first 3-4 years of the experiment the parents around those schools where the experiments were
done, they saw the changes in the childrens attainment OI: Meliim 5 Jan 03. After seven years, the children taught in the experimental PROPELCA schools went on to secondary
school, and as Meliim puts it, they set records for achievement.
102
This was a significant turning point in the acceptance of PROPELCA in Nso. PROPELCA was then begun in nine
other schools, all Catholic. Over the next decade, Presbyterian and Baptist mission schools joined the programme as well, although government schools were still not taking part OI:
Banboyee 4 Jan 03. However, in the early to mid-1990s the Catholic hierarchy in the Banso area began to
withdraw its support for PROPELCA; citing economic hardship, the authorities in this diocese no longer sponsored PROPELCA teacher training, nor did they press individual
school headmasters or school managers to support the programme. As a result, the PROPELCA programme in Nso began to decline. PROPELCA-trained teachers were moved
indiscriminately to classes or schools where they could not apply the programme. Teachers were not encouraged by their headmasters to take the PROPELCA training for which there is
no financial advantage in any case, and the numbers of trainees dropped
103
. This situation began to turn around in the late 1990s, when the national government
began expressing more interest in mother-tongue education. The national debate about using Cameroonian languages in schools had evolved, with NACALCO expending substantial time
and effort pleading the case for using local languages as media of instruction. The National Forum on Education of 1995 identified recurrent themes of the need to develop a curriculum
that is adapted to the social and cultural environment of the learner and the need to
102
See section 6.1.1. for further discussion of this phenomenon.
103
Speaking of this dropoff in mission school teachers, Lamnso PROPELCA supervisor Sylvester Kanjo remarked, Lukewarmness comes from above OI: Kanjo 8 July 03
109 introduce national languages in school Ministry of National Education 1995:11-12. One of
the strongest voices raised on behalf of national languages at the Forum was Prof. Tadadjeus PROPELCA team at DLAL, which produced a proposal for presentation entitled National
Languages Education Programme in Cameroon PROPELCA 1995. The persistent lobbying had an impact: in 1996 the new Constitution of the nation made reference to the importance
of national languages Tadadjeu 1997:23. Accordingly, in 1998 the new Law of Education in Cameroon listed promote national languages as one of its nine objectives of education
Ministry of National Education 1998.
104
As a result, an increasing number of government primary school headmasters in Banso are now sending their teachers to be trained for PROPELCA.
105
This move is not yet legally required; the accompanying text of application
106
for the law is yet to be formulated and disseminated by the central government. However, seeing the handwriting on the wall,
some divisional delegates mid-level government administrators in Banso have already begun cooperating with the language committee to promote the PROPELCA programme,
pressing the school inspectors and headmasters to identify and send teachers for PROPELCA training.
107
The PROPELCA supervisors and the NLO are thus optimistic about the future of PROPELCA in Banso.
3.2.4. Language development in Kom
