262 The PROPELCA mother-tongue education programme, although limited in its impact
as yet, shows potential for providing a model of education which values local language and knowledge and at the same time facilitates learning of the academic curriculum. This study
has shown that the implementation of PROPELCA, along with mother-tongue literacy classes, the production of written mother-tongue materials, and the local advocacy work of
the language committees, has very real linguistic effects on maintenance and development of the local language section 5.3. The programme also helps to strengthen the community-
school connection, helping parents to understand and interact with what their children are learning section 6.4.4. PROPELCA, along with the language committees other programmes
for the promotion of the written mother tongue, is demonstrating the capacity for establishing biliteracy among the Bafut, Kom and Nso populations section 5.6.3. However this study
also shows that, as has always been the case, the choice for - or against - such an education alternative resides in the community.
7.4. Education choices and language maintenance in the future
Recognising the risks of attempting to read the future, this study nevertheless provides grounds for some informed predictions regarding the future of the phenomena studied. These
predictions touch on international, national and local aspects of the issues. 7.4.1. Economic aspects of language maintenance and education
As has been seen in this study, economic conditions in the language community have a significant impact on minority language development initiatives. This impact extends from
text availability sections 5.4.2 and 5.6.2 and development sections 5.4.1 and 5.4.2 to the training and maintenance of teachers for literacy and mother-tongue education programmes
section 6.1.3 and the likelihood of children attending school section 6.1.1. It is difficult to see how the production and use of written mother-tongue text may be significantly increased
in these communities under their current straitened economic circumstances. At the same time, it also seems clear that the weak economic environment strengthens
the use and relevance of the mother tongue insofar as it encourages the population to remain, or return, to the homelands. Farming in the Northwest Province yields a subsistence living at
least, whereas a life in more urban areas without access to farms can be precarious. Young people who leave the homeland seeking schooling or employment, but do not find it, tend to
return section 4.4.2. Thus the poor economic environment is in some ways helping to keep the homeland viable section 1.4.1.
263 The dependence of the homeland environment on such economic conditions could
lead to the conclusion that it is a fragile and unstable situation. However, as discussed in section 1.4.1, little significant economic change is on the horizon at this time. Indeed, if
anything the economic prospects and educational opportunities which draw young people away from the homeland communities of Northwest Cameroon are weaker now than they
have been in decades past. As a result, this dual advantage and disadvantage of the current difficult economic
conditions appear likely to be maintained for the foreseeable future. In this case, specific external intervention in the form of financial aid to the language development initiatives will
have a significant impact on whether these initiatives can remain financially viable or not. 7.4.2. Language policy: An ideological shift?
Cameroonian national policy on language and education has been influenced by the favourable view of local culture and language that characterises the current international
climate,
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as well as by local and national-level advocacy for local language development. The new primary curriculum of 2000 features national, cultures as a subject Ministry of
National Education 2000, as rhetoric about validating the distinctives of Cameroonian culture and language Biya 1986 is finding an outlet in practical action.
However, the repositioning of curriculum content and objectives in Cameroon is taking place in a national and global environment which places very high value on
international languages, particularly English. This linguistic environment is supported by the major external aid agencies as well as global commercial concerns, for whom linguistic
diversity has little appeal. The dominance of English and French in the arenas of education and employment is thus not at all threatened by the kind of attention which local languages
are receiving in Cameroonian schools today.
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As a predominantly francophone nation and government, Cameroon is particularly susceptible to the influence of French policy. Albaugh forthcoming argues that French policy towards African languages has
shifted radically in the last 15 years, due to an increasing awareness that African children in French-speaking schools were not in fact learning to speak French sufficiently well. The central place of the French language in
these supposedly francophone nations was perceived by French scholars to be under threat; indeed, francophone linguists worried about the domination of French by the English language throughout the world,
and believed that steps musty be taken to prevent it.
Albaugh marks the publication of Chaudensons Vers une Revolution Francophone? 1989, and its distribution at the 1989 Francophonie Summit, as the beginning of a move towards a strategy of encouraging the use of local
languages in school of francophone Africa in order to ensure better learning of the official language. The positive outcomes of Wambachs pilot programme of la pedagogie convergente complementarity between
mother tongue and second-language learning in Mali in 1993 caused this programme to be recommended for much of the rest of francophone Africa.
264 Furthermore, although local perceptions of the role of primary education seem to
focus on its utility to the local community, beliefs in the role of education overall in modernisation, social mobility and economic gain seem unchanged section 7.3.1. Local
understanding of the role of English in that process remains unchanged as well section 6.1.2. As long as national examinations are given in English, not the mother tongue, and as
long as students need English in order to succeed in school, English will continue to be seen as both the goal and the means of formal education in the Northwest Province.
Could development and recognition of the written mother tongue ever reach the point where national examinations may be taken in those languages, or where those languages are
themselves examined subjects? The language committees seem to think so section 6.5.2. Such a move could not be originated locally, but would require a mandate from the central
government. Certainly the elevation of local languages to this use would be the seal of their having arrived as legitimate languages of education, and would increase the willingness of
parents to see their children taught in those languages. However the equalisation of educational opportunity represented by such a move would just as certainly be opposed by
members of the local elite who depend on limited educational access to maintain their own and their childrens position in society. A national-level decision to move this way would
have to arise out of in a profound ideological shift towards legitimising linguistic diversity and establishing Cameroonian languages as equal to English and French.
The current supportive policy environment in Cameroon for local language development initiatives is a positive change for language development advocates, certainly,
but only time will tell whether it signals this more profound ideological shift towards linguistic diversity or the reshaping of the goals and objectives of education
244
. The current sympathy towards national cultures does provide a space for language development
initiatives to operate locally, providing positive cultural and educational outcomes at the local level. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of local language use in primary schools of Northwest
Cameroon appears to have less to do with innovative national language policy than with conducive local environments and the drive of local advocacy groups to push the
implementation of national policy as far as they can.
244
The influence of French language policy as described by Albaugh preceding footnote could have long- lasting effects, but it is by no means certain in my mind that an ideological shift is actually taking place in the
Cameroonian policy environment.
265 7.4.3. Local languages and international education goals
The current expression of the international communitys concern for education in the developing world is framed primarily by two statements: the World Education Forums Dakar
Framework of 1990;
245
and the Millennium Development Goals MDGs set and agreed to in 1990 by international agencies, external funding bodies, and national governments around the
world UNDP 2003. In both of these statements, the goal of universal primary education UPE figures highly.
For many African countries, the role of language choice will be crucial in meeting these educational goals. This fact has been recognised by various international-level bodies:
for example, the United Nations Development Programmes UNDP Human Development Report for 2004
246
stressed the importance of providing linguistically and culturally appropriate education options for minority peoples. The point was stressed again by NGO
and academic representatives at the Parallel Symposium of the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers, who argued that education in the mother tongue is key
to achieving UPE 15CCEM Parallel Symposium 2004:17. However, such voices have not been widely heard in the international education arena Robinson 2004: 45.
Were the issue of local language use in formal education to be recognised more widely as a key element of achieving these international education goals, the influence of
multilateral and bilateral donor agencies could be brought to bear on national governments to support mother-tongue education initiatives with a far higher degree of resource commitment.
As it is, the encouragement of UN agencies alone has so far not been enough to put mother- tongue education squarely onto the international education agenda.
It is also the case that assumptions about the universally advantageous nature of mother-tongue education are disputed. Language of instruction questions continue to be
controversial, as different sociolinguistic and political circumstances are seen to require different solutions to the language question Pennycook 2002; Wagner 1998; Ricento
2000:7. In addition, language is just one of the many factors affecting instructional quality and education effectiveness in African contexts, including Cameroon. The complexity,
political implications and financial cost of implementing mother-tongue education section 2.3.5 can make it one of the less attractive means for carrying out education reform. Thus, as
245
See http:unesdoc.unesco.orgimages0012001211121147e.pdf for the report of the World Education Forum.
246
http:www.hdr.undp.org.
266 long as international funding agencies do not supply additional motivation by urging action,
this means of improving quality of, and access to, education is not likely to be assiduously attended to by national governments.
7.4.4. The future of minority languages As advocates of minority language maintenance recognise, the best hope for the
future of minority language communities is found in bi- or multilingualism. Not only so, but this study shows that biliteracy is also a key aspect of maintaining minority languages
section 7.3.2. For the Bafut, Kom and Nso communities, maintenance of a bilingual and biliterate with English
247
environment will require ongoing institutional support for the use of the mother tongue. As section 5.6 shows, the introduction of written mother tongue into
the church and school silos of literacy practice is already taking place with such institutional support. This activity must continue, and if possible be amplified by the establishment of new
silos of mother-tongue literacy practice, and the involvement of institutions that support them.
Survival of any minority language depends, paradoxically, on both its dynamism and its stability. A language whose use is confined to traditional culture is of limited value to the
language community of today; the mother tongue needs to be able to express new concepts and incorporate new ideas. However the marginalised nature of many minority languages
makes them highly vulnerable to being swept away altogether by changes in language practice. They lack the dynamic capacity of a majority language like English, which can
change and flex without risk to its sustained use. Minority language development efforts must thus concentrate on both developing new
uses and vocabulary for the language, and preservation of its unique linguistic and social characteristics. The language development activities of the Bafut, Kom and Nso language
committees aim to do both sections 4.6.2 and 5.3. 7.4.5. Literacy, language and social uses of written text
This study has demonstrated the key role that the written mother tongue can play in the development and maintenance of minority languages. It has also shown that, for the
Bafut, Kom and Nso communities at least, literacy practices in any language are limited to two primary contexts section 5.5.2, which themselves developed around the use of English-
247
More accurately, the ideal will be multilingualism, as Pidgin and French are also part of the linguistic context. However at this point, they do not influence the writing practices of the Bafut, Kom or Nso
communities.
267 language text. Mother-tongue literacy practices, particularly the writing practices, are thus
largely derivative from English-language practices section 5.5.5. This study has also shown that literacy skills are highly dependent on fluency in the
language being read. This fact is well recognised in research on language and literacy Yamashita 2002; Cummins 2000:79, and is borne out in the primary classrooms observed in
this study section 6.1.3. However the crucial dependence of skilled reading on language fluency has informed neither the traditional English-medium classroom teaching nor the
communitys view of literacy section 5.1. If literacy in the mother tongue could be de-linked from English-language literacy,
however, it is possible that the current social understandings and uses of literacy would broaden. Literacy could be associated with full comprehension rather than with the limited,
traditionally English-language contexts in which it has been traditionally taught and practised. If enough readable, relevant mother-tongue literature were available, and if the
number of mother-tongue literates continued to grow as it is now, it is conceivable that this dissociation of literacy from the English language could take place in the minds of language
community members. The results of this dissociation could conceivably include expansion of the uses of literacy within the existing silos of literacy practice, and an increase in the number
of silos of literacy practice as well.
7.5. Areas of further study
