Curricula, Teachers’ Training, Learners’ Attitudes and Socio-economic Factors on Academic Performance in Cameroon

For some decades now, in Cameroon as in many African countries, a serious decline in educational standards is being observed. The blame is generally laid on television and ICTs, as parents complain that their children spend their time watching documentaries, films or other TV programmes. In recent times, this has been compounded with whatsApp and android phones that even primary school pupils manipulate. But all of this is just part of the complex problem of children’s education in Cameroon. There has been the multiplication of primary school teachers’ training schools as well as higher teacher training colleges across the country, but paradoxically, there is an acute shortage of primary and secondary school teachers in almost all Cameroonian schools. The lone personnel of some primary schools at times is just the headmaster. Many primary and secondary schools across the country do not have any trained teacher at all. The curricula in use are quite problematic as they are unnecessary too demanding from the learner. From data gathered through questionnaires and interviews with some primary and secondary schools teachers (N=100) as well as teacher trainers (N=20) of both categories of teachers, this paper analyses the weaknesses of the curricula in use in the Francophone subsystem of education in Cameroon. It also looks at teachers’ training/qualification, teaching approaches, learners’ attitudes to learning and some socio-economic factors, which all combine to lead to poor academic performance. The findings show that the current curricula in primary and secondary schools are inadequate and too demanding from the learner. Many student teachers go to training school because of lack of job, most primary and secondary schools teachers are unqualified, many learners show little interest to their studies, and many socio-economic factors aggravate the situation. Keywords: curricula, teacher training, learners’ attitudes, factors, programmes, performance DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-27-06 Publication date:September 30th 202