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Anglophones are still upside-down!

Anglophones are still upside-down!

Paru le lundi, 26 septembre 2016 08:28

No, city dwellers in the Anglophone part of Cameroon do not (yet) drive with the steering wheel on the right hand side like their British counterparts. However, colonisation certainly created a large cultural divide between the Francophone and Anglophone parts of the country.

They look daggers at each other to the point “anglos” are qualified of being “upside-down people”.

Upside-down compared to what? Nobody really knows. What is evident, both sides have differences in their customs and particularly in their respective education systems.

On the one hand the Primary Studies Certificate (Cep - Certificat d’études primaires) is the very diploma of a student in the Francophone system. On the other hand, do not expect a French equivalent. There is the First School Leaving Certificate. Note how all first letters are capitalised. The difference is also noticeable in the letters. Some say that “Anglos” have an acute case of “capitalitis”. Which does not prevent them from issuing the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level at the end of senior high school, an equivalent of the baccalauréat for Francophones.

And Francophones pretend of supporting with joy, the excessive number of subjects to be validated to pass the baccalauréat; while an Anglo only needs to a general average greater or equal to 10/20 in at least 4 subjects to get their General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (equivalent of the Brevet d’études du premier cycle). These differences spread into tertiary education. Which led the Minister of Tertiary Education (Minesup), Jacques Fame Ndongo (a Francophone) to consider standardising both systems. Lecturers and bigwigs in the Anglo system said “Niet”! But this option remains under consideration; especially as it had been discussed, two decades earlier, during the High-level Forum on Education of May 1995.

However, Francos are increasingly sending their offspring to Anglo system to be “in”. “To tell the truth, Anglophone students are more disciplined, respectful and rigorous”, points out a manager of Collège Saint Benoît, one of the rare bilingual high schools in Yaoundé. In the end, Anglos are more agile; even though their red oil-drenched food is not going down well for some Francophones. 

Dernière modification le lundi, 03 octobre 2016 09:15

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