CBC School Bambalang, first to teach pupils in Mother Tongue

The government of Cameroon through the Ministry of Basic Education commemorates yearly, what it calls, “Mother Tongue Day.”

On such days, different schools, especially of the Basic Education sector which include public schools, carry out activities in which pupils showcase their expertise in their mother tongue through activities including rhymes, poems, sketches, songs, dialogues, among several other.

The concept, as laudable as it may seem, has its unfortunate side in that, the promotion of the mother tongue ends almost immediately the day’s activities are over.

Everything folds up and are locked up in a cupboard, only to wait for same time next year when the ritual is re-enacted. This scenario is repeated year in, year out, without any serious impact on the learners as far as the mother tongue is concerned.

However, in every dark cloud, they say, “is a silver lining.” The Cameroon Baptist Convention, CBC School in Bambalang, Ndop Central Sub Division in the North West Region appears to be the “silver lining “in the dark cloud here. The School has embraced the Bambalang mother tongue in its curriculum.

CBC School Bambalang runs a well-designed and sustainable programme code-named Multilingual Education which runs parallel with the regular system.

The Cameroon Journal was in Bambalang and had a chat with Pitung Robert, the Head Teacher of the CBC School.

Pitung said the multilingual system is mainly applied in classes One and Two. He said the system has been very effective, adding that the language of instruction for all subjects, including Mathematics, Hygiene, General Knowledge, Nature Study, Civics, and others, is the Bambalang mother tongue.

The programme is carried out alongside the teaching of English and French, which are the two official languages of Cameroon. “The teaching of French, English, and the Mother Tongue thus gives the name Multilingual Education,” Pitung stated.

He explained that after the first two years, that is, when the pupils most have been grounded in the Bambalang Mother Tongue, regular education takes off from Class Four onwards. At this stage, he said, English Language takes over as the language of instruction for all subjects.

“This peculiarity makes CBC Bambalang different from other schools in our locality, our division, and our region,” Pitung said.

It should be noted that the teachers behind the success of the Multilingual Education dream in Bambalang include Nuipukoh Irene and Mbah Clement in Class One, and Mbah Margaret in Class Two.

The Cameroon Journal caught up with Tambakui Emmanuel, Supervisor of the CBC Multilingual Education. He said the future of the programme is very promising.

Tambakui, however, stated that some parents are reluctant and hesitant in buying the idea and having their children enrolled in the multilingual programme.

Another area of difficulty, as expressed by the teachers of the programme is the limited didactic materials to enforce teaching/learning in the classroom. They are appealing to well-wishers to help with the material.