Creative Writing Contest Vol. 15 | Education: What do you think about the number of subjects and content of subjects students study in Cameroon?by @breeze.com

Education is the key that opens every door but not the door of creativity......(@breeze.com , 2021)

Introduction

Hello vibrant and beautiful steemians .I hail you all for being fervent readers. Special thanks to @thegreens for another opportunity to participate in this educative contest.
This is an opportunity for me to expose on some issues within the educational system in Cameroon.

To begin with, What is education???

Education originates from one or the other of the two Latin words “educare” and “educere”.The Latin word educare is translated to rear or to “train”. scholars who believe that education comes from educare see it as the rearing or bringing up of children through character training and discipline so that they live up to some standard set by the society. The teacher is seen here as a gardener who knows beforehand what the plant is expected to grow up to and is skill full in managing the stages necessary to bring it to that stage. On the other hand “educaere” is translated as to “lead out” or to “bring out “.Those who believe that education comes from educere therefore see it as involving the provision of conditions that will help the child’s nature to unfold; conditions that will help bring out the best in the child. Thus in this respect, teachers do not know before hand what the pupils will grow up to become. They simply provide conditions that will make it possible for the pupils to become all they are capable of becoming (Tambo, 2012)

Education can also be regarded as aggregate of all the processes by means of which people develop abilities, attitudes, and forms of behaviour that are of position value to themselves and to the society in which they live (Good, 1973)

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From these two definitions we realise that education can be in two forms ie formal and informal.

Formal involves an establishment where formal rules are established and a curriculum is developed that guides teachers and students year in year out while informal involves a learner learning a new trade from a master. the master determines the pace and the content the learner will take at a particular time.

However for the sake of our contest we will be discussing about former education in Cameroon. And to be precise this is my view on the number of subjects and contents pupils and students study in schools in Cameroon. From experience from the primary to the university level I have realised the number of fields studied or number of subjects studied is not a big issue,I have issues with the content of these subjects .

I will look at a view cases ;
Geography for example, this is a multidimensional and dynamic subject where I expected learners to be expose with knowledge on how they can interact immediately with their immediate environment and sustainably manage resources within their environment in order to better manage their lives and improve economies around the world. Learners in this field should have acquired knowledge that enables them to be self-sufficient in life but you will be shocked at the number of graduates who studied geography but lack what to do because the content of this subject is geared toward writing an exam.

This is what I think would have been included in the syllabus instead of what we have now;
How to sustainably cultivate and multiply rice production in the Mbaw,Ndop or the Mbow plains rather than studying agriculture in France or the Netherlands .

How to conserve and protect the the forest in the southern part of Cameroon rather than studying forestry in the Denmark or any European country.

How to effectively tap and utilise solar energy to be able to solve the energy crisis in Cameroon in the energy sector rather than studying the energy potential of Nigeria or USA.

What has glaciation done since I graduated from the university??????

Do not get me wrong I am not saying it is bad to get informed about what is happening n other places in the world, but this information can be gotten from other sources at any time and even through the internet; I can’t spend nine months in school or even more studying fishing or forestry off the coast of Norway when I do not even know where Norway is, could this chapter not be directed on strategies to become a fish farmer????????

Let us consider another subject?????
We have issues and crisis that are linked to misconceptions about our history: why can the syllabus not be designed to focus on our cultures values and our heritage and ways we can promote our culture and this could instilled more sense of belonging to all Cameroonians;

Now tell me,
What has the glorious revolution in England and the 1984 revolutions in France done to me since 2006 or you??
Who has war in Balkans helped since its introduction in the syllabus;
Why can we not dwell more on how the policy management in the 1960 failed and many Cameroonians got unemployed and strategies we can employ to ameliorate issues ?

In literature classes tales , drama and poems of other countries are recited in classes and students sing them like songs, what happened to tales and poems from the Kom land, Nso Land,Makon land ,Bafut Land,Bakweri land ,the Douala land the Mandara land etc. This explains why the Cameroon film industry is not growing as it should, we do not know our values talk less of valuing them .

These are just a few cases in points, theories are written in science subjects but I will dare you to say that science students do not know that these knowledge could be used to manufacture substances or gadgets that could bring a turning point in their lives .students study how to manufacture detergents yet they buy detergents every day.

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This is not actually their fault because they hardly take practical lessons in the lap. Even when practical lessons are organised in the lap they are always lack of equipments and materials to carry out experiments. What kind of sciences is that??? At times I call it historical science.

Well this is not to say the content of most of these subjects are bad biology and human biology have impressive contents.

Well I must recommend the technical section because their syllabus are quite rich and I have seen technical students who have become self-employed and have even employed others. This is education!

The commercial section also teaches students on how to become bankers and mangers in banks instead of telling them *Rome was not built in a day * and inculcate into them the habit of always starting a small business with very little capital. They nurse big dreams and most of them end up frustrated. You hear statements like I have a degree in marketing and you want me to do call box or you want me to sell along the road.

Conclusion

Well, the number of subjects we study is not really an issue; indeed we need to know a bit of everything as indicated by @rosita-nkefor I feel the impact and importance of what we know should be of utmost importance . In fact we should not become jack of all trades but masters of non: a business man who knows only business is making huge sums of money and will pay small money to teach him what he needs to know; I mean you who knows every thing ;;;;;;
Specialisation should be encouraged and the contents of the subjects should be changed as the times are changing . For Christ's sake this the 21st century..🤣🤣🤣🤣

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