Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 22 Issue 4

During all the periods that the form of the state of Cameroon has gone through, starting with the federal period and moving on to the unitary state, the educational structures have been modified to adapt to the different realities of the country. For example, during the federal state, there were two ministries of basic education in the two federated states (French-speaking Cameroon and English-speaking Cameroon), which were headed at the federal administration level by a national ministry of education. Federal law n°63/13 of 16 June 1963, which prefigured the structures of education at that time, regulated primary and secondary education according to more or less different dimensions (e.g. the duration of schooling, its distribution according to cycles as well as the organisation of schoolin g 1 The proclamation of the unitary state in 1972 thus gave rise to a single education system composed of two education subsystems, one french-speaking and the other English-speaking. In relation to the various commitments that Cameroon has made at the international level through the declaration of the objectives of education for all (universal education for all, reduction of inequalities of all kinds), as well as the objectives of sustainable development, the authorities steering the education sector are directing their actions in terms of educational policy both towards improving the performance or efficiency of its education system and the harmonisation of these funds. Particular emphasis is placed on bilingualism, which is seen here as an optimal instrument for dealing with the dual choice of the Cameroonian education system through the creation of 'bilingual' establishments. However, it is clear that these schools do not follow a common curriculum for all students. On the contrary, the Cameroonian education system is organised around an Anglophone and a Francophone sub-system, each of which has its own specificities that set it apart from the other (Atangana, 2009). Also, the school orientation law of 15 April 1998, which definitively establishes the harmonisation of the two education sub-systems, is quite explicit in its article 15, although it promotes the harmonisation of education cycles at the primary level, it , etc.). This organisation is inspired by past experiences in each state during the colonial period and also reflects the country's desire to preserve the national unity of each linguistic entity. Thus, structural unification with a view to identical primary education for all does not seem to be a priority (Njiale, 2006) insofar as French and English are adopted as languages of instruction. 1 At primary level, there were two parallel cycles of six and seven years for the Francophone and Anglophone subsystems respectively. The secondary level of general education lasted seven years in both states, but was distributed differently between the cycles. At secondary level, for example, in the Francophone subsystem, the duration of the first and second cycles was 4 years and 3 years respectively. In the Anglophone sub-system, the first cycle lasted 5 years and the second cycle 2 years. establishes that harmonisation does not strictly mean unification. Thus, statistics on indicators of school performance between pupils in the two education subsystems suggest differences in performance. For example, if we look at the success rate in the end-of- primary cycle exams, it appears that pupils in the Anglophone education subsystem obtain on average success rates for the First School Certificate (FSLC) that are always higher than the success rate for the Primary School Certificate (CEP) for pupils in the Francophone subsystem (MINEDUB, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). Even though this type of certification is not based on standardised assessment criteria, PASEC statistics that take these elements into account also show a gap in levels of academic achievement between pupils in the Anglophone and Francophone subsystems. Indeed, at the end of schooling, standardised scores on the basis of 100 show that in mathematics, pupils in the francophone subsystem have an overall average score of 49.2 points compared to those in the anglophone subsystem, which was 46.2 points in 2004/2005 (PASEC, 2007). Also, according to the PASEC report (2016), in 2014 2 2 The evaluation standards of the PASEC survey carried out in 2014 were different from those of 2005. , students in the francophone subsystem had an overall average score in language of 516.96 points compared to 534 points in the anglophone subsystem. In mathematics, although the average scores of students in both subsystems are below the minimum threshold of 500 points, those of the Anglophone subsystem remain higher than those of the Francophone subsystem (498.1 points against 483.80 points). Despite the considerable attention given to educational achievement, little work has been done to elucidate the factors that explain differences in educational performance along linguistic lines in sub- Saharan Africa in general and in Cameroon in particular. Most of the studies that have been done focus on developed countries. This study therefore aims to fill the gap in the literature concerning the factors that explain the difference in school achievement of pupils at the end of primary school in Cameroon according to another comparison criterion that is less discussed. The remainder of this paper is organised as follows: section 2 presents the contextual framework of the education system in Cameroon, section 3 reviews the literature, section 4 presents the methodology, section 5 presents the variables and their statistical description, section 6 discusses the results and section 7 concludes. Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 42 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals E Does the Academic Performance of the Francophone Education Subsystem Exceed that of the Anglophone Education Subsystem at Primary Level? Evidence from Cameroon