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

children at the end of the primary language cycle. While among these variables, pre-school attendance and having a literate parent, low household standard of living and high household standard of living are the variables with more weight in determining students’ test scores in language. For example, the standard of living in both the anglophone and francophone subsystems has an important influence on the language achievement of children, but this effect is more important for students who attend school in the anglophone subsystem, insofar as for a student attending school in the anglophone subsystem, the language score increases by 25.6% when he or she lives in a household with good living conditions and by 14.3% for a student attending school in the francophone subsystem. Concerning the characteristics of the school, it appears that the academic performance of the students in language in the french-speaking subsystem is more explained by this group of variables, compared to the English-speaking subsystem. Indeed, in the anglophone subsystem, all the variables show expected signs except for the teacher's professional training. Pupils taught by a teacher with at least a bachelor's degree have school performance premiums of 16.1% and 23.7% in the anglophone and francophone subsystems respectively. Also, compared to a pupil living in a low- income household, the school performance of a child in a language increases by 12.4% in the anglophone subsystem and by 10.5% in the francophone subsystem. Vocational training has a differentiated effect on the level of student achievement depending on the subsystem. While it significantly reduces the test score by 11.9% in the anglophone subsystem, it increases the same score by 18.9% in the Francophone education system. In terms of geographical or community characteristics, the academic performance of students attending schools in urban areas increases by 55.8% and 73.4% in the anglophone and francophone subsystems respectively. b) Results of the decomposition of student achievement gaps The aim here is to identify the factors that explain the difference in children's school performance according to whether they belong to the Anglophone or Francophone education system in mathematics and language. The results obtained from the decomposition are summarised in Table 3. Since not all variables are significant, it seems appropriate to limit the analysis only to those variables that are significantly different. Table 2: Estimates of the determinants of students' school performance according to the anglophone and francophone subsystems Mathematics Language (1) (2) (3) (4) Variables Anglophone Francophone Anglophone Francophone Students Characteristics Age of the student -0.0583 -0.196* -0.294** -0.101 (0.137) (0.114) (0.122) (0.107) Age of the student 2 /100 -0.238 0.396 0.621 -0.00664 (0.568) (0.446) (0.500) (0.421) Gender of the student -0.0339 0.119*** -0.109*** -0.0102 (0.0404) (0.0346) (0.0393) (0.0325) Pre-school attendance -0.0620 0.136*** 0.0234 0.177*** (0.0434) (0.0417) (0.0427) (0.0391) Low household standard of living -0.423*** -0.288*** -0.445*** -0.265*** (0.0561) (0.0428) (0.0550) (0.0413) High household standard of living 0.128*** 0.177*** 0.256*** 0.143*** (0.0477) (0.0524) (0.0467) (0.0473) Literacy of parents -0.0182 0.0583 -0.0231 0.202*** (0.0476) (0.0472) (0.0468) (0.0455) Schools Characteristics Gender of the teacher -0.0659 -0.0641 -0.0759 -0.145*** (0.0467) (0.0517) (0.0470) (0.0464) Diploma at least equal to the bacc 0.273*** 0.209*** 0.161*** 0.237*** (0.0539) (0.0386) (0.0566) (0.0358) Professional training of teacer -0.299*** 0.278*** -0.119* 0.189*** (0.0671) (0.0619) (0.0654) (0.0592) Professional experience of the teacher -0.00231 -0.00356 -0.00500 -0.00222 (0.00323) (0.00248) (0.00308) (0.00235) Equipment level low class -0.0415 -0.113** 0.0101 -0.177*** (0.0521) (0.0494) (0.0519) (0.0472) Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 48 ( ) 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