Politics and Schooling in Cameroon: Nursey Through High School

© Copyright 2012 Dr. Joseph F. Wotany.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-3995-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-3997-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-3996-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012910689

Trafford rev. 07/11/2012

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CONTENTS

Foreword

A. Keeping Pace with Educational Realities

B. Research-Based Reform Alternatives

Preface

Book Organization

Acknowledgment

PART ONE A 

 THE BUILD-UP TO THE EDUCATIONAL STATUS QUO

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

A1. Rationale of the Study

A2. The Significance of the Study

Overall Problems

References

PART ONE B 

 THE EXISTING CAMEROONIAN GENERAL EDUCATION SCHOOLING SYSTEM

(Staying The Course)

CHAPTER TWO

Section One

A3. Cameroon: Brief Geographical Description

A4. Brief Historical Overview

Section Two

A5. Roots of Centralization and their After effects

Section Three

A6. Western Education Introduced

CHAPTER THREE

B1. Cameroonian Schooling System: From the Past to the Present

B2. Educational Reorganization and Administration

B3. Teacher Training

PART ONE C 

 MORE OF THE SAME POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND PROCEDURES

C1. CRITIQUES ON SCHOOL LEADERSHIP ROLES

C2. Teachers: Expectations/Duties in General

References

PART TWO 

 STATE OF AFFAIRS

IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP (LITERATURE REVIEW)

CHAPTER FOUR

D1. School Leadership Training, Selection, and Hiring

D2. School Leaders/Teachers and Performance Evaluation

D3. School Leaders’/Teachers’ Professional and Student Academic Growth

References

CHAPTER FIVE

School Effectiveness:

Cameroonian Perspectives

E1. Why Progress Continues to Elude the System

E2. Eminent New Beginning

E3. Figure 18: THE FORUM ON NATIONAL EDUCATION

E4. NEEDS ASSESSMENTS SERVING AS EYE-OPENERS

E5. Research Data Collection, Analysis, and Their Importance in Education

References

PART THREE 

 TAKING A PULSE ON THE MODERN-DAY EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS (Literature Review Continues)

CHAPTER SIX

F1. Purpose and Hypothesis of the Study

F2. School Governance, Awareness, and Effectiveness

F3. Principal Performance Evaluation

F4. Effective Instructional Leadership: Perspectives from Practice

F5. Effective Schools: What They Are

F6. Effective Leadership/Schools: Their Interrelatedness

References

PART FOUR 

 UNRAVELING THE ROADBLOCKS OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS THROUGH RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

CHAPTER SEVEN

PART ONE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

G1. Fig. 26: Developed Survey Questionnaires

PART TWO

G2. Fig. 27: THE PRINCIPAL INSTRUCTIONAL MANAGEMENT RATING SCALE

G3. RESEARCH DESIGN

G4. Sample Population

G5. Data Collection

G6. Procedure

G7. Table 4: Group Identification

G8. Measures

G9. Research Findings

G10. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

G11. Discussion

G12. Limitations

G13. Implications

G14. Conclusion

References

PART FIVE 

 Coming Out of the

Educational Doldrums

Why Research-Based Reform

Initiatives Are Necessary

CHAPTER EIGHT

H1. The Need for Restructuring and Revitalization

H2. How and Why Academic Progress Is Monitored and Evaluated (American Model)

H4. The Imperative Need for School Renewal

H5. The Alternative Approach to Policies, Practices, and Procedures

Problem Six

H6. The Effects of Social Promotions, Retentions, and/or Dismissals of the Academically Weak Students

Problem Seven

H7. Student Development and Discipline in Schools

H8. Closing Remarks

H9. The Epilogue

H10. Why Problem-Solving?

References

Foreword

A. Keeping Pace with Educational Realities

The Dark Ages came and went. Evolutionary trends through the centuries have ushered in a continuum of historical epochs—the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution, and today, the Information Age.

Medieval philosophers, reformists, etymologists, empiricists, epistemologists, modernists, scientists, sociologists, ethnologists, archaeologists, theorists, contemporary scholars of various disciplines, etc., whose remarkable works have contributed and continue to contribute to today’s human ways of thinking scientifically, religiously, economically, politically, culturally, socially, and educationally, had/have set the stage for facts finding then and now. Arts and literature, learning, sharing of ideas, logic, clarification, and articulation of concepts provided and still providing the basis for scientific thinking have risen to the level of forward ever backward never.

As a result, change through debates, research hypotheses, discussions, propositions, claims and counter claims, verifications, explanations, etc., had/have emerged to give people the opportunity to look at today’s human life and its day-to-day activities from a different perspective.

Sidestepping these human challenges defeats progress and every attempt to make sense of the sustenance of any long-lasting vestiges of the Dark Ages have not spoken well of our modern times. The hope of improving human life has become perplexing, and so blame is rightfully attributed to the controllers of political systems that fail to recognize the fact that they "are at the wrong side of history," President Obama purports.

Institutional change is inextricably linked to the satisfaction of societal wants/needs. The lack thereof sparks and exposes untold social inequalities.

The increased and continuous mismanagement of the economic affairs of states has not only brought in an unshakable hardship to the many law-abiding citizens but also allowed the few law-evading ones (the untouchables) take the upper hand to run roughshod over the rights of the former group. Turning a blind eye to the situation has not helped to bring equality for all to relish.

If basic societal wants are not satisfied to an extent in modern times and the allocation of resources (especially financial) are not fulfilling its obligation to bring satisfaction to all citizens of a nation as such, then the entrenched pursuit of self-interest would be so rife as to encourage a continuation of doing more harm than good as it pertains to the welfare of entire populations.

This concern was shared by Caporaso and Levine (1992) who, drawing a parallel between public interest and public good, had this question to ask:

Is the State responsible for determining which wants would be satisfied and mobilizing resources to ensure their satisfaction?

To this thought-provoking question, I may also ask:

Are there any societal needs—say, in education in general and schooling in particular—that demand satisfaction, and the State, with its available resources, is failing to bring in the said satisfaction through any envisaged change process?

Societies that have tried the alternative and marched along with modern times have advanced tremendously while those that are marking time (maintaining the status quo) on the same spot have resigned their effort to preach change and encouraged a manipulation of political pontificated incentives.

Are policies responsible for this deficiency? What can be done?

With technology (Information Age) and its attendant globalization taking the stage centrally today, no one can deny the fact that these two put together have shortened distances to different parts of the world and made/is making communication easier than never before. The ensuing cultural diversity, sought to be the unifying force among people of various nations, is reshaping our cultural differences/identities as never before seen but has stood to spark a multiplicity of problems difficult to fathom and with solutions soaring out of reach. Suspicion and apprehensiveness have gained roots as people try to make sense of the benefits of the propagated world peace that has become elusive from a human perspective. Is learning from each other a perfect option?

How these evolutionary trends have impacted and continue to impact our world politically/educationally in general and Cameroon in particular becomes the basis of my curiosity to probe. A few living memories of outstanding Cameroonian political policy instituted programs are noteworthy at this juncture to mention. They (the programs) stood to project progress in the making at the right time in the country’s history but ephemerally lost focus with no attached reasons given. The programs included the following:

SKU-000563341_TEXT.pdf    The Fight against Illiteracy in the sixties that died as naturally as it was started. The many parents who had applauded its inception felt disappointed. Today, illiteracy has gained roots, and nothing is done to salvage the situation.

SKU-000563341_TEXT.pdf    The Green Revolution was the national food drive for self-sufficiency where youths were proud of their launched Young Farmers Clubs in the seventies, embracing the approach with open hands. The national agricultural shows showcased self-reliant projects with a remarkable industrialization surge unifying the country somewhat. Even though this is happening, privatization of companies has caused more harm than good as it pertains to employment and making Anglophones suspicious and jittery about institutionalization policies.

SKU-000563341_TEXT.pdf    The Operation Bilingualism in the early seventies, which was intended to forge equal educational opportunities to both Anglophones and Francophones to bridge their cultural diversities and learn both languages at a level of proficiency (reading, writing, and speaking fluently), has fallen short of its purpose. The learning of both languages has become a matter of choice better than a state obligation.

SKU-000563341_TEXT.pdf    An instituted scholarship program meant to provide advanced training to outstanding performing Francophones and Anglophones students in their fields of chosen careers abroad. Unfortunately (with the selection criteria not made public), some of these students who had been given the opportunity failed to return home to put their training in specialized skills into practice. To date, nothing has been said about such practices that did not benefit the country as intended.

   Why accountability failed to take its rightful course is intriguing, to say the least. Was this endeavor a waste of public funds?

SKU-000563341_TEXT.pdf    The New Deal policy brought some new life/hope for the future in the eighties, but its purpose and prime objective of bringing moral decency nationwide through rigor and moralization was abandoned without reason(s). Since then, the moral standards uplift that was sought gave way to an untold debauchery. Even Operation Antelope/Sparrow Hawk/Conac state programs intended to curb corruptions could not put a stop to the practice.

   How does this state of affairs influence or impact schooling? Is schooling paying the price for this political lapse?

SKU-000563341_TEXT.pdf    Telecommunication networking is defined as the exchange of information over a significant short or long distance by electronic means. Even though telephone networking services have improved, computer /internet networking is far from bringing these lucrative services closer to the Cameroonian people nationwide. The lack thereof is heavily affecting the badly needed workflow between central administration and the regional educational offices in the first place. This means that schools are also affected in one way because media centers that carry these free services are not there to boost learning. By the same token, public libraries that are non existent too can’t provide online services to the public in general. The task of catching up with the world’s technological demands has become a must. Service efficiency is lagging also to the extent where the surging consumer demands are not readily met. Most importantly, dealing with the expansion/growth of the said services beyond the urban areas of the country is not foreseeable. Do these problems require quick fixes?

An ensuing plethora of questions (dialectical approach) that follow would open up a debate I feel has been long overdue. The proponents of the status quo, seeing nothing wrong with the system as it is, would prefer to answer the debate questions with aloofness I presume; but those I prefer to call the Cameroonian Progressives, who see things differently, would support a research-based reform of the schooling system with alacrity.

The Status Quo on Educational Policies and Practices

Is the Cameroonian general system of education/schooling (technical and vocational education deliberately put on hold at this time) in a state of irreversible disrepair? Is there a stagnation of educational policies (revolving around politics), causing a big drop in educational standards, that the system is experiencing? How do we distinguish between high/low performing schools as it relates to successes or failures recorded/indicated in the end-of-course certificate examinations, particularly at the preparatory level of schooling (nursery) and at the three subsequent levels—primary, secondary, and high school in general? Is improvement on achievement for all pupils/students a necessity? Are instructional practices reaching all schoolchildren especially at the nursery/elementary (primary) levels? Are the needs of the educationally handicapped/deprived children a concern at all? Is it necessary to consider responding to the unique needs of these low-achieving pupils/students in a more corrective/effective way than what the system has encouraged in the past decades? Are achievement gaps discernable as a result? What must be done from here on?

The Status Quo on Procedures

Easy answers to these mind-boggling questions are not readily available. The maintained quandary forges more questions as follows: Why are some children not doing well in schools? Why are opportunities not given them by the system so that they would also strive for excellence? How well are the existing standards/expectations (under use) benefitting all students from an educational standpoint? Is every individual child learning at his or her pace and potential? Are pupil/student needs identified, and are appropriate measures taken to alleviate them? Is the curriculum development adequate enough to bring meaningful instruction in classrooms? Are there any reasons enough to cling to a one way street kind of teaching all students, with teachers and administrators expecting extraordinary results without taking cognizance of the fact that some pupils’/students’ developmental needs require day-to-day adjustments? Are there any deficiencies hampering pupil/student development? How does politics impact educational policies?

Can the system impose practices that can accommodate these pupils/students in order to help foster their social, intellectual, physical, and emotional development? Are there any alternatives to these problems?

B. Research-Based Reform Alternatives

The next series of questions would highlight the necessity to get the mind(s) of the reader(s) to draw his/her/their attention to research-based reform initiatives out there in the educational field/world.

Is it worthy to focus on educational issues, casting a critical eye on the vision, mission, and goals for educating all pupils/students who enter the many schools that are sprouting like mushrooms in Cameroon with inadequate funds to run them? What do we want our schoolchildren to learn, to know, and be able to do as they gravitate through their grades/classes without the necessary tools for them to succeed? Is centralization of the system feasibly tenable in this day and age? Is the traditional order-of-merit system (achievement gap deliberately created) good for all schoolchildren? Are teachers, adequately trained to handle instructional tasks in classrooms, meeting the educational needs of all students? Is there a possibility to select and hire school administrators on a merit basis, with training and knowledge-based experience being the main requirements? How well are the unattractive school buildings affecting pupil/student learning? Are resource allocations essential for the upkeep of schools reaching all schools? How is bilingualism shaping the educational landscape? What would it take to reconstruct an educational system that is going to educate all pupils/students to high standards? How can schools be improved if at all?

Researched-based responses to these questions would highlight the problems, and well-thought action plans alternatives (not total panaceas) would offer suggestions as to how these problems can be approached and handled.

The purposes of this book, therefore, are as follows:

First, to create an awareness through which ingrained mind-sets overburdened by a lack of adequate sensibility on educational matters (paradigms) can be shifted from the way education of the past decades (still perceived as the best the system can afford, catering only to the needs of the intellectually viable) to finding ways to successfully educate all pupils/students to achieve success academically.

At a critical time when the education of some children (the learning disabled) is taken for granted, it seems logical and appropriate to forge a timely and permanent awareness about the growing need for all children to be given opportunities to learn, to know, and be able to use the knowledge gained and the skills acquired to better enhance their potentials.

A situation well echoed by Johnson (2001) who espoused the idea that there should be a mission/movement to gradually dismantle a system that graduates (by design) so many students ill-prepared to assume a productive contributing adult life. Students, she said,

who lack the skills and knowledge essential to living out lives in a continuously morphing political and economic environment are likely to withdraw and lose the benefits of their talents and abilities. They become casual observers of democracy in action, not active participants.

Second, as a resource/research-based guide, the opportunity is given to Cameroonian stakeholders—who include teachers; teachers-in-training of public and private schools; administrators (central, regional, divisional, sub divisional inspectors, and pedagogic inspectors); principals of secondary and high schools; headmasters/headmistresses of elementary schools; parents and community leaders; university professors; professors of teacher training institutions, both public and private; proprietors of private schools; religious leaders; and all legislators—to look at the past and present educational policies, practices, and procedures that have been indefinitely put on hold for a very long time.

If there can be any built-in hope for school renewal, standards must change course; goals must be set, implemented, and met; instructional strategies and assessments (teaching/learning and testing) must be revisited; school leadership rethought; parental involvement solicited; and the general school-related problems solved.

As a matter of relevance, these new ascribed roles should help in reshaping modern-day education for all Cameroonian schoolchildren.

My dissertation abstract provides a descriptive analysis of the situation and throws more light on the reason why this research endeavor was and is still necessary today.

Cameroon, a culturally diverse nation, has French and English as its official languages. The centralized system of the government is backed by a unicameral legislature, which is responsible for shaping policies of the state with the president as head of state and head of government. Having practiced a single-party system of politics in the first regime since 1966, a multiparty system emerged in the second regime in 1982. Prior to this epoch, the 1972 reunification brought the West Cameroonians (Anglophones) and East Cameroonians (Francophones) together, and a United Republic of Cameroon was formed, which gave way to the Republic of Cameroon in 1982 when the second regime was inaugurated. Since unification, the country has not seen policy changes that have bettered its political and educational institutions. An elite few has selfishly and adamantly clung to power. Governmental and school leadership positions are indiscriminately filled by a system of who you know as opposed to who is known to be the best qualified and forced a selection process of these civil servants based on presidential appointments (decrees), ministerial decisions, and prefectural or inspectoral ordinances. By and large, an egregious system of nepotism has continuously edged out merit. School administrators (headmasters/headmistresses/principals), having had no training in school administration and selected to head schools, are forced to take up these responsibilities and try their expertise and gain experiences through trial and error school management. They are hardly held accountable for the job they do. How this process produces effective results in schools is the crux of the issue. Research findings from the questionnaires of the study included evidence of perception incompatibility among respondents regarding the effective instructional leadership behavior among the school leaders. Aware of the educational flaws of the system, participants agreed that change is necessary, but how they expect this to happen is hard to tell.

Based on the findings, recommendations included the need for governmental intervention through reform initiatives geared toward overhauling the present educational system. The revision of the training, selection, and performance evaluation practices of school leaders as demanded of the modern school leadership should be made mandatory.

PREFACE

Is there a possibility of creating an educational system where all Cameroonian students from the new generation feel empowered enough to be more patriotic, feeling that the system’s renewal effort benefits them more than just following a one-way traffic of doing things (maintaining the status quo)?

It is a farce to hope that an expected divine intervention would salvage the situation before long. Educationally preparing the nation’s youth for the challenges of the twenty-first century demands has had no significant relevance that are reaching beyond the limitations of the system’s own conception of curriculum development and instructional expectations in classrooms. A few more questions are rightfully asked:

Is envisioning a fluid and powerful organization where administrators, teachers, and students seek to grow professionally become an unprecedented priority?

Is holding tight to a centralized system of education, which is struggling to maintain its program on bilingualism intact, be a solution to the many educational flaws the system is facing?

One cannot fail to acclaim an educational problem-solving endeavor undertaken by the head of state, President Paul Biya, and his former minister of education, Dr. Mbella Mbappe, for the initiative taken to set up a Forum on National Education in 1994 intended to address the many problems the system was and still encountering over the decades. The call for public contribution on exposing educational problems without reservation was a very good solicitation that went nowhere because data collection and analyses played no part in looking at the said problems.

For one thing, the steadfast reliance on the system’s self-imposed limitations on educational progress has debarred the approach of a rethinking process. The following educational shortfalls are remarkable:

•   Teaching strategies to improve student learning.

•   Curricular redesigning and implementation.

•   Site-centered school improvement planning efforts.

•   The training of school administrators and the retraining of teachers.

•   The proper way to select and hire school administrators.

•   Staff development and professional growth opportunities.

•   Better school infrastructures befitting of educational modernity.

•   Parental and community involvement in school-related activities.

•   The lack of funding and its effect on school/student achievement to elevate educational standards.

•   Educational reform in general, like the kind developed countries are comparatively and continuously working on.

These eye-openers should be made research-based if progress can be given a chance to thrive.

The looming educational dilemma means there’s every reason to give up the long-lasting status quo on the aforementioned matters by dispelling the notion that the system needs no fixing because it is not broken, as many politicians, some teachers, and administrators would currently see and have it to be.

Losing another generation of children as a result of the mediocre standards of effectiveness in schools, enforced by the current and outdated educational policy decisions, is no way to build a country trying to withstand the kind of educational expectations for the twenty-fist century, making it (education) accessible to all school-age children. President J. F. Kennedy provided a telling reminder about life: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

What foreseeable change is there for the young people in Cameroon who fall way short of any educational relief in the future? A call for a new system restructuring is imperative. A system where all (stakeholders) educators see the need to be conscious and concerned about

•   the availability of resources essential to construct/renovate school facilities with equipped classrooms for modern education;

•   the guarantee to institute education for all children—a program implemented to match high standards whereby teachers are held to high performance expectations and they eventually hold their students to higher learning expectations as well; and

•   the creation of an effective teacher/school administrator performance evaluation system that cater to the instructional and administrative needs of individual schools.

The lacking accountability for pupil/student success at various levels of schooling that are not in place should be made the prevailing focus for parents and community advocates. Their involvement in school affairs especially on the decision-making process is nothing short of a priority. It goes without saying that if their schools perform to expectations, happiness accrues. On the contrary, the following reasons for concern would take precedence:

•   Low expectations for some students

•   Inadequate resources for most of the schools

•   Centralized bureaucracy, meaning, the government exercising too much control over educational matters and leaving the field practitioners (teachers/school leaders) unable to take initiatives

With their professional prerogatives strangulated, how they cope with their arduous task of educating children and grow professionally deserve full attention. With this problem at hand, many more have surfaced, causing an irreversible disrepair as it stands to be noticed.

A CALL TO ACTION

If some schools can achieve 100 percent success rate in end-of-

course certificate examinations as the system expects, why not others? The current levels of performance in schools do not match academic standards and expectations of this day and age where research plays a better role in reshaping school policies.

Can the system honestly undertake a proper evaluation of and a probing into these concerns and find solutions/answers to these heart-wrenching school-related problems?

To me, an untold exacerbation is rendering the system helpless. Justifiably, gearing up to take a stance on seeing things differently from where they were and where they are supposed to be is supposed to forge a realization of what is at stake with the system as it pertains to educational progress. Is the long-standing credulity among educators standing in the way of hope for change and progress to be made as a result? Who is responsible for the lag in consciousness about the situation?

The rationale and significance of the study in chapter 1 opened up the debate proving why the undertaken research was necessary and why maintaining the status quo was/is no longer a conventional alternative practice.

Book Organization

A clear picture of the prevailing educational situation is succinctly expressed in the Foreword of the book.

Part A discusses the status quo on educational policies, practices, and procedures.

Part B, leading to the Prologue, put through research-based alternatives to the status quo. A call to action followed suit to generate an unprecedented awareness about the situation and what can be done to salvage it.

This book is divided into five parts.

Part 1 A handles the build-up to the education status quo. This section consists of two chapters.

Chapter 1 (A1-A2) looks at the rationale and significance of the study and nine crucial school-related problems evidenced as impediments are frustrating relevant hopes for educational progress.

Chapter 2 is divided into two sections.

Section 1 (A3-A5) looks at Cameroon—its geographical location in the continent of Africa; its brief historical overview; its roots of centralization and effects; its long-standing administrative system; its former and present-day administrative structure, government, and politics; and the selection and hiring of government officials.

Section 2 (A6) finds out how Western education was introduced and which led to the failing national integration in education as old-fashioned political practices have caused untold challenges that laid the foundation for a stance on the status quo affecting schooling.

Part 1 B shows the existing Cameroonian general education schooling system (staying the course).

Chapter Three

B1 describes the Cameroonian schooling system from the past to the present. Background information provides the past/present irresolvable problems plaguing the system.

B2 figures out how the instituted educational reorganization and administration affect the funding of schools at the four levels of the formal system of education (nursery through high school).

B3 shows how the present teacher training has not helped to solve the academic problems faced by many of the students who are educationally underserved at the three levels (primary through high school) especially at the nursery level. Failing students at the advanced level were seen as an overall problem.

In a nutshell, as Western education was introduced, eminent problems surfaced. Educational reorganization and administration were necessary as the formal system of education was introduced. Schooling at the nursery and primary education, including the level of teacher training, is explored. Low standards/low expectations were seen as the stumbling blocks for academic progress. As it stands, the mass recruitment of untrained secondary and high school teachers dampened hopes for academic progress as well. How the training of teachers at this level works to the advantage of students is another set of educational shortfalls highlighted needed to be probed into. The overall problem indicated here was that of the untrained secondary/high school teachers seen to be an oversight.

Part C talks more of the same policies, practices, and procedures.

C1 delves into the school leadership roles and critiquing their relevance to modern-day schooling was evaluated.

C2 explores teacher expectations/duties regarding

•   legislated teaching/learning at all levels, leaving no chance for initiative taking and improvement in practices that are long-standing;

•   general academic assessment;

•   academic progress reporting (nursery to high school), which exposes an achievement gap created by practices that are far from helping academically weak students to cope with academic challenges. Nonchalance has hampered educational progress making teaching, learning and testing so problematic.

Part Two

STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

(Literature Review)

Chapter Four

D1 to D3 explore school leadership training, selection, and hiring. Topics of interest included why training is important and the problematic selection and hiring processes. School Leaders/Teacher Professional Growth and Student Development highlighted the need for supervision, formative, and summative assessments. The purpose of formal classroom observations is addressed and their instruments compared.

The American model of In-service training, which is seen as an assurance to teacher professional growth, has not measured up at all. This has set the stage for an untold cynicism among school administrators and their teachers. A school administrator job performance evaluation capped this chapter.

Literature Review

By and large, Why Training? opens up the significance of thinking knowledge acquisition intended to combine school leadership theories and learned practices for skills building that are related to school governance. The Selection Process, The Hiring Process, School Leadership and Performance Appraisal, School Leaders/Teachers Professional and Student Academic Growth, Supervision, Formative Assessments, Summative Assessments, Evaluation, Classroom Observation, In-Service Training, Teacher Evaluation and Professional Growth, Teacher Evaluation and Professional Growth (American Model) are all research-based theories supposed to be learned in preparatory school administrator programs. A system devoid of such a program encourages trial-and-error school management with an untold cynicism as discussed. Cameroonian perspectives on school governance would show the kind of lackluster attitude among veteran teachers whose cynicism becomes detrimental to progress in general, and any hope for professional development soars out of reach.

Chapter Five

E1-E4

School effectiveness as seen from a Cameroonian perspective gives credence as to why progress in school affairs has become unsustainable. An eminent new beginning was/is necessary as the Forum on National Education took cognizance and introduced its rationale and aims, from where my critique would enable readers to see the needs assessments and eye-opening problems as reminders of what needs to be done.

Problems

1.   Two separate examination systems in a single purported bilingual educational system.

2.   Data collection and analysis from end-of-course certificate examination results.

3.   Internal versus external candidates, comparison drawn.

4.   Outmoded school facilities and their degrading deficiencies—

building new or renovating old school facilities?

Wrapping Up the Education Conundrum highlights three main problems—the achievement gap, school/classroom discipline, and curriculum development classroom instruction. From Research Findings to Educational Problem Solving, recommendations are provided for further thoughts.

PART THREE

TAKING A PULSE ON THE MODERN-DAY EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS

(Literature Review Continues)

Chapter Six

F1-F6

The undertaken research study indicates its purpose and hypotheses. School governance, awareness, and effectiveness were addressed with emphasis on the following relevant topics: school leadership expectations, school administrator education, and learning (training, selection and hiring, screening and interview procedures). The importance of a principal’s performance evaluation, its effective instructional leadership from practice, was looked into. The ensuing discussion on school effectiveness hinged on the interrelatedness between effective