Students boycott lectures delivered in French

Students in many Schools within the Bamenda area have decided to boycott lectures delivered by French speaking student teachers currently studying in the University of Bamenda Teachers Training College.

Our North West region correspondent gathered that the boycott was provoked by a press release signed by the Interim president of the Union of Parent Teachers Association to parents and students of the schools.

In the communiqué, the interim president noted that the French speaking teachers were officially required to deliver lectures in English, a language they have not mastered and hence find it difficult to communicate with. The statement thus enjoined students to stay home or either walk peacefully out of classes when the Francophone teachers walked in.

The interim president called the practise of sending teachers from the Francophone region to give lectures in English an academic genocide. He further stressed that the teachers can hardly say a word in English and wondered how on earth the administration expected the students to gain knowledge from this language mix?

In a radio interview last week, the president of the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union, Mr Tasang Wilfred wondered how the Francophone student teachers succeeded in the first place to gain admission into the Higher Teachers Training College of the University of Bamenda when they are not proficient in the English language.

It is vital to include in this report that lawyers of the North West region also recently protested against the use of the French language in courts within the region.