Study on Curriculum Reform in Cameroon: An Analysis of the New Primary School Curriculum

This paper examines the reformed Cameroon primary school curriculum that was released for
implementation in the 2018/2019 school year. The curriculum is guided by a contructivist educational
philosophy and underpinned by developmental theory. It is not organized traditionally around
objectives, learning experiences, organization of learning experience and evaluation but is rather
organized around seven national skills and four broad based competences. The curriculum is
designed to be implemented through pathway subjects and eight integrated learning themes. While
using the vertical and horizontal considerations in organizing the curriculum elements, the data
sources are heavily biased toward meeting market demands thereby compromising relevance. The
elements of the vertical and horizontal articulation are fairly balanced, however, in terms of curriculum
data sources, they have been biased towards meeting market needs thereby sacrificing other salient
areas of curriculum content knowledge needed for a holistic development. The curriculum is design
following the framework of the current competency curriculum movement. The curriculum which is
designed to meet the needs of programme harmonization in Cameroon primary schools, will enable
all Cameroon children for the first time since independence, to study the same curriculum contrary to
past practices whereby Anglophone and Francophone children studied different school curricula. The
curriculum is driven by a pedagogy of integration.