French and British Colonial Legacies in Education: Evidence from the Partition of Cameroon

Abstract

Cameroon was partitioned between France and the United Kingdom after WWI and then reunited after independence. I use this natural experiment to investigate colonial legacies in education, using a border discontinuity analysis of historical census microdata from 1976. I find that men born in the decades following partition had, all else equal, one more year of schooling if they were born in the British part. This positive British effect disappeared after 1950, as the French increased education expenditure, and because of favoritism in school supply towards the Francophone side after reunification. Using 2005 census microdata, I find that the British advantage resurfaced more recently: Cameroonians born after 1970 are more likely to finish high school, attend a university, and have a high-skilled occupation if they were born in the former British part. I explain this result by the legacy of high grade repetition rates in the French-speaking education system and their detrimental effect on dropout.

Curricular Issues in Neocolonial Cameroon: A Personal Journey

“…By contrast, French Cameroon used French and was oriented toward France. Dupraz (2015) confirms this by pointing out that despite numerous attempts to unify Cameroonian education systems, the country still has two distinct education systems, a French-speaking one and the English-speaking one. By the time I completed school in Cameroon, that is in 1983, the country had undergone tremendous political mutation, for under Ahmadou Ahidjo, its first president, it had rapidly developed into a one-party dictatorship in which the central government worked to undermine the government of Southern Cameroon, “culminating with the official abolition of the federal system in 1972” (Tajoche, 2003).…”

“…Modern Cameroon is located on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa and is made up of two national components. The two components, which came together to form a federation in 1961, comprise the State of Southern Cameroon, which was once a British colony and which obtained its independence on October 1, 1961; and la Republique du Cameroun, a former French colony which became independent on January 1, 1960 (Dupraz, 2015; Litumbe, 2016). From its inception, when the federation came into being through a referendum organized by the United Nation, the country has been beset by numerous problems.…”

“…Ever since the two States came together in the 1961 referendum, which numerous observers still maintain to this day was terribly flawed, there has been numerous examples of such acts of marginalization; but the strike actions centered initially mainly on grievances relating to the judicial and educational systems (Litumbe, 2016; Nkongho, 2016; Tajoche, 2003). It must be pointed out that in the agreement, which established the federation the two States agreed to be equal partners; in this political experiment, they also agreed on a bilingual and bicultural format in which each entity of the country retained its own customs and traditions handed down by the colonial masters (Achankeng, 2014; Anyangwe, 1987; Dupraz, 2015; Lee & Schultz, 2012). However, through unilateral tinkering by a French-imposed dictatorship, which displayed little or no respect for the constitution and laws of the nation, the political experiment took a beating and quickly turned sour.…”

“…Dupraz (2015) notes that British colonial education policy was greatly influenced by a 1922 report “Education in Africa,” which came from Phelps-Stoke Funds, a small but influential American non-profit organization established in 1911 whose objective was to advance social and economic development in Africa. The report advocated closer cooperation between mission and colonial government.…”

Fiscal Capacity and Dualism in Colonial States: The French Empire 1830–1962

“…86-89). Cameroon experienced a big push in school construction in the 1950s (Dupraz 2019). In secondary education, the same three countries lay above the average, although at very low levels (respectively, 3.4, 1.8, and 0.8 percent of 11-18 year-old autochthonous children, while at the same time this gross rate reached 19.2 percent in France).…”