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![Cultural Affairs Assistant Gerald Chilla (left) presents a set of books to the Research Officer of the Yaounde Pilot Linguistic Center, Alex Baye.[Photo by Mathias Tientcheu, Public Affairs Section, U.S. Embassy]](/uploads/yo/Xb/yoXbQUMD9CtVQtlgU0UuDg/scholastics.JPG)
Promoting a Reading Culture in Cameroon
As in many African countries, limited access to books can be considered as one of the causes of the weak reading culture in Cameroon. To instill a love of reading in students and provide additional resources for teachers, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy has developed a program to distribute books to institutions throughout the country. A total of approximately five thousand Scholastic books in English will be distributed to regional Teachers’ Resource Units, to institutions promoting English language acquisition, as well as to primary and secondary schools in underprivileged areas of Cameroon.
The books donated are expected to form the basis for the creation by each the recipient institutions of a fully functional library and inspire the development of other student activities such as debates, presentations, and story writing exercises.
Officials of the institutions that have already received sets of these books have been very positive about their contents. Mr. Baye Alex, the Research Officer in charge of Pedagogic Affairs at the Yaounde Pilot Linguistic Center, said that “thanks to the variety of topics covered and the style in which they are written, these books will create interest in reading, writing, and speaking out and lead to participants’ enjoyment of the language learning process.”
According to the Principal of Government Secondary School Ekon II, a remote area of the South West region of Cameroon, these books are the most valuable treasure of their school. In this locality, where there is no library and no bookshop, teachers and students rarely have anything else to read apart from their textbooks.