Since the advent of ICTs, research has considered the improvement opportunities presented by ICTs on education systems. This paper seeks to go beyond general ICT use in education to consider the need to adapt e-education tools to the local context in the education of indigenous populations given their unique identities.
Introduction:
Education is among priority concerns for development as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs reflect the important role of education by encapsulating targets in a stand-alone goal (Goal 4) which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Target 4.1 aims to ensure that by 2030, all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
Achieving inclusive and quality education for all reaffirms the belief that education is one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development. This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030. Since 2000, there has been enormous progress in achieving the target of universal primary education with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The total enrolment rate in developing regions reached 91 percent in 2015, and there has also been a dramatic increase in literacy rates, and many more girls are in school than ever before. (UNDP 2017)
However, statistics indicate a mix of partial success and outright failures across sub-Saharan Africa (Fredriksen and Fossberg, 2014). These poor results appear to pave the way for even worse results for certain social groups, to the point of the marginalization of children in rural and remote areas, and even more so that of indigenous populations in education.
The causes of such outcomes are varied, from the colonial legacy or the Western slant in the programs and their ignorance of the students’ local cultures and languages, to the gap in accesswhich is compounded by insufficient funding and poor quality of teacher education, to the lack of proper technological resources and updated methods, and so on (World Economic Forum, Education and Skills, 2.0: New Targets and Approaches, 2014). In constructivist education, it necessary to “shift the emphasis from the student’s “correct” replication of what the teacher does, to the student’s successful organization of his or her own experience” (Glaserfeld, 1983).
Problem Statement
In the case of the education for the children of hunter-gatherers, Kamei (2001) points out one major obstacle when minority education in various societies is concerned: “the modern educational systems are said to have usually prompted the exclusion, segregation, or mandatory assimilation of ethnic minorities in nation-states by the majority”. Indigenous populations, whether hunter-gatherers of the African forests or of the Amazonian Basin, with their minority status, are usually discriminated outside of the classrooms and virtually excluded from the formal educational system, which doesn’t suit their lifestyle to start with. Tshireletso (1998) studied the schooling situation for the San children, the hunter-gatherers in Botswana. He reported that the system was culturally and linguistically biased for the majority that is; people who are neither in the rural environment, nor whose lifestyle included moving around through the bush rather than settling in cities and villages.
Cameroon is home to over 200 tribes comprising people with unique languages and cultures. In this setting, harmonized education especially at the base stands as a unifying factor. However, context sometimes plays a major role in determining the successful education of children who come from indigenous groups.
The Bagyeli represent a pertinent example of seasonal students whose education is hampered by a lifestyle and cultural heritage that takes them away from school at critical periods of the academic year. In this context, the objective of providing education for all is defeated as these young students pose a peculiar problem for the formal education system put in place. Young Bagyeli students tend to abandon school at a given period to join their parents for activities that include the “molongo” hunting expeditions and also for landcultivation and animal farming. This situation makes it nearly impossible to plan for their education according to the traditional school year calendar. According to local authorities and officials working with these students, "if we are to bring them out of under-education, they must be enrolled in their natural milieu without trying to take them out of this. School must follow them in their activities".
In a project specially tailored for the Baka pygmies in Cameroon, it was observed that in the dry season, the Baka pursue the same traditional nomadic lifestyle in the forest and face hurdles including: physical and psychological distance owing to language, economy, and values(Kamei, 2001).The Baka children used to be virtually excluded from the formal educational system, and the Catholic missionaries tried to remedy this situation without forceful assimilation. By building schools in Baka settlements, the physical and psychological distance for the Baka children was reduced. Using textbooks that included illustrations of forest spirits and hunting-gathering activities upheld their culture. The use of the Baka language at least in ORA 1 also removed barriers for the Baka children in entering into the schooling system, and served as an intermediary between the minority status and the formal educational system. This approach has been successful to a certain extent.
As the forest lifestyle comprises the major component of their culture, no schooling is possible without affecting and being affected by it and school authorities and teachers face a situation which cannot be remedied by existing regulations and practices. Two separate test projects were implemented in an attempt to promote attendance. In the first project, a dormitory was built right next to a dwelling camp, in order to retain the Baka children in school when their parents went off into the forest. Although the children were attracted to the dormitory project when it started, before long the project failed because the young Baka children eventually followed their parents into the forest. The second project was to implement holidays during the dry season when the Baka had to go into the forest for their hunting and gathering activities as a compromise between the schooling system and the Baka lifestyle. Therefore, the prospects for education in the Baka society in the future will be influenced by the continuous interaction between the forest life and the modern schooling system. (Kamei, 2001, op. cit.)
Given the peculiarity of the lifestyle of pygmies as hunter-gatherers, and the rigidities of the traditional education system, could ICTs present a new approach in terms of content and process?
ICTs offer the possibility of long distance learning without the constraints of physical presence where effective physical presence in the classroom presents a problem for the education of these young pygmies(Brown, 2005).Also, communication and interaction which can be adapted to the learner’s needs play a critical role for success in the learning process. Interventions from humanitarian associations and NGOs have therefore consisted of research and other efforts to provide solutions through new communication and educational tools could pave the way for their effective insertion in national life and programs.
On this basis, this paper examines conditions under which the advantages offered by ICTs can be leveraged in the education of young pygmies, which in a nutshell demands that schools keep them engaged in education while respecting and accommodating their traditional lifestyle.
What are the necessary conditions if ICTs are to be integrated and used to improve the education of young pygmies in Cameroon?
Interests of the Study
The question of the content of education, which reflects, or should reflect as much as possible the students’ milieu of origin and future life. It is important to think of what the best possible content could be for these minority groups turning to schools as bridges into adulthood, and society at large.
Most studies so far have looked at the opportunities or obstacles from the teachers’ perspective. Here, we will try as much as possible to make the wishes, needs and wants of the pygmies heard with possible lessons for other minority groups.
The final interest of this study is to contribute to the drafting of better education and ICT policies which include the integration of ICTs when and wherever possible.
Justification
This research is justified by the need to analyze the institutional and cultural dimensions of ICTs in education, and suggest prospective solutions for the effective education of indigenous populations in general and in particular the young Pygmies of Cameroon.
Methodology:
The study is a qualitative and quantitative research. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)and the Partial least Squares (PLS) method are used to verify hypotheses and information from the survey.
Conclusion and Recommendations:
A contextualized method and approach based on rotation or alternation integrating e-education for young pygmies in Cameroon is recommended.
• This involves the installation of an ICT mechanism which corresponds to the objectives of the UNESCO functional literacy program (NCHD, 2002) which emphasizes the basic abilities to read, write and count.
• The elaboration of an ICT integration guide for indigenous populations to provide clarifications on the education context and environment, the lifestyle of the target population and factors to be taken into consideration.
• The rotation approach presents the opportunity for traditional pedagogic tools to be used for Bagyeli when they are in the classroom and ICT tools when they are out of the classroom.