INTRODUCTION
In order to give quality training to future secondary school teachers, the Higher Teachers’ Training College (Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS)) Yaoundé in collaboration with the Ministry of Secondary Education (MINSEC) usually organize teaching and professional practice at the end of every training school year for final year students of both cycle one and two. It is in this framework that a teaching practice which ran from the month of February to the month of May 2009 was organized to enable all the final year student-teachers of all the disciplines of ENS including us: the students of the department of Computing Science and Industrial Technology to discover the realities of our future professional milieu and to apply what we have learnt in school. A particular objective was placed on the student-teachers of the Department of Computing Science and Industrial Technology which was to find out the current situation of the integration of ICTs in Cameroon Secondary Schools since its inception in 2001. For this reason four of us were sent to College Francois Xavier Vogt. This report revolves around three main points which include the a brief history and presentation of College François Xavier Vogt, the different stages of the internship, the current situation of ICT integration in Cameroon Secondary Schools and of course a conclusion in which some recommendations have been discussed.
I.1 A Brief History and Presentation of College François Xavier Vogt
I.1 A Brief History of College François Xavier Vogt
College François Xavier Vogt was created in 1947 by the fathers of the Holy Spirit under the name Jean XXII d’Efok. By then it was located at Efok a town situated 40km away from Yaoundé along the Baffoussam-Yaounde highway. In 1951 it was handed to the Brothers of Mission Schools who in turn implanted it at Mvolyé which is its actual location. These brothers later changed the name from Jean XXIII to College François Xavier Vogt: the name of the then Apostolic Vicar of Cameroon from 1922-1943. One of the most remarkable investments of these brothers was the creation of the dormitory as well as the second cycle. Up till 1963 it was a boys’ secondary school with the majority of subjects being science subjects. The first three girls were admitted in Terminale Philosophique and Experimental Science in 1964.
I.2 The Presentation of College François Xavier Vogt
. This mission school consists of thirty-eight (38) classrooms and one hundred and sixty-five (165) teachers. It has a population of two thousand eight hundred (2800) students and the average number of students per class is seventy-four (74). There are some classes with the size of fifty-nine (59), sixty (60), seventy-four (74) and eighty-two (82) students but the majority of the classes are made up of seventy-four (74) students.
II. The Different Stages of the internship
There were three main stages involved in our internship. These were the reception, the observation and teaching proper stages.
II.1. The Reception Stage
We arrived at the campus of College François Xavier Vogt on Thursday 12th of February 2009 and went straight to the principal’s office who unfortunately was not met on seat. We were given an appointment to come again the next day which we did. On this day the 13th of February 2009 we were handed to the coordinator of the Computer Science Department. The latter on his part assembled the other teachers of the department and introduced us to them. During this moment we were made to understand we were going to work with all the Computer Science teachers in order to maximize the number of hours that we needed to have taught before the end of the teaching practice period. The coordinator then handed us the various timetables. Each and every one of us was attributed a class each in all the classes of the second cycle but two trainees were to teach a class during practical because one computer science laboratory could not contain one class.
II. 2. The Observation Stage
This stage lasted for three weeks. At this stage we observed the trainers teach both the theory and practical parts of the lessons. During this moment we took down notes and after every lesson we had a dialogue with the trainer for that lesson on his weaknesses and strengths and proposition on how a weakness could be ameliorated. At the end of this stage we were given the list of progression of the syllabus of the various classes attributed to us in order to continue from where the trainers ended. The moments of observation enabled us to acquaint ourselves with the environment and the students.
II.3. The Teaching Stage
This stage lasted for ten (10) weeks which ran from the 9th of March to the 15th of May. This is when we were actually initiated into the teaching profession. We conceived and taught lessons using the list of progression of the syllabus. This was done under the supervision of the trainers. At the end of every lesson like in the observation stage, each and every one of us had a dialogue with the trainer for that class but this time the roles were reversed. The trainer became the observer and the trainee became the teacher. He made his remarks which were taken into consideration during the next class. Then at the end of every week a general pedagogic meeting was held during which we laid our complains and we were given orientations on what to do the following week concerning the practical part.
II.4 The Difficulties Encountered during the Teaching Stage.
The first difficulty was that there were no textbooks guiding the syllabus defined by the Ministry of Secondary Education for the discipline; Computer Science. So the trainers and us had to browse different web sites to make notes using the syllabus which was very demanding and time consuming.
Secondly, all the machines in the computer labs were connected to one server and since there was only one technician it became an obstacle when he was not available. Sometimes he came late after a particular period scheduled for a particular class was over. Thus no practical was held and nothing was learnt or taught on that day. Very close to the problem of server was the problem of bad machines. Most of the machines in the Computer Science laboratories were bad and as such we had to group students sometimes in three or four per computer which gave rise to indiscipline. Classroom management became difficult during such moments.
Indiscipline is another problem that was very difficult to deal with. This was due to the fact that students lacked motivation in the subject. Since the subject is not obligatory in public exams like other subjects students show lack of interest in learning. They prefer to do other things during computer science lessons. At the end of the day we discovered that they were not following up and they become heady and insolent when you try to question them why they are not following the lesson.
III. Analysis of the current situation of ICT Integration in College François Xavier Vogt.
III.1 Infrastructure
As far as the use of ICT tools used in Education is concerned in Vogt, it is very true that there is the presence of computers and other ICT tools used in other science disciplines for practical. There are four Computer Science laboratories though two of the labs are not functioning. Each of these laboratories consists of thirty-eight (38) personal computers but not all are functioning and one projector each which are no longer used due to lack of a good position for all the students to follow up a lesson using the projector. The operating system used is LINUX. When asked why Linux instead of Windows as stipulated by the official program we were told they were intimidated by the representatives of Microsoft in Cameroon. There is also a maintenance room in which the two servers for the four labs are controlled.
III.2 The Teaching of the Discipline
The teaching of Computer Science is done in two parts: the theory and practical parts respectively. The theory part is done in class and during practical students are taken to the computer science laboratory. This is done with all the classes from 6ème to Terminal. The lessons are given using the official program for computer science for Cameroon Secondary Schools. But some parts of the program are not taught because the teachers claim the level is too high for the students there are no clearly defined textbooks guiding the syllabus. The main source of reference is the internet. Teachers carry out research based on the syllabus using mostly the internet to make notes.
III.3 The Utilization of ICTs in the Teaching of other Disciplines
The integration of ICTs in the teaching of other disciplines is not very bleak because a few teachers apart from the science disciplines like Physics, Biology and Chemistry try to make use of ICTs in their lessons. This is the case of the History, Religious Studies, Geography and Music teachers. With the History teacher what she does is that, she teaches a lesson for example on the topic: “the first world war” and immediately after the lesson or during the next class she takes the students to the school library in which there is a television set and a VCD player. She plays the film for the students to watch and there after she evaluates them on the lesson taught in class and the film they just watched. The Religious Studies teacher on her part plays a film and asks students to pick out aspects of morality from the film. The geography teacher uses computer simulations to demonstrate some aspects of a lesson for example climatic changes. The music teacher teaches musical notes using the computer. Some teachers make use of internet services in the Computer Science laboratory for their research and others send students to the internet for further research or assignments and expositions.
III.4 The Qualification and the Quality of Teaching of the Computer Science Teachers.
The computer Science department of College François Xavier Vogt is made up of nine (9) teachers. Three of them are holders of Computer Science Degrees. The coordinator among these three is a holder of a DEA in Computer Science. Among the other two one is a student of the Higher Teachers’ Training College ENS Yaoundé. The rest of the six are holders of BTS in Computer Science.
In observing these teachers teach for three weeks we realized that they are indeed the masters of the domain. The only thing they lack is the pedagogic skills to handle the subject. For example during the practical part of a lesson, they do not develop competence in the students in manipulating the computer. When a student needs help they execute the task directly instead of explaining and showing the student what to do.
III.5 The Management of the School with ICTs
The computerized management of College François Xavier Vogt was introduced between 1986 and 1991 by Father Marie Justin Blais who was also the founder of Symphonie Vogtoire in 1955. The teaching of Computer Science was done by the Brothers of Saint John. The first laboratory saw the light of day in 1995. In 2007, there was the opening of four (4) computer science laboratories constituting one hundred and sixty (160) personal computers and two (2) big servers.
Presently, all the processes (the management of discipline, school fees, personnel, finance, stock control, examinations and entrance exams) have been computerized. For the management of students the administration of college Vogt uses the software known as Getscol. This soft ware is used to record marks, statistics, edition and the management of the various disciplines. For financial accounts of the school they use Sage-Saari and Turbo Content through Getscol.
III.6 Teachers’ and students’ awareness of ICTs in Education
Apart from the computer Science teachers and the science teachers like physics, Biology and Chemistry, and a few arts teachers like the History, Religious studies Geography and Music teachers, a majority of teachers are still ignorant about ICTs in education. Students on the other hand are aware of ICTs especially the internet which they claim they use for communication and research. Generally, students do not use the computer itself for studies but they prefer to play games. There are only a few who use the computer to reinforce their lessons. The terminal students for example use the computer lab during break to exercise their lessons on programming. Some students use the internet to carry out research on expose topics and to complement their lessons in other disciplines though not taught in class using the computer such as the making of bills with Ms Excel or Open Office Calc. students sometimes display lack of interest in the subject since it is not obligatory in the final year exams like BEPC, PROBATOIRE and BAC exams.
CONCLUSION
The just ended teaching practice was very enriching in the practice of teaching and in the realities of the teaching profession. We discovered that the teaching profession is very demanding and at the same time interesting. We conceived and taught both theory and practical lessons for the classes of Second, Première and Terminale which served as an initiation to the different tasks that await us in the nearest future. The teaching practice exercise also gave us the opportunity to discover the difficulties facing the teaching of the discipline Computer Science especially that of lack of interest on the part of the students.
From the analysis above we realize that the objective of integrating ICTs in education is instead done the other way round. Instead of using ICTs to teach the various disciplines in secondary school, computer science is taught as a subject in all the classes. The integration of ICTs in the various disciplines is yet to be effected entirely for there are some teachers who are making the effort to integrate ICTs in their lessons although the school has no policy backing its use. However the teachers teaching in the discipline are good but they need to be trained so as to assist the newly trained batch of teachers from the department of Computing Science and Industrial Technology in ENS.
In our opinion the Computer Science should be taught as a discipline only in the second cycle. In the main time the computer science laboratory should be used as a multimedia resource centre where tutorials and many other ICT educative tools can be installed for the various disciplines for the first cycle. The government should instead train more teachers in the conception of educative softwares that can be used in their disciplines. By so doing students using these educative or learning tools will be acquainted with the computer environment and its accompanying ICTs and they will eventually end up liking the subject by the time they get to the second cycle. We have the fear that if Computer Science is taught in the first cycle as a discipline from the beginning many students risk considering it as a science affaire and consequently, those that are arts inclined may end up hating the subject.
Textbooks guiding the teaching of Computer Science as a subject in the second cycle should be prescribed. For now since there are no such books it will be advisable to choose a particular web site or platform that all teachers can consult to make notes so that the lessons should be harmonized.
In Vogt more than one technician should be employed so that the machines should always be checked and also to replace one another when they are needed to control the servers. The position of the projector which hinders the use of the projector should be reconsidered. We suggest that it should be placed on the window. To prevent the light coming from the window, an ordinary colour other than white should be spread and on it a white sheet be added. This will avoid waist of time and indiscipline from the students since all of them can see sitting any where in the classroom.
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