Cultural Impediments to the Advancement of Universal Primary Education in the Mbororo Community in Cameroon: The Case of the North West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

This study stems from the poor advancement and achievement of Universal Primary Education (UPE) goals and objectives in the Mbororo communities of Cameroon”. The aim of the article was to assess the Cultural Impediments to the advancement of Universal Primary Education in the Mbororo Community of Cameroon. The study was informed by Charles Darwin’s Classical Liberal Theory of Equal Opportunity and Bourdieu’s Theory of Cultural Capital. Through the sequential explanatory design, all the Mbororos in the North West Region were targeted and 315 pupils as well as 63 parents from 7 divisions were sampled using the convenience and snow-ball sampling techniques. With the aid of a questionnaire and an interview guide, first hand data were collected from the sampled participants and subsequently analysed using the SPSS version 23.0. The descriptive statistical tools used were frequency count and percentages while the hypotheses of the study were tested using the Chi-square test. The findings revealed that the P value was less than 0.05 (P<0.05) and the respective Nagelkerke value for culture was 0.320. This indicates that the culture of the Mbororos impede the advancement of Universal Primary Education in the Mbororo communities.

On the basis of the findings, the study concluded that the culture of the Mbororos is an impediment to the advancement of UPE in the Mbororo communities of the North West Region of Cameroon. It was recommended that, cultural content in the current curriculum should be improved and efforts should be made to sensitize teachers about the Mbororo culture so as to motivate Mbororo children to enroll in school. Government policies on the education of the indigenous people should be reviewed under the Universal Primary Education framework.