Bilingualism Practice: Difficulties Evaluated For Proper Solutions

Members of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism assessed the practice of bilingualism in ministries last week.

The members of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism are certainly now compiling their reports to forward to the President of the Republic on the advances and difficulties in the practice of bilingualism in ministries and some public institutions. This follows the evaluation missions that carried out investigations in different ministries last week.

Obstacles Observed

Communication Minister who doubles as government’s spokesperson, Issa Tchiroma Bakary during the visit of the commission members made up of Samuel Efoua Mbozo’o and Djanabou Bakary, raised the problem of inadequate translators in the ministry. He also raised the difficulty of insufficient training of staff who have to render services to users on daily basis. The inadequacies, it was observed, have led to the predominance of the French Language in the Ministry of Communication.
The Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence, Joseph Beti Assomo, told the Bilingualism Commission delegation led by Ama Tutu Muna that the practice of bilingualism in the ministry was not yet perfect. The practice of bilingualism was not yet really felt in the external services of the Ministry of Defence. As at now, there is the general believe that the language of command in the military is French.

Indication Signs

The members of the Bilingualism commission who went to the Supreme State Audit Office, Benjamin Itoe and Jean Marie Bodo raised the problem of indication signs and other sign posts that were essentially in French. In other ministries there was the issue of discrimination in the signs posts indicating the names of the ministries with those in the French...