Les cours de vacances et de soutien scolaire à l’école primaire en contexte pédagogique d’approche par les compétences dans l’arrondissement de Yaoundé VI.

Abstract

“Holiday classes and primary school support in a skill- by skills approach”, this is the title of this research which is the result of observation: Educational situations are organised during holidays in urban educational settings. Some televisions and print news programs notice about holiday’s activities that more and more, students are returning to school during this period. Then, the organisation the refresher courses in observed in a context of operationalization of the approach by competence, an approach that emphasizes on remediation to ensure success in school for all learners. This study which is qualitative analysis of the issue of holiday classes for students, their parents and promoters takes place in the sixth sub divisions of Yaounde. To this end, we have methodologically made the choices of two data collection tools. These include interviews with school principals (promoters of refresher courses), teachers, and parents of pupils, pupils and direct observation of these courses. Theoretically, we have mobilised two lines of reading, namely, the socio-constructivism of Levy Vygotsky, and the systemic analysis of David Easton and Philippe Bernoux. Socio-constructivism has allowed us to identify the importance of social interactions between the different actors of these educational situations and to take into account the cognitive dimension in the analysis of the holiday courses. Systemic analysis, on the other hand, has allowed us to get into the complexity of the educational situations of the holiday courses, to isolate holiday courses from the other school support devices in order to identify the goals and the effects of refresher courses on the various actors involved in these educational situations. This study shows that holiday classes are the social result of parent “resigning” from their children’s educational process and the social representation that parents have of academic success. On the economic front, the organisation of these courses in a corollary to the precarious situation of primary school teachers and to the democratization and liberalisation of education and on the pedagogical level, on the decline of the level of the students themselves, a consequence to the inadequacy between curricular reforms according to the competency approach and the realities of the educational situations. Holiday classes affect students, promoters, teachers and parents of students.