FRANCOPHONE AFRICA (South of the Sahara)

This report on selected textbooks commonly used in communication education in Francophone Africa (south of the Sahara) is the continuation of international textbook project undertaken by the Professional Education Section of the International Association for Mass Communication Research (IAMCR). The first phase involved a similar exercise in Anglophone Africa (south of the Sahara), Asia, Latin America, Arabic-speaking North Africa and the Middle East between 1989 and 1991. The current phase of the project also involves surveys of regularly used textbooks in South Africa, the Caribbean region, Europe and the United States. The long term goals for the project include the following:

Francophone Africa, south of the Sahara, stretches from Senegal in the western most end of West Africa to Zaire on the southern frontier of Central Africa, covering some fifteen countries. But only six coutnries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Zaire) have communication training institutions. Each of them has but one regular communication training establishment.

A journalism institute, l'Institute Superieure de Presse de l'Entete, was set up in Lome in 1982 by Togo and its neighbours (Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger) grouped under the Censeil de l'Entete with a full-time staff of three and ten part-time teachers. If offered a post-graduate diploma in journalism (Maitrise en Science et Technique de l'Information). But the institute folded up five years later due to financial difficulties.
 
 

CIERRO in Burkina Faso

CIERRO offers a two-year diploma programme in radio broadcasting for rural areas to both programme and technical staff. Admission into the Centre is through a competitive entrance examination among secondary school graduates and, more especially, among practising journalists with at least three years' professional experience who are interested in rural development. Besides radio, introductory courses are offered in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Begun as a Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherce Audio-Visuel (CERAV) in 1969 that offered basically speech training opportunities for broadcasters in French and English, the main communication and journalism educational establishment in the Ivory Coast became a Department of Communication Sciences in the Faculty of Arts of the National University of the Ivory Coast in 1977. It offers a one year programe for students who have succesfully completed the first two years of undergraduate university studies. Graduates who complete 20 credits in a year are awarded a Bachelor's degree in communication. A certificate course worth nine credits is also offered.

In 1981, the Department introduced a one year Post-graduate diploma course (Maitrise) for its students with the Bachelor's degree. Eight years later, 1988, the Department of Communication Sciences was renamed the Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Communication, CERCOM (Centre for Communication Education and Research). Training at CERCOM is on a credit basis and emphasize theory and methodology in the Social Sciences. The purpose is two-fold: prepare students for the labour market and for advanced studies in communication.

With five full-time lecturers and ten part-time teachers of professional courses, CERCOM offers the courses shown on Table 2.
 

CESTI in Senegal

Although it offers some courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences, CESTI is primarily a skills oriented training centre in journalism. Students are admitted on the basis of the baccalaureate that is obtained at the end of secondary school and they graduate three years later with a Diplome en Sciences et Techniques de Information, equivalent of a Bachelor's degree in journalism.

CESTI has twelve full-time lecturers and ten regular part-time teachers. Table 3 shows some of the courses offered at CESTI.
 

ESSTIC in Cameroon

Nine years later, 1991, "communication" was added to the acronym, makint it ESSTIC. More importantly, the change required the School to go beyond journalism and train professional communicators in a variety of fields previsously not offered - advertising, publid relations, organisational communication, publishing, documentation.

ESSTIC offers courses at three levels. The first is a two-year programme for secondary school leavers leading to a Diploma. The second level lasts three years and usually admits undergraduate students from the University of Yaounde. The three-year programme includes an end-of-course research report and oral defence before a jury to obtain the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication. The third level is a two-year specialisation programme for holders of a Maitrise (Post-graduate Diploma) or, graduates from the second level with at least three years of professional experience. An end-of-course research report and oral defence is also required for the Higher Diploma in Mass Communication that is awarded to successful students.

Admission to each level is subject to a competitive entrance examination for applicants who meet the minimum academic qualification. A limited number of foreign students is admitted on the basis of the adacemic qualifications requirement indicated above. Since the School became a national institution in 1982, ESSTIC has trained foreign students from a number of African countries, including Botswana, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Zaire.

All three programmes combine professional courses with those in the social sciences. There is an academic staff of forty-three: eighteen full-time, twenty-five part-time (drawn from the Faculties of Letters and Social Sciences, Law and Political Science, Economics and Management, the Schools of International Relations and Teacher Training) and ten part-time (drawn from among professionals).

By the end of the 1992-1993 academic year, ESSTIC had graduated 584 students since the school was created in 1970. Out of this number, 518 were from Level II, thirty-three from Level III, and thirty-three from Level I.

Table 4 shows the main communication courses offered at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels in all the three programmes at ESSTIC.

Development of Journalism Training

A similar process took place in broadcasting. Gifted local staff were selected for training in Studio Ecole which later became successively the Societe de la Radiodiffusion de la France d'Outse Mer (SORAFOM) and the office de Co-operation Radio phonique (OCORA) in France for a range of courses with duration varying from six to eighteen months. Subsequently, the more advanced courses for both the print and electronic media were offered at schools of journalism at Lille, Strasbourg and Institut Francais de Presse, and at the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel in France.
 
 

Data Gathering

In keeping with the project steering committee's classification guidelines, the textbooks and teaching materials included in the survey were divided into ten categories with slight modifications to account for subjects featuring in Francophone Africa communication education programmes. Organisational Communication and Marketing, for instance, which are important separate parts of the Francophone Africa curriculum, but which are not provided for in the steering committee's classification, have been included under the Subject Area 3 along with Advertising and Public Relations.
 
 

TEXTBOOKS AND TECHING MATERIALS USED

More than the other underdeveloped regions already surveyed, Francophone Africa south of the Sahara suffers from virtual total absence of communication textbooks and other teaching materials that are culturally relevant.

Table 5 shows that 91.9 % of frequently used textbooks are from non-Francophone African sources, France and North America/Europe.
 

For purposes of analysing the currency of frequently used textbooks in Francophone Africa, the materials were divided into three periods: " before 1970", "between 1970 and 1979", and "after 1980". The assumption was that texts published before 1970 would be considered "outdated", those published after 1980 would be "current" while those published between 1970 and 1979 would be somewhere between "outdated" and "current".

Most of the textbooks commonly used in Francophone Africa, 57.7 %, are current; they were published after 1980 (Table 7). Only 7 % of the teaching materials may be considered outdated. However, a sizeable proportion of the texts, 33.3 % is published in the intermediary period, 1970 - 1979, considered neither outdated nor current.

The most up-to-date materials belong to the subject category "Advertising, Marketing, Organisational Communication and Public Relations," scoring 14 % out of its 16 % share in the period "after 1980". This subject area is followed closely by "Print Media" which records 14.6 % out of 18.18 % during the same period. In sharp contrast, the subject category "Research and Theory" shows only a 9.1 % holding in the "after 1980" period while the greater percentage of its share, 13.1 % out of 25 %, fall within the second period, 1970-79.

Overall, the textbooks frequently used in the region are relatively recent publications. This development, however, is seemingly not the product of pedagogic policy decisions but one of circumstances. First, the institutions surveyed in the region are relatively recent creations. Secondly, most of the teachers are relatively recent graduates from Western universities. Thirdly, there were no indications from any of the institutions in the region of any plans to update textbooks in keeping with changes in the field. An inescapable conclusion is that the trend observed would discontinue in the short-run unless definite measures are taken to maintain it.
 

An examination of frequently used textbooks across subject areas again underscores the deficiency in the availability of local teaching materials in Francophone Africa. Of the 4.04 % of texts from the region, half of them are general Readers (Table 6). In all, only three subject areas out of ten are concerned by the region's contribution to communication teaching materials, Readers and other (2.04 %), Communication and Society, International Communication (1.01 %), and Advertising, Marketing, Organisational Communication and Public Relations (1.01 %). In practical terms, these percentages present a total of only four books.

Conversely, texts from France dominate nearly all subject areas except for Communication and Development. This subject area is relatively new in the region. It is taught in only two of the four institutions surveyed for this study, CIERRO and ESSTIC, and they tend to use North American originated materials. Communication and Development excepted, communication training in Francophone Africa is quasi-totally dependent on France for textbooks. Slightly over 17 % out of 18.8 % of Print Media's share of frequently used text books, for instance, come from France. Other examples include Research and Theory (18.2 % out of 25.2 %), Advertising, Marketing, Organisational Communication and Public Relations (13.1 % out of 15.0 %), Electronic Media (8.1 % out of 11.0 %) and Communication and Society, International Communication (6.1 % out of 9.0 %).

Research and Theory got the largest share, 25.2 %, frequently used textbooks in the region, followed by Print Media (18.8 %), Administration, Marketing, Organisational Communication and Public Relations (15 %) and Electronic Media (11 %). The greatest area of weakness in communication teaching materials in Francophone Africa is in the subject category of "Legislation, Ethics and Communication Policies". Only one textbook was identified. It comes from France. This poor showing is indicative of the low priority accorded to the subject area by communication institutions in Francophone Africa. Texts pertaining to the subject exist in abundance, though from abroad.

The other subject areas, "Media Management and Economics" and "Communication and Development" scored relatively low, 5 % and 6 % respectively. Both subject areas are in the early stages of development in Francophone Africa. As indicated earlier, only CIERRO and ESSTIC offer courses in these areas.

In sum, the survey shows that there is near total absence of textbooks originating from and specifically about Francophone Africa and that frequently used teaching materials are predominantly from abroad, especially from France. However, pedagogic activities reflect some local content. Lecture notes, field assignments and attachments show attempts to adapt imported texts and introduce a regional component into the curriculum. What appears evident is the dire need to produce formal textbooks and other teaching materials in all the ten subject categories that take into account the socio-cultural particularities of Francophone Africa south of the Sahara.