The School Course
In both Togo and Cameroon, the course of the elementary schools began with an infant class and lasted four or five years, the objects of the schools in both colonies having been to provide Christian instruction to natives and to train pupils for the higher schools with a view to their entering the service of Europeans. Instruction in German began in the first year, and in the third year pupils were required to read and write German fluently in both characters. The curriculum for the last year included the history of the German Empire since the Franco-German War of 1870-71, the history of the German Emperors since January 18th, 1871, the Geography of Germany, and the singing of German patriotic songs.
In the higher schools, the object of the teachers was to “impart such knowledge as is required in the service of Europeans,” and all instruction was given in the German language. The schools for practical work trained girls for domestic work, laundry work and farming, while boys received instruction in carpentering, cabinet-making, smiths’ work, boot-making and tailoring, printing and book-binding. At the completion of their course, all pupils were obliged to remain in the service of the Government for two or more years. In both Togoland and Cameroon, the Government had a school of agriculture, where pupils were instructed in farming, especially cotton-growing and the use of the plough, and at some of the mission schools in the latter colony the pupils were trained in brick-making and cocoa-planting, and the work connected with water-supply and bridge-making.
In both colonies the schools generally were open on five or six days a week, with from twenty to thirty-five hours’ instruction per week, according to the grade of the several schools. The average length of holidays for Mission and Government schools was from two to three months per annum. Unfortunately, no statement of revenue or expenditure is included in the case of Togoland beyond the fact that the Government made a yearly grant of £750, distributed among the various schools for the encouragement of German language-study. In Cameroon, in 1910, the Basel Mission spent £5,386 on teachers’ salaries, and the Roman Catholics £1,626. The cost of the Government schools in that year was £1,963. Generally no school fees were paid except in some of the higher schools in Togo, where pupils paid 50s. per annum, and at Garna, in Cameroon, the Government pupils paid 30s. per annum in kind.