YAOUNDE, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon's indigenous languages will soon be officially taught in schools as part of the country's reforms to "enhance social integration and unity," minister of basic education said on Thursday.
"It is now an official policy. The state wants to generalize the use of indigenous languages in schools," Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa said in the capital, Yaounde, during a ceremony to mark the International Mother Language Day.
There are 260 indigenous languages in Cameroon but only French and English are official. Ngoa said the new initiative intends to gradually make official all the indigenous languages.
"Are we going to insert all of them (indigenous languages) in school programs? It's not possible. We will therefore begin by experimenting mother tongues that are fluently spoken in our country. In fact, we have had some experiments that produced satisfactory results. We will now see how to start implementing them in official programs," Ngoa said.
He said UNESCO has pledged to support Cameroon in the implementation of the program.
"It will be much easier with the availability of technology and artificial intelligence," Ngoa said.
