The Cameroonian government is working towards improving the quality of education in the country’s education system in preparation for tomorrow’s leaders. It has become the top priority to ensure that there is high quality training offered to people who will lead the country towards further development.
In order to achieve this goal, the government has increased human resources in schools, implemented various teaching programs and has discouraged the repeating of grades as well as intensive school campaigns to bring awareness in respect to this issue.
The government bases its strategy in developing the education sector on the Millennium Development Goals in education which entails raising the rate of access and completion of schools as well as bringing the ratio of boys to an equal figure.
Bringing Some International Aspect in Elementary Schooling
In regards to elementary and kindergarten education, Cameroonian government organized a recruitment of more teachers who subsequently signed their employment contracts which the Debt Reduction and Development Contract (C2D) were responsible for.
Further, infrastructure in Cameroon is being strengthened to create room for constructions of classes and staff houses as well in remote areas. For a while now, universal elementary education remains as the top priority to public authorities. There is need for more schools to be built, more than 5,800 teachers to be employed and proper distribution of essential manuals to underprivileged areas. This action will help increase the ratio of teachers to students and consequently improve the performance of students.
With regards to secondary education, apart from working on the school maps, there are draft partnership agreements which have been formalized by the ministry of public health to ensure that work study programs are being promoted. Further, the state is also providing funding assistance to private education.
The reason behind all these is to ensure that there is an increase of students in schools especially in the technical fields which positively affects wealth creation and employment in Cameroon. More than ever the Cameroonian government is reviewing the possibilities of providing considerable financial resources into rehabilitating all technical facilities as well as equipping these institutions as needed.
Supporting higher learning
The energy in strengthening higher education has been seen in the recent years especially in the opening of University of Maroua in January 2009 which has well over 7,000 students in its teacher training school. Further, within this university still, Sahel’s higher institute was able to begin its operations. Other institutions have also been opening up in Nkongsamba, Yabassi and Foumban particularly in the disciplines of fine art and halieutic sciences.
The 5 billion set aside for Professional Component Support and Higher Education Technological Program has been used for constructing more infrastructures in universities within Cameroon. Following the trend, the President, Paul Biya opened an account in April 2009 that was meant to save money for modernization of research facilities in state universities with a 4 billion investment during the first year.
Cameroon has a high number of growing student population which affects infrastructure investment. As a result, the government is working towards the creation of virtual universities and learning centers which can be able to carry out remote learning. This will promote the diversification of education systems as well as reduce the number of students in particular universities.
In the meantime, the head of state announced an increase of the 4 billion CFAF that was earmarked for research in universities as well as announcing the creation of an annual fund that will be used to reward excellent students in Cameroon.
With regards to vocation training, apart from rehabilitating the Rural Artisan Centres in various areas in Cameroon, there are initiatives being taken to ensure that the training offered in these centres is improved through creating new learning standards as well as introducing more fields of specialization and granting scholarships too.
Every year, the Cameroonian government allocates a part of its budget towards developing the education sector.
Find more articles and news from Cameroon at cameroon-report.com and cameroonblog.info
Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com
