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The following is an adaptation of a response to a question by one of the vistors to the website and a comprehensive response by Dr. Isaac Njoh Endeley on the Cameroon educational sytem.
Question
Does Cameroon have a national educational policy? If so, what is it?
Response
The answer is yes, Cameroon does have an eduction policy, which is designed, implemented and overseen by the Ministry of National Education. The main objectives of that policy, I believe, include: teaching Cameroonians how to read and write in at least one of the two official languages; fostering our national and traditional values; improving our general knowledge of the world around us; and moulding us into responsible and productive citizens. As you surely know already, there are at least two distinct formal education systems in Cameroon: English and French. The bulk of my expose will be on the Anglophone system, of which I am a proud product.
PART I: KINDERGARTEN
First of all, to the best of my knowledge, early childhood education is not compulsory in Cameroon. However, parents who can afford to do so generally send their children to kindergarten at about the age of three years. In the Anglophone sector of the country the kindergarten is known as a "nursery school" and in the Francophone sector it is called "l'ecole maternelle". Children attend these schools for about two or three years, until the age of five or six years, when they are deemed ready to start attending elementary or primary school (" l'ecole primaire", in French). I believe the vast majority of these "nursery schools" in Cameroon are privately owned, but there are also a few run by the Government (or the State).
PART II: PRIMARY EDUCATION
The duration of primary education is usually seven years (from ages five to 12, approximately). This is the only part of a child's education that is compulsory in Cameroon, and most pupils tend to be a little more than 12 years of age by the time they graduate. The number of primary schools across the country is almost evenly split between Government-owned ones and those run by various religious denominations (e.g. Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc in the Christian parts, and Koranic ones in the Islamic parts). One significant difference is that there are no tuition fees at the Government schools. At least that was the case when I was growing up. In the Anglophone sector, primary education is split up into seven successive classes and at the end of that period the students must take and pass some general exams in order to graduate. These are the First School Leaving Certificate and the Common Entrance Examination. In addition, there are technical, vocational and professional exams that allow students access to specific career paths.
PART III: SECONDARY EDUCATION
After primary school, there are at least three main further channels students can pursue, depending primarily on their family's financial circumstances, but also on the results obtained at the general exams cited above. These are:
1) Secondary/ Grammar Schools, of which there has been quite a proliferation over the last 25 years. The principal operators in this sector are the Government, the religious denominations, and a growing number of private entrepreneurs. Here again, tuition at the Government secondary schools (GSS) is either free or costs considerably less than at the other types of school. Selection into the GSS was/is supposed to be based on the result obtained at the Common Entrance Exam. In the English-speaking parts, secondary education at these grammar schools generally takes five years, from ages 12 to 17. Students specialise in the arts and sciences, and at the end of the programme they must take the General Certificate of Education (G.C.E.) exam, at the Ordinary ("O") level. If they pass, they qualify for admission into a high school, involving two more years of study, at the end of which they take the G.C.E. exam at the Advanced ("A") level. Success at this last exam opens doors to universities and other institutions of higher learning. By this time the students are aged about 18 or 19 years, perhaps more.
2) Technical/ Vocational Schools, of which, in my opinion, there are not nearly enough. In this sector the Government and private business people appear to be the main operators. (It is not clear why the religious missions shy away from this area.) As the name suggests, the primary purpose of these schools is to train students in the technical/ technological fields, or to prepare them for specific vocations. The duration of the vocational education is generally four years, after which students must take some professional exams. (Caution: My memory gets fuzzy here.) In the old days they took the City & Guilds exam from London, but that is now being replaced by the "Certificat d'aptitude professionnelle" (CAP) exam from Yaounde. Success at either of these exams gets the student into a technical high school or another specialised institution, with a decent chance of securing employment upon completion.
Incidentally, these two categories described above are generally known in Cameroon as colleges. When I was growing up, many of the colleges were boarding schools, which meant students left home at a tender age to go and live on campus.
3) Apprenticeships/ Institutes. Students with poor results at the end of their primary education, or ones whose parents cannot afford to send them to college, end up learning a trade locally. For instance, they can sign up at the appropriate place to learn how to become a motor mechanic, a carpenter, a tailor, a bricklayer, etc. There are also some institutes where a person can learn how to become a secretary, a typist, a clerk, a chef, etc. The duration of the training varies from one field to the next.
PART IV: HIGHER EDUCATION
With regard to higher education, Cameroon now has some six public universities under the control of the Ministry of Higher Education. The official web site of the ministry is:
Meanwile, about a year ago a few of us set up an unofficial web site to provide information to those seeking to learn about Cameroon's univerities:
http://www.maths.uq.edu.au/cra/euni.html
Here is an except from that site:
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CAMEROON'S UNIVERSITIES
Cameroon's first university was established in the nation's capital, Yaounde, on July 26, 1962. For over two decades the University of Yaounde (UNIYAO) was the country's main centre of higher learning, attracting tens of thousands of students from all over the country and from across the African continent. A bilingual institution, UNIYAO's enrollment easily swelled from 600 students in 1962, to 7,000 in 1970, 18,000 in 1984, and to over 50,000 by 1992. Obviously, the infrastructure created 30 years ealier could no longer sustain the growing student population and it had become necessary to decentralise the country's university system. Furthermore, as UNIYAO had expanded over the years, a number of satellite centers specialising in different disciplines had been created in the provinces. It was now time to transform them into full-fledged universities.
As of May 1st, 1998, Cameroon has a total of eight universities. Six of them are State-owned while the other two are private institutions. In addition, there are about a dozen professional schools affiliated to the universities.
STATE UNIVERSITIES
University of Buea
University of Douala
University of Dschang
University of Ngaoundere
University of Yaounde I
University of Yaounde II
PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
Bamenda University of Science and Technology
Catholic University of Central Africa (Yaounde)
PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS
Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI, Buea)
Advanced School of Economics and Commerce (ESSEC, Douala)
Advanced Technical Teachers Training College (ENSET, Douala)
University Institute of Technology (IUT, Douala)
Victor-Fotso University Institute of Technology (IUTVF, Dschang)
Advanced School of Agro-Industrial Sciences (ENSAI, Ngoundere)
Advanced School of Engineering (ENSP, Yaounde I)
Advanced Teachers Training College (ENS, Yaounde I)
Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC, Yaounde II)
Demographic Training and Research Institute (IFORD, Yaounde II)
International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC, Yaounde II)
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I would be remiss to leave out Sule Nformi's excellent page on the Bamenda University of Science and Technology, which you can find at:
http://members.aol.com/Sucord/unicam.html#Bamenda
I hope you find all of this information useful. Good luck with your presentation on Tuesday, April 13, and feel free to write again if you need more information. By the way, you can always write to the entire Cameroonian community by sending an e-mail to: camnet@listserv.cnr.it
By Isaac Njoh Endeley