Education in Cameroon, a Central African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, has a rich history and unique challenges. This article explores the structure of the education system, the historical influences that have shaped it, the challenges it faces, and the opportunities it presents for both domestic and international students.
Cameroon is often called "Africa in miniature" because it has so many different landscapes and cultures. But along with this diversity, it also faces many of the same problems as the rest of the continent. The education system in Cameroon is a good example of this.
Since the end of colonial rule, Cameroon's education system has made great progress, with higher literacy rates and free elementary education for almost all of its young people. However, there are still issues that need to be addressed. Improving the education system is essential for the country's social and economic development.
Literacy rate world map
Historical Context
Bantu speakers were among the first groups to settle Cameroon, followed by the Muslim Fulani until German domination in 1884. After World War I, the French took over 80% of the area, and the British 20%. After World War II, self-government was granted, and in 1972, a unitary republic was formed out of East and West Cameroon.
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Until 1976, there were two separate education systems, French and English, which did not merge seamlessly. English and French are now considered the primary languages of instruction, with English being more preferred. Christian mission schools have played a significant role in educating children whose parents can afford them. But most cannot.
Two separate systems of education were used in Cameroon after independence: East Cameroon's system was based on the French model, West Cameroon's on the British model. The two systems were merged by 1976.
This division has led to significant tensions, particularly concerning education. The Anglophone-based Cameroon Teachers Trade Union (CATTU) has voiced grievances, including higher admission rates for Francophone students in technical schools, accusations of manipulated admissions for Francophone students applying to Anglophone universities, and the appointment of Francophone teachers who lack English proficiency in Anglophone schools.
These tensions have placed enormous stress on the country’s education system. By late 2019, UNICEF reported that 855,000 children in Northwest and Southwest Cameroon were still out of school, some for nearly three years. Displaced families have been moved to refugee camps where it is not uncommon to see classroom sizes of more than 200 students.
Structure of the Education System
According to Cameroonian law, “the State shall guarantee the child’s right to education. Primary education shall be compulsory”. Compulsory education refers to the primary levels, class 1-6 or schooling until a child is age 12. Upon completion of class 6, the secondary levels ‘form’ 1-6 commence. At that point, a ‘pupil’ becomes a ‘student’.
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Education became compulsory up to the age of 12 years, when 6 years of primary schooling are complete. Education is free, but parents have to pay for uniforms, books, and sometimes even anti-malaria prophylaxis for pupils.
There are two separate secondary schooling systems, depending on whether the French or British colonial models apply. In broad terms, the secondary phase comprises a lower (middle school) and an upper level (high school).
The academic year runs from September to June, at which time, end-of-year examinations are taken. The General Certificate of Education (GCE), both Ordinary and Advanced levels, are the two most qualifying exams in the Anglophone part of Cameroon.
Primary and Secondary Education (Francophone System):
- L'école primaire (Primary education): Ages 6 to 12, leading to Certificat d'Études Primaires Élémentaires (CEPE).
- Collège l'enseignement général (Lower secondary): 4 years, leading to Brevet D'Études de Premier Cycle du Second Degré.
- Lycée techniques (Technical secondary schools): 7 years, leading to Brevet de Technicien Supérieur or Brevet Professionnel.
- Lycée (Upper secondary): 3 years, leading to a baccalauréat.
Primary and Secondary Education (Anglophone System):
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- Primary school: Ages 5 to 12, leading to a First School Leaving Certificate.
- Lower secondary school: 5 years, leading to the Cameroon General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level Examination (Cameroon GCE “O” Level).
- Upper secondary school: 2 years, leading to the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level Examination (GCE “A” Level).
- Technical secondary schools: 7-year programs following primary school, leading to City and Guilds Part III examinations.
Higher Education
At the top of the education structure is the University of Yaoundé.
There are eight state-run universities in Buea, Bamenda, Douala, Dschang, Maroua and Ngaoundere and Yaounde I & II. The University of Buea, the University of Yaounde I, and the University of Yaounde II are the only Anglo-Saxon-style universities. The University of Bamenda, which went operational in 2011, is bilingual. The rest of Cameroon's universities are run on the francophone model, although in principle, they are considered to be bilingual institutions.
Cameroon's universities are strictly managed by the central government, with the pro-chancellors and rectors appointed by presidential decree. Compared with neighbouring countries, Cameroon generally enjoys a stable academic calendar.
Post-secondary education is offered at the six public universities and the private Catholic University of Central Africa, as well as technical and professional schools, and teacher training colleges. Admission to the universities requires a baccalauréat or GCE “A” levels.
Post-Secondary Education Cycles:
- First Cycle: 3 years, leading to a licence or bachelor's degree.
- Second Cycle: 2 years following a licence in arts and sciences, and one year following a licence in law, leading to a maîtrise.
- Third Cycle: Diplôme D'Études Approfondies (DEA) and Diplôme D'Études Supérieures Spécialisées (DESS), both 1-year programs following a maîtrise, leading to a doctorat after 3-4 years.
Tertiary-level students received money monthly back in the days of President Amadou Ahidjo and for the first few years of President Paul Biya.
Challenges and Opportunities
Unfortunately parents are expected to pay for uniforms and book fees, which no doubt contributes to a 67% literacy rate that’s skewed in favor of males. For the majority of young people this distinction remains academic, because their parents are unable to afford secondary school fees at all.
Recent data on school enrollment in Cameroon shows approximately 47 percent of girls and 56 percent of boys attend primary school. There are many factors that contribute to this low enrollment rate. The largest obstacle for both sexes is often financial, especially at the secondary level. In addition, a shortage of classrooms, particularly in more remote areas compounds the inability for children to access education.
Statistics in 2011 put the adult literacy rate in Cameroon at roughly 71%. It is likely that the rate is much lower in rural areas and remote villages.
Another significant barrier to education is the lack of teachers. Government trained and accredited teachers are in very short supply and many will refuse to work in very rural or isolated areas. In order to help address this issue, communities organize Parent/Teacher Associations (PTA’s). PTA’s will select individuals from within the community and will appoint them as teachers. A PTA teacher is paid a salary from contributions from the community. This salary is 1/10th that of a government teacher or about $25 per month.
ICA has established a program whereby we will match the community funds for paying salaries to PTA teachers, thereby doubling the number of teachers a community can afford.
We know that educating girls can save millions of lives. A UN study, using data from 219 countries between 1970 and 2009, found that for every additional year of education for women of reproductive age, child mortality decreased by 9.5 per cent. Girls with a higher level of education are 14% less likely to get married at an early age.
The UN studies also show that when these educated women have children, they are less likely to die in childbirth. In fact, the maternal death rates are reduced by two-thirds, saving 98,000 lives in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Mothers’ education also improves child nutrition. If all women had a primary education, 1.7 million children would be saved from stunted growth as a result of malnutrition. This number climbs to 12 million children saved when the mothers complete secondary education.
Through discussions with local partners, ICA realized early on that building schools was not enough. We have focused our efforts in a small geographic area in the hopes of making the greatest impact. Each year a team from ICA Canada travels to Cameroon to monitor progress of the ongoing projects.
Compulsory education refers to the primary levels, class 1-6 or schooling until a child is age 12.
Primary schooling has been free since 2000, but these are very basic, overcrowded, and parents must pay for all sundries. A 2004 government study found that elementary schools only had enough seats for 1.8 million students, with an attendance of 2.9 million.
There are fewer girls than boys, mainly due to such things as early marriage, pregnancy, domestic chores, and traditional biases. On the back of this, the Cameroonian government launched a programme of construction and renewal, but with limited success. Corruption is still a problem, and facilities remain basic. Most schools have working toilets, access to a water tap, or enough tables and benches for students.
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) finds that Cameroon is fulfilling only 73.0% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to education based on the country's level of income. HRMI breaks down the right to education by looking at the rights to both primary education and secondary education.
VTIB – Shaping the Future of I.T. in Cameroon
International Students
Cameroon is the second-largest source of international students from sub-Saharan Africa, according to data from the UNESCO Institution for Statistics (UIS). In 2018, 26,169 Cameroonian students studied for a tertiary degree overseas, well behind Nigeria (76,338), but nearly a third more than the next closest country, Zimbabwe (19,679).
Less positively, that growth has also been driven by political instability, low-quality domestic higher education options, and demand for university seats that is well in excess of capacity. A report submitted by the government of Cameroon to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2020 noted that Cameroonian universities had seats for a maximum of 295,128 students, well below the 450,000 students hoping to be admitted.
Dim post-graduation employment prospects at home may also drive many to study abroad. There they would join a large contingent of Cameroon’s most qualified graduates.
Most Cameroonian students are attracted to destinations in Europe, North America, and North Africa. Generous scholarship programs, rosy post-graduation employment prospects, relatively low tuition fees, and an excellent network of universities all attract Cameroonian students to Germany. The country’s reputation as a global leader in engineering is likely a significant draw as well-more than half of all Cameroonians in Germany are enrolled in engineering programs. Flexible admission requirements also ease access-Cameroonian students can enroll in German institutions on the basis of their secondary education qualification. Although many university programs in Germany are taught in English, some familiarity with the German language may ease the transition for Cameroonian students. A high proportion of Cameroonian students in Germany are enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs, nearly three-quarters in 2018.
The popularity of Francophone countries-colleges in five of the ten most popular countries teach in French-is more easily explained: More than eight in ten Cameroonians live in Francophone regions. France is a particularly popular destination for Cameroonian international students-in 2018, France hosted 4,214 Cameroonian degree-seeking students, second only to Germany.
Even after Cameroon’s independence, France’s economic and cultural influence in Cameroon has remained strong. Since the 1990s, France has promoted bilateral higher education cooperation through initiatives such as the Formations Ouvertes et à Distance, which has allowed Cameroonian students to study programs offered by French institutions without leaving the country. These ties have helped France attract a body of Cameroonian students more diverse than that studying in France’s neighbor to the east.
Closer to home, Tunisia-where Cameroonian students frequently make up one of the largest contingents of international students-South Africa, and Morocco are popular destinations for Cameroonian students. Large numbers of Cameroonian students likely head to China as well. Although official numbers are less forthcoming, media reports suggest that around 3,000 Cameroonians are currently studying in China.
China has made a concerted effort to attract African students in recent years. Scholarships provided by the Chinese government help cover the costs of study, room and board, and even travel to and from China. Other scholarships are provided by Confucius Institutes (CIs) which promote Chinese language and culture and until recently were directly funded by the Chinese government. Cameroon’s first and only full CI was established in 2007 at the University of Yaoundé II. Since then, roughly 40 smaller CI teaching centers or Confucius Classrooms have been established throughout the country.
Although Cameroon is the second-largest global source of international students from sub-Saharan Africa, it is just the 10th-largest sub-Saharan African source of international students in the United States. colleges and universities. study at community colleges, a tendency at least partially explained by the relative affordability of community colleges.
Considerations of overall cost-including tuition, travel fare, and room and board-and return on investment likely account for the high proportion of Cameroonian students enrolled in degree programs, as opposed to short-term, non-degree programs, such as intensive English-just 4 percent were enrolled in non-degree programs in the 2019/20 academic year according to IIE data.
Since peaking at 1,891 in the 2007/08 academic year, enrollment has declined by 45 percent. Canada’s pronounced growth is likely driven in part by the government’s more welcoming attitude to international students and immigrants.
Although a minor player compared with those of major destination countries, Cameroon’s higher education institutions still attract sizable numbers of international students, largely from neighboring countries. In 2018, Cameroon was the fifth-largest host of international students in all of Africa, according to UIS, and the largest in Central Africa by a wide margin, although reporting from other Central African nations is limited.
In 2017, Chadian students made up two-thirds of all international students in Cameroon. A sharp increase in Chadian international student enrollment likely drove the rapid growth (136 percent) in international student enrollment in Cameroon between 2017 and 2018. Chadian students no doubt choose Cameroon over the low quality and insufficient capacity of their own country’s higher education system. Chad’s membership in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) also allows its students to pay the same low registration fees charged to Cameroonians at public universities, although many Chadians complain of additional unexpected education expenses and a high cost of living.
The establishment in Cameroon of a number of important internationally and regionally sponsored “centers of excellence,” which act as continent-wide knowledge hubs, facilitating academic and research collaboration between institutions in different countries, also attract African students to the country.
Since 2013, the Cameroon campus of the Pan African University (PAU)-one of the first three PAU locations established on the continent-hosted by the University of Yaoundé II, has accepted students from across Africa to study governance and human and social sciences.
Student Mobility in Cameroon
Teacher Training
In 1991, Cameroon’s 25 Écoles Normales d’Instituteurs (teacher training colleges) were closed because of the economic crisis the country was experiencing at the time. By 1995, there was a shortage of 15,000 primary school teachers which lead to student teacher ratios of 1:54 or more. In 1995, under pressure, the teacher training colleges were reopened and 9 more were created. By 2000, the goal of training 15,000 primary school teachers was surpassed by 5,000. However, due to budgetary restrictions, not all of the teachers could be hired as civil servants, so most were hired on temporary, 10-month contracts.
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