Cameroon yet to meet objectives on Education For All 2015

Cameroon will not attain the goals of Education For All in 2015. The revelation was made on Tuesday, October 28, 2014 in Yaounde during a double ceremony to launch the 11th edition of the World Report on the follow-up of Education for All (EFA) 2013-2014 and the Report on the National Review on Education For All (EFA) 2015 on the theme “Teach and learn: Attain Quality for All”.

Speaking at the occasion the Minister of Basic Education, Youssouf Hadidja Alim said even though Cameroon like many other countries in the world has not been able to meet all the objectives of the World Report on Education For All, Cameroon has made enormous efforts in the realisation of the objectives of EFA. These include the increase in school attendance rate in pre-primary education which has moved from 12 per cent in 2000 to 30 per cent.

Also, the school completion rate at the primary level has increased significantly to 73 per cent while the proportion of persons from 15 years and above benefiting from literacy programme, has increased from 68 per cent in 2001 to 71 per cent in 2010. Other achievements include the education of the girl child, the harmonisation of Anglophone and Francophone sub-systems of education to six years, improvement of school campuses as well as reform of teacher training, among others.

Youssouf Hadidja Alim said the problem of insufficient visibility of Cameroon in the World Report is in contrast with the reality on the progress by Cameroon during the last ten years to attain objectives of EFA. She called on the commitment of all actors in the follow-up of the Education For All so that Cameroon will not only be accepted by the team of the World Report but will also accelerate its progress towards attaining the six objectives of EFA.

The 11th edition of the World Report on the follow-up of Education for All (EFA) 2013-2014 is aimed, on the one hand, at sharing with the education community a certain number of information and experiences on the development of EFA at the world, regional and national levels and, on the other hand, come out with reflections on the critical aspects of the education system in view of defining new orientations for post 2015.