THE USE OF STANDARD ENGLISH IN CAMEROON

MINESEC and the British Council to Boost the Standards of the English Language in Secondary Schools

The Ministry of Secondary Education contemplates using the standards available at the British Council to deliver quality English language to Cameroonians.

His Excellency Barry Robert Lowen, British High Commissioner to Cameroon together with Charlie Walker, Director of International Operations at the British Council, were received by Professor Nalova Lyonga, Minister of Secondary Education, at the Distance Education Centre in Yaounde, on 31 October 2023.

For about two hours, Professor Nalova Lyonga and her high-profile guests exchanged views on boosting and harnessing the skills of English language teachers while opening up Cameroonians learners to British qualifications and study opportunities.

The audience was an opportunity for Secondary Education officials and the four-man delegation headed by the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, to further the cooperation on how to better infuse the standards of the English language in secondary school learners in Cameroon.

The Director of International Operations at the British Council, Charlie Walker, hailed the long-standing collaboration with MINESEC in delivering quality English language to Cameroonian learners and praised Secondary Education Boss for her efforts in establishing the Distance Education Centre which has helped to expand education to the greatest number of students in spite of the challenging modern contexts. This infrastructure is part of “the new ways to deliver English language teaching, examinations and seminars using the Internet”, he said.

The British Council expressed its readiness to continue working alongside MINESEC to build and enhance the skills of English language teachers. This will be done through capacity-building and in-service training opportunities, including the English Language Master Trainer which is one of the British Council’s flagship programmes dedicated to the training of trainers, as well as through other available resources, like the British Council’s online library whose link was shared with the ministry’s officials during the audience, as a practical step to set the collaboration going.

Acknowledging the robust support enjoyed so far from some British companies like Promethean and Net Dragon, MINESEC officials firmly stated their expectations in terms of language and digital laboratories which, not only will improve learners’ skills in the English language, but also bridge the gap in technical equipment and foster technology teaching and transfer. “We are interested to establish language laboratories for English and you can do that for us”, Professor Nalova Lyonga told her guests.

Aimé Ngidjol

Senior Staff-Celcom/MINESEC

MINESEC AND THE GLOBAL TREND

Brainstorming on Transformative Education

Under the supervision of Prof. Nalova Lyonga, top officials of MINESEC met on Wednesday 11^th October 2023 at the Distance Education Centre in Yaoundé to discuss the opportunity of aligning Cameroon education system to Transformative Education.

This meeting comes a few months after the Second World Conference on Transformative Education held at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana from 18^th to 20^th May 2023. The three-day conference, that attracted eminent academicians from all over the world, was held under the theme: "The Future of Africa and the Role of Transformative Education." Mr FOMBOH Julius FOMBUTU, Inspector Coordinator General in charge of the teaching of Computer Sciences at the Ministry of Secondary Education, attended this conference and shared his experience during this meeting.

According to UNESSCO, Transformative Education is “an element of quality education and a crucial enabler for sustainable development. It empowers learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges we are facing, including climate change, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, poverty and inequality.” So, the working session of Wednesday was an opportunity to brainstorm on how Cameroon could take advantage of Transformative Education to contribute to its sustainable development, enabling students to solve concrete problems not only in their immediate environment, but also at both national and global levels.

MINESEC officials took great care to examine the compatibility between the current approach of teaching in our schools (Competency Based Approach) and Transformative Education. They came to the conclusion that the two approaches are quite different but share lots in common.

ABILAMEKOU B. Théodore

Senior Staff

MINESEC/WORLD BANK

MINESEC and the World Bank meet to discuss about SESDP (PADESCE)

The Minister of Secondary Education, Prof. Nalova Lyonga, granted an audience to Cheick F. Kanté, World Bank Country Director, and his delegation on Friday 06^th October 2023. The discussions were centred around the implementation of the Secondary Education Skills and Development Project (SESDP).

This audience which comes after MINESEC and the World Bank staff worked together in commission some days ago, aimed at assessing some key aspects (financial, institutional…) in the implementation of SESDP. Worth mentioning is the fact that SESDP is an initiative of the Government of the Republic of Cameroon implemented with the support of the World Bank. The two parties discussed the progress of the project as well as the ways to overcome the various challenges they face in its implementation. One of the challenges raised during this meeting was the case of primary school pupils intending to access secondary schools but restrained by the lack of birth certificates.

 SESDP aims to improve equitable access to quality secondary education and technical and vocational training adapted to the market, with an emphasis on girls. This justifies one of the key questions discussed during the meeting: How do we support girls, quickly and effectively?

MINESEC considers SESDP a mean to update and upgrade teachers’ skills to meet the requirements of modern teaching (with distance education and the use of the white board for example): “We want to use PADESCE to bring in the modern aspect of distance education, updating teachers’ skills, using modern board.” the Minister said.

The meeting ended on a positive note of hope for good outcomes from this project. “We want to be alongside your efforts.” Cheik Kanté said during the meeting, “Our aim is to support human capital in education in Cameroon.”

ABILAMEKOU B. Théodore:

Senior Staff