MINESEC challenges teachers to exercise their high sense of responsibility to carry the country forward.
To Professor Nalova Lyonga, “teachers must understand what it is to be modern.”
The ceremony held at the Yaounde Sports Complex on Thursday, 5th October 2023 was yet another opportunity for Professor Nalova Lyonga, Minister of Secondary Education, to remind teachers of their pivotal role in shaping the country’s future.
Organised under the theme “The Teachers We Need for the Education We Want: The Global Imperative to Reverse the Teacher Shortage”, the 2023 edition of World Teachers’ Day advocates for a valued teaching profession, with an emphasis on stopping the decline in the number of teachers.
Fortunately, addressing this issue is a top priority in the Ministry’s agenda where the digitalisation of teaching/learning remains the order of the day, as performed in a play by the theatre group of Lycée Général Leclerc during the ceremony. The minister called on “the king of the chalk” to exercise their high sense of responsibility in fulfilling their obligation, with due consideration of constraints imposed by modernity.
Such an obligation requires teachers “to update their skills in order to fit in this era of fast changing times”, declared Paul Coustère, the Director of UNESCO Sub-regional Office for Central Africa, as he delivered the joint statement from UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF and Education International on teachers’ Day.
Regarding teachers’ concerns, some of which were highlighted by Mrs Mfouapon Zenabou, Vice-Principal at GHS Mballa 2, in her academic discourse on the theme, Professor Nalova Lyonga assured that “everybody listens to teachers” and that they “don’t need to strike because the Head of State is listening”. Rather, teachers should focus on providing first-class education to Cameroonian children.
To add to the international recognition of teachers’ mandate, some teachers in the Mfoundi Division were awarded Academic Honours in the ranks of Knight and Officer while others were promoted to various ranks of National Orders on October 5, 2023.
Aimé Ngidjol
Senior Staff/Celcom