THE MINISTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION AWARDED THE SPECIAL ADEAN AWARD FOR LEADERSHIP, EXCELLENCE AND TRANSPARENCY IN MANAGEMENT

The Minister of Secondary Education, Professor Nalova Lyonga, received The Special ADEAN AWARD for Leadership, Excellence and Transparency in Management by the Association of former students of ENSET ANNEXE of Nkolbisson, best known under the French acronym as ADEAN. The ceremony took place on Wednesday, 19 January 2022 at the Distance Education Centre in Yaounde.

Speaking through a zoom call during this solemn ceremony from Washington was Achille Ekeu, CEO and President of ADEAN AWARD. He mentioned that the organizing committee based on public data and facts obtained on ground decided to offer this special award to the Minister of Secondary Education for her actions taken to improve the educational system in Cameroon. Some of these achievements amongst others include:

• The introduction of Distance Education during the outbreak of COVID-19;
• The digitalization of the payment of fees that helps to control the school map and master the student population as well as accountability;
• The reinforcement of technical and vocational education by constructing more workshops and specialized rooms;
• The construction of more science laboratories;
• The CLEAN school program that aims at creating green spaces, water supply and water system toilets in schools;
• The construction of complete schools and bore holes;
• The installation of solar energy in areas that do not have electric energy;
• The signing of several Memoranda of Understanding (MOU)with other partners for the exchange of experiences;
• The transformation of several schools into bilingual schools, including technical bilingual schools;
• The introduction of surveillance cameras to fight insecurity in our schools;
• The signing of thousands of advancements, paying transport allowances to newly posted graduates from ENSET and École Normale Supérieure;
• The introduction of advance salaries to graduates from ENSET and École Normale Supérieure.

This award was received by the Secretary-General (SG) of the Ministry of Secondary Education, Professor Pierre Fabien Nkot, on behalf of the Minister. It was handed in the presence of top officials of the Ministry and members of the ADEAN Delegation. In his acceptance speech, the Secretary-General extended the warm greetings from the Minister and applauded the initiative. “We don’t want to become a society where, when two people meet it is to say rubbish about the third one but we should also have moments where we are celebrating our staff”, he said. He highlighted the achievements of Her Excellency Professor Nalova Lyonga and emphasized the introduction of Distance Education which was an emergency response to the outburst of the COVID­-19 pandemic to ensure that all students have access to education no matter their locations through digital means as she says ‘education cannot wait’. He concluded by saying that with all these achievements and reforms, ADEAN’s choice to hand over this award to the Minister of Secondary Education is grounded.

 The ADEAN Award was created in 2017 by Achille Ekeu in the United States. This year is the 5^th edition of the award. It includes all former students of ENSET ANNEXE of Nkolbisson-Yaounde. This ANNEXE of ENSET of the University Center of Douala then, now University of Douala was created as part of the implementation of the Cameroon-Sofati-Canada project whose objectives were to build 6 top quality Technical High Schools in various regions of the country and train high quality Technical High School teachers in Cameroon and at the University of Montreal-Canada. Achille Ekeu was part of those teachers who obtained a Mechanical Engineering Degree and a teaching degree (DIPET1) from that school in 1992.

By Drusilla Mbah E.

CELCOM/MINESEC

                                                            THE TEACHING OF FRENCH LANGUAGE

Cameroon partners with France to Revamp the Teaching of French as a Foreign Language in Secondary Education.

It is the essence of the partnership convention signed on 5 January 2022 in Yaounde.

His Excellency Christophe Guilhou, French Ambassador to Cameroon and Professor Nalova Lyonga, Cameroon’s Minister of Secondary Education formalised the partnership Convention relating to the teaching of French to English-speaking teachers of Cameroon. The ceremony took place in Yaounde on 5 January 2022 under the keen eyes of His Excellency Lejeune Mbella Mbella, Cameroon’s Minister of External Relations.

Through this two-year partnership Convention, France commits to provide the adequate financial support and expertise needed to train teachers of French in Secondary Education, so that they will be able to better teach learners of French as a foreign or second language.

The convention which will be implemented within the framework of the PROFLE+ Distance Learning Programme is a skills development programme to be achieved by means of home-based in-service training. The target is to ease the mastery and perfect use of quality French in Secondary Education, all of which will consolidate English and French official Bilingualism. Our training of trainers shall enforce national unity and cohesion as the three speakers rightly reminded the audience of.

The Minister of Secondary Education asked: do we want to be the pinnacle of languages in Central Africa or not? Professor Lyonga thanked the Head of State for giving her full powers to sign on behalf of Cameroon in this programme where “training of trainers” is undertaken by the native speakers.

Aimé Ngidjol

CELCOM

DIGITAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

MINESEC Engages with Google Cloud to Boost Digital Skills in Cameroonian Youths.

The Ministry of Secondary Education opens up to the Cloud technology to enable students take up current and future challenges with ease. This was during an audience Professor Nalova Lyonga, Minister of Secondary Education, granted Félix Manoharan, Head of Strategy for Higher Education in Europe, Middle-East and Africa from Google Cloud, on Wednesday, 3 November 2021.

The envoy from the USA-based IT giant came to discuss the introduction of Cloud programmes in secondary schools to bridge the skills’ gaps in the digital domain and enable Cameroonian youth find their vocations in this highly promising sector.

Based on the fact that, education in Africa has not benefitted from the huge technological advancements witnessed over the last decade, Félix Manoharan expressed the wish to see MINESEC and Google start a pilot project to introduce Google Cloud programmes in secondary schools. The project to be implemented in a few selected secondary schools comprises two major components: the acquisition of the IT infrastructure necessary for its deployment and a training component to develop skills and competences in both teachers and learners on the Cloud technology.

The immediate benefit of the project will be to boost the teaching of Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and empower Cameroonian youths, boys and girls alike, so that they can be able to engage in digital careers.

The Secondary Education Minister fully approved the project and expressed her readiness to start its pilot implementation. MINESEC was satisfied with the project’s objectives and received guarantees regarding privacy issues, data security as well as the security and the affordability of the infrastructure needed.

Through this project, Google intends to make Cameroon a hub of Cloud competences all over Africa, as the country will be the first to run Google Cloud programmes in schools on the continent.

Aimé Ngidjol

CELCOM