Cameroon Gears up with preparations for the World Summit on Transformation of Education

Organized by the Government of Cameroon, UNESCO, UNICEF, the Cameroon Education Reform Support Project, and the local group of education partners, in Yaoundé, from 28-29 of July 2022, these extended consultations mobilized education experts, religious leaders, NGOs, learners, students, teachers, and school authorities, including parent representatives from different localities in Cameroon, in preparation to the World Summit.

 “Before the summit in New York, we have to prepare the document that Cameroon will use to participate in the submit. This is therefore part of the consultants that started before the pre-summit in Paris,” According to the Director of Planning and Projects in the Ministry of Basic Education, Mrs. Catharine Lisette Elobo.

For two days, the participants complimented the country report with context-specific requirements needed to build a more sustainable education system that is not only resilient to shocks like COVID-19 but also relevant to the achievement of all the SDGs.

Besides receiving different messages from young people through social networks, the consultations were broadened by the strong involvement of young people and people living disabilities amongst others. they discussed ways of boosting entrepreneurship in the educational system to enable the youth to have better prospects in the professional milieu and identified the skills needed for employment and sustainable development. They also suggested country requirements to increase access to quality learning including digital learning, and the ways to implicate the private sector in transforming education.

According to Mr. David Abouem A Tchoyi, of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, “the proposal is from the youth. How do they see the future of their education, how can the education system be transformed in Cameroon in order to meet the challenges of the day? We have suggested ways by which government is not the only funder of education.

These consultations generated achievable recommendations for each transformative thematic area and made meaningful contributions towards improving resource allocation to the education sector to keep the learner at the center of all delivery of education.

Meanwhile, the anticipated summit in New York will bring together Heads of State with the aim to secure political and financial commitments to accelerate progress toward the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal number 4 and others, considering the various shocks that have impacted education during the last years.

As a prelude to this meeting, a presummit was held from June 28 to 30 2022 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to build on the results of the first national consultations, to develop the initial content of the summit, and to generate greater momentum for a successful UN Summit come September 19, 2022.