Technical Education - Still More Theoretical

Martin Nkematabong

27 April 2010

Pedagogues say the syllabuses are laden with irrelevant theoretical subjects

Within the framework of the African Development Bank (ADB)-Cameroon Cooperation, policymakers from the Ministry of Secondary Education last Friday joined school principals, curriculum planners and students' delegates in Douala to discuss the plight of technical and vocational education in Cameroon, as well as seek means to reform and reinforce the sector, which they said has been deprived of the basic scientific knowledge, as well as practical and applied skills it deserves. Both students and teachers decried the poor pedagogic design of end-of-course examinations, regretting that the syllabuses are encumbered with theoretical subjects such as French, history, geography, civics and economics, which are literarily irrelevant to their career. Other difficulties evoked included the acute lack of trained staff, infrastructure, basic equipment and materials.

Many a speaker noted that technical and vocational education has not historically been a priority to formal colonial schooling structures in Cameroon. Before now, they said, education in the former West Cameroon was seriously influenced by the white missionaries whose main focus was to spread religion and Christianity. In the Francophone region, the focus of education for colonized people was to groom administrative workers to fill the needs of the French government. According to archives, when Cameroon gained independence in 1960, there was only one technical school in the country. Successive policymakers had since then regarded the technical and vocational education with apathy; creating the impression that the sector was reserved for the poor and academically handicapped students.

Attention was rather diverted towards domestic science centres created for primary school leavers and dropouts. Currently, there are few full-fleshed technical and vocational high schools offering three or four-year course in engineering, electronics and electricity, maintenance and production engineering, dressmaking, nursing, industrial studies, amongst others. Technical education is however currently topping seminar charts across the country due to untamed unemployment plaguing university graduates, with general education backgrounds. And, even so, it is hard to say whether technical and vocational education is meeting the desired economic and employment needs as the logic of employment is largely tagged on tribal affiliations and the jobseekers' ability to bribe.