Elizabeth Mosima
24 April 2008
The conference room of the Yaounde conference centre was the venue of the official launching of activities to mark the 2008 edition of the World Week for Education for All (EPT) in Cameroon yesterday. Organised by the Ministry of Basic Education, the event brought together members of government, the diplomatic corps as well international organisations. The theme for this year is "Quality Education to put an end to exclusion".
In effect the World Week for Education for all was inaugurated during the first forum on education in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990. During the forum, the international community engaged in offering training 2000 people of all ages that will meet educative needs in horizon 2000. Ten years after, evaluation during the second forum on Education in Dakar showed that much progress had been made in the different countries. Meanwhile, 121 million children of whom 65 million are girls in the world are still not going to school. Whereas the Dakar plan of action for education stipulates that by 2015 all children notably girls, including the poor, should have access to quality primary education. Studies on EPT within the period 2000-2007 reveal that significant progress have been made in the world notably in universal primary education. The number of school children has increased from 647 million pupils in 1999 to 688 million in 2005.
Speaking during the occasion, the Secretary of Sate for Basic Education, André Manga Ewolo, said Cameroon has not been left out in the progress realised at the international level. According to him Cameroon has taken a series of institutional measures aimed at attaining the EPT's objectives of 2015. These include free public primary education, massive recruitment of teachers, among others. In the same way the government through the Ministry of Youth Affairs has in 2005 launched the national literacy programme. Over 2000 literacy centres have been created in the country with over 120,000 learners. Also other ministerial departments have been carrying out actions aimed at attaining the EPT goals. According to the Secretary of State, to attain the objectives of EPT, there is the need for the mobilisation of finances as well as human resources. The Secretary of Sate called on partners to join the action to attain the common objective which is to ensure quality basic education to all Cameroonians.
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