Basic Education: Reform Support Project, CERSP to Break New Grounds

A total of 2,700 primary schools will be integrated into the perfomance-based financing (PBF) system this 2023 / 2024 academic year.

The Minister of Basic Education, Prof Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa made this announcement as he chaired the 6th Ordinary Session and 5th Extraordinary Session of the Steering Committee of the Cameroon Education Reform Support Project (CERSP) this September 14, 2023 in Yaounde.

The integration of these 2,700 schools adds up to the 2,300 already integrated, a successful hitting of the target of 5,000 public primary schools earmarked by pillar eight of the CERSP.

Apart from these, the Project recently received two disbursements of money totaling about 18 billion, 405 million (18,405,000,000) CFAF from its financial partner, the World Bank.

This money, the Secretary of State to the Minister of Basic Education, Dr Asheri Vivian Kilo explains, has been used for the recruitment of teachers, the purchase of textbooks for some pupils and award of prizes to some teachers to promote excellence.

The 6th Ordinary Session and 5th Extraordinary Session of the Steering Committee of the CERSP were therefore about evaluating the road covered since the start of the year 2023 and projecting the way forward as the 2023 / 2024 academic year unfolds.

The sessions also focused on drawing up a budget for the next activities to be undertaken.

About the CERSP

The Cameroon Education Reform Support Project (CERSP) is a support program for educational reforms in Cameroon, sponsored by the World Bank.

It was created by a Presidential Decree on December 10, 2018.

It has eight major objectives (pillars):

– Improving the allocation of government-recruited teachers to public primary schools.

– Strengthening teachers’ capacity for the effective use of new curricula.

– Increasing the availability of essential textbooks in public primary schools.

– Developing preschool in rural areas.

– Systematising assessment of school achievements in primary and lower secondary education.

– Establishing a functional and operational Education Information and Management System (EIMS).

– Improving the environment and quality of education in primary schools in refugee and internally displaced areas.

– Improving school performance through Performance-Based Funding

Eleanor Ayuketah Ngochi