They were gaie, looking fulfilled and above all, enthusiastic. 1,728 laureates of the 50th batch of the Higher Teacher Training College, ENS, yesterday at the Yaounde Multipurpose Sport Complex, through their actions did not mince their determination to join the move to take the country a leap forward by contributing their quota through knowledge sharing. The anxiety and determination could be on their faces during graduation ceremony chaired by the Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo.
“I exhort you to be imaginative, creative, productive and above all flexible,” said Prof. Jacques Fame. “Our educational system is dependent on your putting in place sustainable strategies that can eradicate failures,” he stressed. Obsolete curricula and the lack of motivation on the part of teacher learners, he warned, should remain a thing of the past. “You are therefore challenged to take advantage of the New Information and Communication Technologies to promote pedagogic innovation so as to remain heroes and heroines. Feet-dragging, inertia, fraud, absenteeism, despair and the felling of professionals without conviction, Prof. Fame Ndongo emphasised, should be avoided. “Your batch is peculiar; 50 years of maturity, experience and know-how. I therefore urge you to remain important actors as the country works towards becoming an emerging one by 2035,” the Minister stressed.
The high point was the presentation of maiden laureates of the teaching of national languages and culture. The 37 laureates, the head of the department, Zachée Denis Bitja’a Kody, said are out to foster national unity and promote cultural diversity via the teaching of national languages. “By creating this field, government wants to uphold its cultural heritage. Drafting realistic curricula is therefore one of your challenges,” the Minister told the laureates.
The Director of ENS, Nicolas Angiga, acknowledged the presence of pioneers of the school adding that in 50 years, the school can boast of a positive balance sheet. While working towards attaining the country’s 2035 emergence vision through improved teaching, Nicolas Angiga urged 1,728 laureates from cycles I and II of the school in the departments of Letters, Human Sciences and Sciences to show proof of the might of the school on the field.
Prof. Fame Ndongo saluted the presence of a strong delegation of ENS Libreville, Gabon led by its Director General, Prof. Dieudonné Meyo Ngoke. The Higher Teacher Training Colege, Libreville jointly offers professional masters in Science of Education with the University of Laval in France.
