Below is the final communiqué of the cabinet meeting of January 26, 2012.
“The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Mr. Philemon YANG today Thursday, 26 January 2012 as from 11:00 a.m. in the main building of the Prime Minister’s Office, chaired the first Cabinet meeting for the 2012 financial year.
Apart from his close aides, the meeting was attended by the Vice-Prime Minister, Ministers of State, Ministers, Ministers-Delegate and Secretaries of State.
On the agenda were one statement and two reports, namely:
- 1. a statement jointly prepared by education sector ministers and presented by the Minister for Higher Education on “the stakes and challenges of the education sector outlined in the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP)”;
- 2. a report of the Minister for Housing and Urban Development on “the recent mission to assess low-cost housing construction sites”;
- 3. a report of the Secretary-General of the Prime Minister’s Office on “the design of roadmaps”.
The Prime Minister opened the proceedings with a special statement centred on the compliance of Government departments with the prescriptions of punctuality, assiduity and speed contained in his recent circular to all Members of Government. He asked them to preach by example to obtain the desired effect among their collaborators.
The Head of Government stressed in particular that, at this “time for action”, strong emphasis must be placed on the imperative of speed in processing files and executing projects.
He conveyed to Members of Government the instructions of the President of the Republic prescribing that the timing of missions abroad and the size of delegations should be rigorously examined, given the assigned objectives of Government and financial constraints.
Next, the floor was given to the Minister for Higher Education whose presentation highlighted the necessary changes to be made at all levels of education to accompany the strategy to make Cameroon an emerging nation. The GESP objectives seek to: (i) extend the territorial coverage of pre-schooling nationwide; (ii) provide better quality basic education and open it to more children aged 6 to 15 years old; (iii) at the secondary level, strike a balance between general education and technical education; (iv) modernize vocational training and (v) professionalize higher education.
In the light of these stakes, the review of school curricula, begun with the introduction of the skills-based approach in nursery and primary schools, should be continued at all levels of education and vocational training. This was seen in the design and update of skills benchmarks, mostly in promising academic streams. It will also entail improving the quality and social relevance of training programmes offered while further matching the Francophone sub-system with the Anglophone sub-system whose curricular modules are more focused and specialized.
In the same vein, the imperative of professionalization will be strengthened by creating synergy between the school system and the corporate world patterned on what obtains in the university free zone or during implementation of the Universities/Corporate Charter ratified in August 2010.
The Minister for Higher Education pointed out that the performance of the national educational system and its alignment to the requirements of GESP have made it necessary to build more infrastructure and offer more courses in order to match the UNESCO standards of 1 teacher for 25 students compared with Cameroon’s current ratio of 1 teacher for 58 students. Higher education must be able to absorb the annual flow of 50,000 to 60,000 freshmen and also guide them to streams with a high employability ratio.
At the end of that presentation, the Head of Government pointed out that, now being the time for action, the education sector ministers should update the education sector strategy before the end of the current semester. He also enjoined the Minister for Higher Education, in conjunction with the other sector ministers, to submit to him a timeline for specific actions to be implemented this year to begin the change of the education system.
Thereafter, the Cabinet listened to the report of the Minister for Housing and Urban Development concerning Government’s programme to build 10,000 low-cost houses.
His report revealed that since the laying of foundation stones of pilot houses in December 2009 and February 2010, many organizational and technical difficulties have made it impossible to respect the laid down schedules.
At Yaounde-Olembe, with a target of 1,300 low-cost houses: the first phase aiming to build 120 pilot houses is 92% complete while the second phase – concerning the construction of 380 houses – progresses at the rate of 25%. The start of the third phase – construction of 240 houses – was delayed by problems stemming from the rugged and rocky nature of the land. The 560 houses of the last phase were recently entrusted to an international firm which will soon begin work.
At Mbanga-Bakoko/Douala, the first phase of 560 houses is 30% complete while the second phase concerning 615 houses has progressed by about 15%. Works are expected to end in Douala in the first half of 2012 for the first phase and in the third quarter of 2012 for the second phase.
The Minister in charge of housing indicated that the weaknesses of the forty odd Cameroonian SMEs chosen for the launch of this programme led to the choice of international firms for subsequent phases. This is an indication of the more rapid execution of works in the coming weeks.
At the end of the ensuing discussions, the Prime Minister issued a series of instructions to put the programme back on track. In particular, he asked the Minister for Housing and Urban Development to start marketing the houses.
Lastly, the Cabinet Meeting listened to the Secretary-General of the Prime Minister’s Office whose briefing on the design of ministerial roadmaps showed that all ministries have already submitted their drafts which are in compliance with the format adopted during the methodological seminar. The time before the expiry of the deadline for submitting them to the Presidency of the Republic will be used for a strategic dialogue between the Prime Minister’s Office and the ministries to introduce therein any necessary amendments and adjustments.
Concluding this last item on the agenda, the Head of Government congratulated the ministers on their personal involvement in the design of roadmaps and invited them to become actively involved in their implementation for the concrete and strict application of all planned actions. He concluded by pointing out that “a good roadmap is one that is effectively executed”.
The Cabinet Meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m. after consideration of miscellaneous issues linked to Government work./”
Yaounde, 26 January 2012
Louis Paul MOTAZE,
Secretary-General of the
Prime Minister’s Office
