Minister Youssouf Hadidja Alim defended the draft budget of her ministry on November 28, 2015.

The ongoing recruitment of 2,970 more primary cycle teachers by government will be completed in 2016. This will end the second phase of the operation to recruit 9,000 teachers for basic education which entails the conversion of parents’ teachers into contract workers. The first phase was completed this year, 2015, with the recruitment of 3,060 teachers.

This was one of the priorities of the Ministry of Basic Education’s draft budget for the 2016 financial year which stands at FCFA 206 billion. Defending the draft budget on November 28, 2015 before the Finance and Budget Committee of National Assembly, Minister Youssouf Hadjidja Alim explained that the FCFA 17 billion budget increase is in relation to the increase in payroll expenditures for teachers to be recruited.

Minister Alim was assisted by the representative of the Vice Prime Minister, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with Parliament, Jules Doret Ndongo. On the whole, the ministry’s priorities for 2016 will dwell on the pursuit of four programmes notably the democratisation of the primary cycle, literacy, preschool development as well as governance and institutional support. Besides the planned construction of over 1,300 classrooms in 2016, other ambitions of the ministry will be to increase the literacy rate of 65.72 per cent recorded in 2015 to 66.04 per cent in 2016.