Professionalism and vocational training will be at the heart of major reforms to be carried out in state universities in the coming years.
Higher education stakeholders deliberated on this reform and other salient issues affecting the Higher Education Sector in the country during the 2024 Conference of Heads of University institutions in Cameroon on 11th July. The Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education Professor. Jacques Fame Ndongo chaired the session which held at the National Advanced School of Engineering in Yaoundé. Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo stated that it is important to reinforce Professional training in order to harmonise the sector.
“Education plays a pivotal role in the development of the society and our public universities: that of ensuring durable vocational and professional courses in all the schools and faculties of the different universities, Minister Fame Ndongo said.
Prospects for the 2024/2025 Academic Year
As the new school year begins, heads of Universities have been urged to promptly respond to the needs of professional lecturers. The training of engineers in the all higher education institutions will be harmonized with a view to strengthening students’ vocational training, and in application of the text relating to the authorisation to teach vocational and technical subjects.
The Minister also instructed the heads of Universities to equally ensure the systematic adoption of existing harmonised programmes. It was revealed that 90% of programmes are pending for the harmonisation of programmes in the new fields of study.
University Heads were expected to look for means in conjunction with the National Orders, to ensure that graduates who left school before these resolutions, are given the necessary training, so that they can be registered in professional associations and integrate into the various professional fields. In order to overcome the shortage of technical resources which is a serious problem in most institutions, all stakeholders will be expected to effectively pull their technical and infrastructural resources together.
The Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo also had a working session with his collaborators on Entrepreneurial Studies in Universities.
They equally evaluated employment opportunities in different fields, and the vital role of technological training in faculties of Higher Institutions of Learning.
In his closing remarks, the Minister called on the Director of Development of Higher Education and the heads of Legal Affairs Division to work in synergy with the professional associations to come up with texts on the rules governing universities with regards providing training in Engineering Sciences, a resolution he said has been partially implemented.
The Conference of Heads of Universities also evaluated the state of the implementation of the resolutions of the conference crafted on the 20th of July 2018.
Tanjong Levis Agbor
