The Ministry of Basic Education (Minedub) has just launched a call for tenders for recruitment in this regard.
The Cameroonian government, through the Minedub supported by Prof. Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, intends to make a free distribution of 2,444,025 French, English and mathematics textbooks in 13,000 public schools in the French and English-speaking subsystems scattered around throughout the national triangle.
This distribution counting for the school year 2021-2022 concerns “les cours élémentaires 1 et 2, as well as Class 3 and Class 4 ”, specifies Ambroise Owotsogo, general coordinator of the Support Program for Educational Reform in Cameroon (Parec). But it may not be effective before the end of October, almost two months after the start of the school year which took place on September 6.
Indeed, Parec leaves bidders until October 14 to submit their bids. Moreover, in an interview with the government daily Cameroon tribune, its general coordinator warned that the textbooks, already available, will not be distributed in schools on the first day of the school year. It is only at the end of the distributor’s recruitment procedure and after the launch of the operation throughout the country by the Minedub that the distribution will take place in schools. It should also be remembered that, observes Ambroise Owotsogo; access is difficult in some localities.
In 2020, the Class 1 and 2 for both French and English-speaking subsystems benefited thanks to the financial support of the World Bank (WB) which enabled the government to ensure the free textbooks for about 3 million textbooks at a cost of 5 billion FCFA.
Some parents to whom our editorial staff did not give the microphone welcome this program launched by the public authorities to the extent that it alleviates the task of parents, some of whom often have more than one child for whom it is necessary to buy books and textbooks.