Bertheline Nina Tchangoue

Member, Youth Advocacy Group

UN Global Education First Initiative
Bamenda, Cameroon

19th May, 2014

S.E. Mme Youssouf née Hadidja Alim

Ministre de l’Education de Base
Ministère de l’Education de Base
Yaoundé, Cameroon

Dear Minister Youssouf Hadidja Alim,

We write to you today to express our sincere gratitude for your leading role in providing quality,
free primary education to the children of the Republic of Cameroon. We represent youth leaders
of Cameroon who are working nationally and globally, in partnership with the UN Secretary
General’s Global Education First Initiative, to champion the importance of education for all
children. We are so impressed by your judicious efforts in implementing the Education for All
Goals and Millennium Development Goals for education in our country. That is really admirable
and exemplary.

We would also like to take this opportunity to talk about the Global Partnership for Education’s
2015-2018 Replenishment. The Global Partnership for Education has been an important partner
in Cameroon since 2006. Since joining the Global Partnership our country has seen great
improvements in education: our primary school completion rate has increased from 64.3 percent
in 2007 to 73 percent in 2010, more girls are in school, especially in the North of the country,
and in 2010 we had 37,200 new teachers working in primary schools a significant commitment
on your part to improve teacher quality which was desperately needed.

This Replenishment is a very important opportunity for the children and young people in
Cameroon and beyond as it is a unique opportunity to bring together leaders from developing
countries, donors, international organizations and private foundations to announce their financial
and policy pledges to the GPE Fund. As part of the replenishment, the Global Partnership for
Education is calling on developed country donors to contribute a total of $3.5billion to the GPE
Fund, but also on developing country governments to show their leadership by increasing their
education spending to 20 percent of the national budget. In 2011, Cameroon spent 16.3 percent
of our national expenditure on education but families still participate largely in education
expenditures. We encourage our government to join the GPE Replenishment by increasing the
percent of our budget to education.

Dear Minister, with all the respect and consideration we have towards you, we would like to
share with you the priorities and perspectives of children and youth in Cameroon in regards to
the Global Partnership for Education’s Second Replenishment Pledging Conference to be hosted
by the European Union on June 26 in Brussels, Belgium. It is visible and evident that Cameroon
has made considerable progress in achieving the Universal Primary Education for All but much
is still to be done. A consultation was organized with youth leaders in Cameroon and a joint
recommendation was drafted on a few key areas we have identified that would continue to
improve the education sector. In addition to increasing the percent of our budget to education, we
would like to see:

1. Greater transparency and timeliness in how school budgets are allocated and distributed.
This is a contributing factor of poor quality learning for pupils, and poor performance and
absenteeism of teachers. We want our government to ensure timely and transparent
budget allocations as well as financial management training for school governing bodies
and staff. Our government should ensure clear and simple standards of ethics, financial
management, supervision and evaluation to improve the implementation of rules and
procedures regarding staff, procurement policies and audit requirements;

2. Create more child-friendly school environments. A school is considered child friendly

when it provides a safe, clean, healthy and protective environment for all children at the
both rural and urban areas, and Cameroon has not yet reached this standard. We demand
our government to provide additional dispensaries, toilets, libraries, canteens and
playgrounds for all children with special emphasis on water supply in all school
campuses;

3. Provide adequate training to headmasters, teachers, parents and students to ensure they
know official policies regarding school fees and supplies, such as the Minimum
Package’s policy, to ensure they are enforced. All government primary schools should
distribute minimum packages before classes resume in September each year but this is
not well applied. Equally, though basic education is supposed to be free in Cameroon, it
is in fact costly, as school supplies go missing and parents face fees for services that are
supposed to be free such as textbooks and exam fees. Currently only 11% percent of
students have access to textbooks.

The Millennium Development Goals are soon coming to an end and we believe that a successful
Global Partnership for Education replenishment will help accelerate progress in the final push
towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All and set us on the
right path for the next set of development goals in 2015. The young people of Cameroon are
eager to work with you, Your Excellency, to continue to improve the quality of education
available to all children and youth, boys and girls, in our country.

Sincerely,

Bertheline Nina Tchangoue

On behalf of the following youth organizations
ACADI Cameroon Epic League Incorporation, Cameroon
Cameroon National Youth Council Extended limits Inc
Cameroon Youth Network FMC Cameroon
CCEMMED Bamenda GLOCIR INTERNATIONAL
Commonwealth Youth Association of La Liberté Arts Group
Cameroon NMI Education
Progressing Association Cameroon Noble TV
DRIMP Foundation Better Breed, Cameroon
Leaders Of Tomorrow International SERENA CONSORTIUM
Synergies of Action for Development and Starfield Organization
Education for All SYADO CAMEROON
Duke of Edinburgh Awards Initiative, The Flames
Cameroon UN Global Education First Youth Advocacy
CAMNAFAW Group
Association la JECCAA United Youth Organization
Rayons de Soleil
Youth Outreach Programme Cameroon