Back to School in Cameroon with

Education for Sustainable

Development
Over 1.5 million students who returned to school this September will receive
lessons on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This is the result of
the introduction of ESD in technical and secondary schools and teacher training
colleges in 2014, targeting students from grade 1- through grade 5.
We have integrated aspects of ESD in all subjects, said Dr. Evelyne Mpoudi
Ngolle, Inspector General at Cameroons Ministry of Secondary Education.
There will be no special courses on ESD, but we have made it possible that
environmental protection is taught across all school subjects and in different
forms. School textbooks now carry aspects of ESD which teachers must exploit
during lessons, Dr. Mpoudi addedsaid.
During French classes, for example, teachers will use a text that is related to the
environment. At the end of each school year students would have acquired
knowledge that makes them capable to act on their environment.
Students were first tested on environmental protection and sustainable
development in June. Cameroons twin Ministries of Basic and Secondary
Education now look forward to revising textbooks to include more issues on
environmental protection and sustainable development.
WWF Cameroon initiated the process to introduce ESD in Cameroonian schools
in 2012 with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency (SIDA). It entailed training and supporting teachers of nine ESD pilot
schools in the Bakossi Landscape in the South West Region of the country in the
development of Locally Relevant Themes (LORETs), a local curriculum aimed at
addressing local development challenges. This effort was scaled up to national
level in 2013 through support to Cameroon General Inspectorates of Basic and
Secondary Education to acquire skills and inspiration from the LORETs, conduct
nationwide research, and develop Nationally Relevant Themes (NARETs).
"WWF has been helping the Ministries of Basic and Secondary Education to
develop a local core team of trainers that supports the pilot schools in the Bakossi
Landscape and will also work towards developing a national core team of trainers
to facilitate the spread of ESD across the country," said Ekpe Inyang, Capacity
Building Advisor and ESD Team Leader for WWF Cameroon.

WWF will advocate for the designation of ESD focal points at the Ministries of
Basic and Secondary Education and the establishment of a steering committee
comprising the Ministry of Environment as coordinator and the Ministries of Basic
and Secondary Education as implementers. As well as
WWF is also provide ing hands-on coaching to a local civil society organization,
Assembly of Youth for a Sustainable Environment and Development
(ASYOUSED), to enable them to develop knowledge and skills in ESD, master
the curriculum, and continue with the training of the core teams of trainers to
ensure sustained implementation of ESD activities in schools.
In his preface to the syllabuses, Secondary Education Minister Louis Bapes
Bapes said that Sschools aim at empowering learners to cope with complex
and diversified real life situations.,"He further explains that
According to Bapes, i"instead of a school cut off from society, we now have a
school deeply rooted in a society that takes into account sustainable
development, local knowledge and cultures.."