Evaluating School Year : Time To Straighten Records

Monitoring and evaluation are the bedrock for success and it is widely used by organisations to measure the progress of activity or project.  Being a key benchmark to assess various indicators, it enables decision-makers and actors to adjust when need be. This was definitely the driving force behind the series of meetings organised in the past weeks by authorities of the Ministries of Basic and Secondary Education in Yaounde as the 2024/2025 school year in Cameroon is virtually half-way gone. The school year started in earnest on September 9, 2024 for Basic, Secondary and Vocational training institutions across the country. After the first term which is usually the longest term of the academic year, and mid-way into the second term, it was just normal that stakeholders carry out a mid-term review of not just the school calendar, but also the coverage of programmes for the school year.  
This is why authorities of the Ministries of Basic and Secondary Education as well as examination boards have been multiplying meetings to size-up the level of preparedness. The idea of these meetings was to put every actor on the same page and ensure that the education community especially teachers, students and administrators are each playing their roles effectively.  According to the school calendar, official examinations in the Basic Education sector have been scheduled between May 12 and July 25, 2025 while for Secondary Education, official examinations will run from May 14 to July 31, 2025. These dates are therefore a clarion reminder that the end-of-course examinations are just around the corner. The series of meetings to evaluate the road covered so far was timely as it provided the authorities the opportunity to have a glimpse on the respect and coverage of syllabus.  Such evaluation serves a stitch in time especially in avoiding errors of the past concerning examinations and the performances recorded. For instance, in the Francophone subsystem of education, the 2024 session of Baccalaureat examination recorded a disappointing 38.47 drop in performance compared to the previous year. It recorded 37.26 per cent compared to 75.73 per cent in 2023. These kind of dismal performances can be averted if evaluations are done appropriately in the course of the year and proper diagnosis made, correct lessons learnt and efficient decisions taken. The February 26 coordination meeting of the Ministry of Secondary Education for instance, revealed that the coverage of programmes is not on good rhythm so far. This enabled the authorities to brainstorm on the remedies to the challenges raised. It therefore gives room to stakeholders involved to cover the gaps noticed before the start of the official examinations.   
The mid-term evaluation of the school year is also crucial as it enables authorities to assess the readiness of the examination boards (General Certificate of Education Board for Anglophone subsystem and the BACC Board-OBC for the Francophone subsystem) as well as the Directorate of Examinations in the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Educations. Organising national official exams of such magnitude is not a thing to toy with and so, there is no gainsaying that it requires a synergy of actions and meticulousness to surmount the daunting task. The evaluation last week in Yaounde of examination structures in the Ministry of Secondary Education enabled Minister Nalova Lyonga to be abreast with the availability of materials, registration of candidates for the various examinations as well as challenges.
Ensuring a successful school year for all is not only the onus of the government ministries in charge of education, school administrators or teachers, but also a collective responsib...