50 per cent of the budget of the Ministry of Basic Education each year is spent on the construction of classrooms in the country. Information further reveals that 15 to 20 per cent of the ministry's budget is also spent to rehabilitate schools that have dilapidated. It is within this backdrop that the Ministry of Basic Education is seeking ways to ameliorate the quality of classrooms in the country. Reason why yesterday July 31 at the Yaounde Conference Hall, the Minister of Basic Education, Youssouf Hadidja Alim opened a two-day workshop to validate the working document on methods and procedures for the construction of primary schools by the Japanese Grant Project.

Mrs Youssouf Hadidja Alim said with the rate at which school structures degrade in the country, the ministry henceforth wants to work with Japanese enterprises and technicians who will help ameliorate the quality of school structures. Through a document on methods and procedures for the Building of Schools by the Japanese Grant Project, Youssouf Hadidja Alim said they will be able to establish a permanent and adequate technique in building schools which will be less expensive and solid. The Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Cameroon (JICA), Murakami Hironobu said because Japan is a disaster-prone country, they use solid technologies in building houses which they have also transferred in building schools within the Japanese Grant Project in Cameroon.

According to the Coordinator of the Japanese Grant Project at the Ministry of Basic Education, Monique Ndongo, now that the Japanese Grant Project for the construction of schools in Cameroon has gone through nine regions and is on its 10th region with an existence of over ten years, the ministry thinks it is time for Cameroonians to know how these Japanese schools are built in case the project does not continue. Monique Ndongo said the document clearly describes how schools are constructed by the Japanese which will be copied for school constructions in Cameroon.