Minister of Basic Education, Youssouf Adjidja Alim and stakeholders met for a two-day seminar to launch the newly revamped pre-school curriculum and to familiarise themselves with the newly adopted curriculum for pre-school.

A recent study reveals that only about 30 per cent of pupils in the country are enroled in nursery schools.

Speaking at the Yaounde Conference Centre on Thursday, April 23, 2015, at a two-day seminar to launch the newly revamped pre-school curriculum, the Minister of Basic Education, Youssouf Adjidja Alim, said it was the prerequisite for quality primary learning.

With the gradual falling apart of family bonds, pre-school education becomes the more important for the child’s early development, the Minister noted.

According to statistics, since the launch of the Dakar Action Framework on Education in 2000, the rate of pre-school enrolment in the Central African sub-region has risen from 11 per cent to 31 per cent in 2012.

In most countries in the sub-region, pre-school education is developed largely by the private sector, with most of the pupils based in urban areas.

It is in a bid to reverse this trend and ensure full access to Universal Basic Education that pre-school monitors from the regions discussed the way forward in Yaounde. Similar seminars will be organised in the regions next August.

According to Ashu Lydwine epouse Ojong, the Resource Person for Pre-school Education in the Ministry of Basic Education, nursery school learning was hitherto treated as if the pupils were already in primary school.

This is what called for the revamp of the first level of education in the country in order to better prepare pupils for primary education, she explained.

The coming into place of a new organisational chart for the ministry in 2014 and the subsequent appointment of officials to monitor pre-school education at the regional, sub-divisional and primary school levels, has as focus, helping pupils to develop their senses and abilities in reading and writing.