In a bid to make technical and vocational education more professional and create jobs for school leavers, the Ministry of Secondary Education on Thursday, March 16, 2016, opened its annual Open Door Day, ODD, in Yaounde. The event, which held in the sprawling campus of Government Technical High School, Nkolbisson, was chaired by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Secondary Education, Prof. Ivo Leke Tambo.

With theme, “Open Door Days: Mirror of the Professionalisation of Teaching in a Performant School Context,” it was attended by 15 institutions from the city. Prof. Leke Tambo described technical education as indispensable for the country’s development. He said as part of efforts to improve technical and vocational education, government continues to create new schools each year, sends teachers on internships with companies as well as organises Open Door Days.

According to him, ODDs prepare learners for self-employment and work in industries. “The future of technical students is our concern. The country can count on them to help it fulfill its dreams,” the Permanent Secretary concluded. Earlier, the Mayor of Yaounde VII Sub-divisional Council, Augustin Tamba, said in the era of much unemployment, professionalisation of technical education was the key to emergence by 2035. He promised his council’s continuous support to technical and vocational education.

On her part, the Centre Regional Delegate for Secondary Education, Ndok Anne Marie Francine, urged teachers to make school leavers more competitive through closer follow-up and industrial attachment. On exhibition by students were products and activities in various trades such as surveying, plumbing, wood work, block and fired brick making, dress making, embroidery and ceramics. Others were laundry soap production, welding, motor mechanics, electricity, Civil Engineering, etc.