Becoming a teacher in Cameroon: training colleges, entrance exams and grades

Teaching grades and their acronyms

The special status of national education staff, set out in Decree No. 2000/359 of 5 December 2000, classifies teachers by level (from nursery to secondary) and by type of education. Each grade corresponds to a civil-service category: A2 and A1 for secondary teachers, B2 and B1 for primary teachers. The acronyms stand for: PLEG, professeur des lycées d'enseignement général (upper-secondary general teacher); PCEG, professeur des collèges d'enseignement général (lower-secondary general teacher); PLET and PCET, their technical-education equivalents.

Primary teachers: the ENIEG and ENIET

The entrance exam for state ENIEG colleges, opened by the Minister of Secondary Education (notice of 20 June 2025), offered 7,000 student-teacher places in 2025. It was open to Cameroonians aged 17 to 32 on 1 January 2025 holding the general-education baccalauréat (any series) or an equivalent, for a two-year course. Applications were filed with MINESEC regional and divisional delegations by 5 July 2025; the exam was held on 30 July 2025 in every regional capital. Fees: 10,000 CFA francs plus a 1,500 CFA franc revenue stamp.

Private teacher-training colleges, according to Kamerpower, admit students at several levels: first year with the BEPC (or four GCE O Level subjects), second year with the probatoire (or one A Level and five O Level subjects), third year with the baccalauréat. The course leads to the CAPIEMP (teaching certificate for nursery and primary teachers), the qualification required for the government's contract scheme.

Secondary teachers: the ENS and ENSET

For 2025-2026, the Minister of Higher Education opened 2,500 places across nine schools, according to Cameroon Tribune (15 January 2026): the ENS of Bambili, Bertoua, Buea, Maroua and Yaoundé, and the ENSET of Ebolowa, Bambili, Douala and Kumba. The first cycle (three years) takes holders of the baccalauréat or GCE A Level and trains lower-secondary teachers (PCEG, PCET); the second cycle (two years) takes bachelor's graduates and trains upper-secondary teachers (PLEG, PLET). The number of places and the age limit vary by school; the detailed conditions are set out in 32 orders published by MINESUP.

• 2025-2026 timetable (Infospratiques, Kamerpower): orders published on 13 January 2026, applications until 12 February 2026 (13 February for ENS Yaoundé according to its order), written papers on 12 and 13 March 2026.
• ENS Yaoundé, first cycle: 175 places according to Kamerpower, including 60 in mathematics and computer science and 40 in physics, chemistry and technology.
• Age limits cited by Infospratiques: 28 for the first cycle, 32 for the second; Cameroon Tribune notes that they vary by school, and the ENS Yaoundé order sets 29 on 1 January 2026 for the first cycle (non-civil-servant candidates).
• Only holders of the baccalauréat or GCE from the 2024-2025 session could sit the first-cycle exam that year, subject to verification of the certificate (Cameroon Tribune).
• ENS Yaoundé, created by decree on 3 September 1961, had an annex in Bambili until 2010, since transferred to the University of Bamenda (Wikipedia).

Entering the civil service

Graduating is not enough: new teachers must be integrated, i.e. given a civil-service number and put on the payroll. Until 2022, young secondary teachers were long paid only two-thirds of their salary. In 2017 Camer.be described teachers waiting two to three years for their full pay, later settled as back pay, and a head teacher paying 20,000 CFA francs a month to those still waiting. The measures announced on 9 March 2022 ended the two-thirds practice: according to Cameroon Tribune (October 2026), more than 20,000 secondary teachers benefited, and over 90% of integration files have been processed automatically since 2022.

Since 1 January 2025, civil-service numbers and payroll have been handled by AIGLES, the state's integrated staff and payroll application run by the Ministry of Public Service (MINFOPRA). Applicants can track their file at dossier.minfopra.gov.cm.

Contract teachers and parent-paid teachers

Many state primary teachers are not civil servants but contract staff. The state recruits in waves: a joint MINFOPRA-MINEDUB order of 6 January 2026 opened the seventh phase of the third contract programme (2025 session), for 3,000 teachers holding a CAPIEMP obtained in 2020 or earlier and aged 40 or under on 31 December 2025, with a selection test on 14 February 2026 (EcoMatin). EcoMatin noted on that occasion that primary education had 4.944 million pupils and 113,690 teachers across all schools. These figures match MINEDUB's 2021-2022 yearbook, which counts 4,944,290 pupils and 114,142 teachers.

Before being put on contract, many worked as “parent-paid teachers”, funded by parent-teacher associations. On 27 April 2015 MINEDUB published a list of about 3,000 such teachers selected from some 10,000 applications; candidates alleged irregularities, one teacher saying a head teacher had asked her for 300,000 CFA francs (Camer.be). In 2016 the Snicomp union said it represented more than 40,000 contract teachers and opposed a 500-place integration exam, calling instead for automatic integration in waves.

Moving up, teaching privately or at university

Civil servants can move to a higher grade through MINFOPRA internal competitions. For the 2026 session, 425 PLEG places were open to PCEG teachers (category A1) aged 50 or under with five years' service in their grade on 1 January 2026; applications closed on 30 November 2025, written papers were held on 16 December 2025 and the fee was 20,000 CFA francs (Kamerpower). Primary teaching works the same way: in 2023-2024, 40 places for instituteur (B1) and 35 for senior instituteur (B2) were on offer.

University teachers come under a separate special status, Decree No. 93/035 of 19 January 1993 as amended by Decree No. 2000/048 of 15 March 2000, with their own salary scale (Decree No. 2000/049), according to MINFOPRA. Entry normally requires a doctorate; see the page on higher education. Private schools (faith-based or secular) recruit their own staff: we found no public text setting common recruitment conditions.

Frequently asked questions