Technical and vocational secondary education in Cameroon
Alongside general secondary education, Cameroon has a technical and vocational secondary system (ESTP) that trains pupils for industrial, commercial and service trades. It starts straight after primary school, with an entrance exam into the first year that is separate from the sixième exam, and takes place in technical colleges (CETIC) and then technical high schools. In 2023-2024 it had 472,479 pupils, 23% of secondary enrolment under MINESEC.
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At a glance
- Ministry
- MINESEC, Department of Technical and Vocational Secondary Education
- Schools
- CETIC (lower cycle), technical high schools (upper cycle)
- Pupils (2023-2024)
- 472,479, or 23% of secondary pupils
- End of lower cycle
- CAP (after 4 years)
- Upper cycle
- Technical Probatoire, then technical Bac, BT or BP
- Organisers
- DECC (CAP), OBC (Probatoire, Bac, BT, BP), GCE Board (TVEE)
- Technical Bac 2026
- More than 43,000 candidates (industrial and STT)
The path, from CETIC to technical Bac
| Cycle | School | Length | Exam |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | — | — | First-year entrance exam (end of CM2) |
| Lower cycle | CETIC or technical high school | 4 years (1st to 4th year) | CAP (DECC) |
| Upper cycle | Technical high school | Seconde, Première, Terminale | Probatoire, then technical Bac, BT or BP (OBC) |
The lower cycle lasts four years and ends with the vocational aptitude certificate (CAP), run by MINESEC's DECC like the BEPC. The upper cycle goes through a Probatoire in Première, then the technical Baccalauréat, the technician's certificate (BT) or the professional certificate (BP), all awarded by the Baccalaureate Office.
How many pupils and schools?
| Year | Technical (ESTP) | General (ESG) | Technical share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 438,993 | 1,566,227 | 21.9% |
| 2023-2024 | 472,479 | 1,574,594 | 23.1% |
In 2023-2024, 375,411 technical pupils were in public schools and 97,068 in private ones; boys were a clear majority (298,981 against 173,498 girls). The same yearbook lists 826 public technical schools in 2024-2025 (800 a year earlier), plus private technical or multi-stream schools. The transition rate from primary to technical secondary reached 18.44% in 2024-2025, up from 13.43% in 2019-2020: a growing share of pupils choose this route at 11 or 12.
The CAP
The CAP comes in two families: industrial and tertiary sciences and technologies (STT). In the 2025 session, the pass rate was 86.88% for the industrial CAP (84.70% in 2024) and 68.10% for the STT CAP (62.69% in 2024), according to DECC results published by Journal du Cameroun.
Technical Probatoire, Bac, BT and BP
The industrial technical Bac includes the arts series AF1 to AF3 and series F1 to F8 (mechanical manufacturing, electronics, electrical engineering, civil engineering, refrigeration and air conditioning, chemical engineering, biological and health sciences, health and social care). The STT Bac includes series ACA, ACC, CG, FIG and SES. The technician's certificate exists in industrial and tertiary specialities (including ESF, hotel and tourism). These exams combine written papers and practicals, with eligibility lists.
On 21 May 2026, nearly 31,000 candidates began the AF and F Bac and the industrial technician's certificate in 180 sub-centres, and 12,733 began the STT Bac in 106 sub-centres, according to Cameroon Tribune. Industrial Bac results were released from 14 July 2026. Details of the series are in the Baccalauréat page.
The anglophone side: GCE Board TVEE
In the English-speaking subsystem, technical education leads to GCE Board qualifications: the TVE Intermediate Level and the TVE Advanced Level. The latter requires 6 to 8 subjects, including three professional subjects each with a practical paper. In 2026, 27,775 candidates sat the TVEE Intermediate (60.50% pass rate) and 10,804 the TVEE Advanced (72.89%), according to Cameroon Tribune.
What comes next?
The CAP and the BP aim at going straight into a trade; the technical Bac and the TVEE Advanced also open the way to higher education, notably short courses (BTS, HND) and technical schools. No recent study on the employment of technical graduates was found: this is covered, with the sources available, in the pages on vocational training and youth employment.
Frequently asked questions
What is a CETIC in Cameroon?
A collège d'enseignement technique industriel et commercial: a lower-cycle technical school that leads to the CAP in four years.
How many pupils are in technical education in Cameroon?
472,479 in 2023-2024, or 23% of secondary pupils, according to MINESEC's statistical yearbook.
Who organises the CAP?
MINESEC's Department of Examinations, Competitions and Certification (DECC), which also runs the BEPC.
What are the technical Bac series?
Industrial: AF1 to AF3 and F1 to F8. Tertiary (STT): ACA, ACC, CG, FIG and SES.
What is the CAP pass rate?
In 2025: 86.88% for the industrial CAP and 68.10% for the STT CAP, according to the DECC.
Handle with care
The 2024-2025 enrolment figures in MINESEC's yearbook cannot be used in the version published online, so the latest usable figures are for 2023-2024. The yearbook gives two different counts of public technical schools in 2024-2025 (826 in one table, 721 including 421 CETICs and 300 high schools in another); the first is used. Enrolment in English-speaking technical colleges and graduate employment figures were not found.