The English-speaking education subsystem
Inherited from the British administration of Southern Cameroons, the English-speaking subsystem is one of the two pillars of Cameroonian schooling. It has its own classes, its own exams and its own examination body, the Cameroon GCE Board, based in Buea. It is concentrated in the North-West and South-West but present in every region. Defending it was central to the 2016 strikes, and the crisis that followed hit schooling hard in the two English-speaking regions.
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At a glance
- Primary
- Class 1 to Class 6, FSLC exam
- Secondary, first cycle
- Form 1 to Form 5, GCE O Level
- Secondary, second cycle
- Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth, GCE A Level
- Examination body
- Cameroon GCE Board, Buea (created 1993)
- GCE candidates 2026
- 208,741 registered, all exams
British origins
Southern Cameroons, administered by Britain after the First World War, inherited the British school model. Its secondary schools entered their students for University of Cambridge examinations until 1954, then for the West African School Certificate until reunification, and for the University of London GCE from 1963 to 1976. A Cameroonian GCE was created by Presidential Decree No. 76/555 of 24 November 1976; it was first sat in June 1977, under the Ministry of National Education.
The structure, from Nursery to Upper Sixth
| Cycle | Classes | Length | Exam |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nursery | Two years, from age 4 | 2 years | None |
| Primary | Class 1 to Class 6 | 6 years | FSLC (First School Leaving Certificate); Common Entrance for secondary admission |
| Secondary (general) | Form 1 to Form 5 (legal entry age: 13) | 5 years | GCE Ordinary Level |
| High School | Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth, Arts or Sciences stream | 2 years | GCE Advanced Level |
| Technical, first cycle | Year 1 to Year 4 | 4 years | TVEE Intermediate Level |
| Technical, second cycle | Year 5 to Year 7 | 3 years | TVEE Advanced Level |
Unlike the French-speaking subsystem, the English-speaking one has no mid-secondary exam like the BEPC and no exam to enter the final year like the probatoire: students move straight from the GCE O Level, in Form 5, to the GCE A Level, in Upper Sixth. In English-speaking technical education, the MINESEC yearbook describes commercial and industrial streams organised from Year 1 to Year 7.
The Cameroon GCE Board
After repeated irregularities in the early 1990s (leaked papers, printing faults, delays), the Prime Minister ordered a technical study in 1992. Decree No. 93/172 of 1 July 1993 created the Cameroon GCE Board, whose Chairman was installed in Buea on 25 October 1993; its first general education examinations were held in June 1994 and its first technical examinations in June 1995. The Board was reorganised by Decree No. 2018/614 of 22 October 2018, amended in 2019. It runs the GCE Ordinary Level, the GCE Advanced Level, the TVEE technical exams (Intermediate and Advanced Level) and a Professional Certificate Examination.
| Exam | Registered | Passed | Rate 2026 (2025) |
|---|---|---|---|
| GCE O Level | 98,040 | 65,539 | 74.43% (78.57%) |
| GCE A Level | 70,739 | 43,211 | 61.78% (79.39%) |
| TVEE Intermediate Level | 29,054 | 16,804 | 60.50% (52.10%) |
| TVEE Advanced Level | 10,908 | 7,875 | 72.89% (71.19%) |
| Total | 208,741 | 133,429 | 67.88% (75.46%) |
Where are the English-speaking schools?
The heart of the subsystem lies in the North-West and South-West regions, but it is not confined to them. In 2021-2022 MINEDUB counted 6,782 English-speaking primary schools out of 22,074 nationwide. MINESEC records English-speaking general secondary students in all ten regions, and English-speaking commercial technical streams in the Centre and Littoral as well as the North-West and South-West. At the 2026 GCE session, the best region at O Level was the Centre (78.95%) and the best at A Level was the South-West (64.98%).
In higher education, the universities of Buea and Bamenda follow the Anglo-Saxon tradition; the other state universities follow the French model while being officially bilingual.
Schools at the heart of the Anglophone crisis
In October 2016, lawyers in the English-speaking regions went on strike against the appointment of French-speaking judges to their courts. In November 2016, thousands of teachers joined them and all schools in the English-speaking regions closed. Their demands concerned English-language teaching in schools and universities and, more broadly, what they saw as the marginalisation of the English-speaking education system, according to Human Rights Watch. The government promised dialogue; in January 2017 it banned the Anglophone civil society consortium and arrested its leaders.
The movement then turned into an armed conflict. According to Human Rights Watch (report of 16 December 2021), armed separatist groups enforced a school boycott through violence: at least 70 schools attacked since 2017, at least 268 students and education staff kidnapped, and about 700,000 students out of school in the English-speaking regions. The same report also criticises abusive operations by the security forces. Cameroon endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration in September 2018.
| Region | Primary schools | Of which functioning |
|---|---|---|
| North-West | 1,936 | 878 |
| South-West | 1,330 | 967 |
| Cameroon | 22,074 | 20,064 |
The pressure also shows in public secondary enrolment: according to the MINESEC yearbook, the North-West had only 38,684 students in public general and technical secondary schools in 2023-2024, against 242,589 in the neighbouring West region.
Bilingualism and bridges
The 1998 law enshrines bilingualism at every level: each subsystem teaches the other official language, and bilingual classes exist in French-speaking secondary schools from 6e onwards. The two subsystems meet at the entrance to higher education, since both the GCE A Level and the baccalauréat give access to university. However, no text available online sets out the rules for switching from one subsystem to the other during schooling.
Frequently asked questions
What are the classes in Cameroon's English-speaking system?
Two years of Nursery, Class 1 to Class 6 in primary, Form 1 to Form 5 in secondary, then Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth in High School.
What French-subsystem class corresponds to Form 5?
By year of study, Form 5 corresponds to Seconde: it is the fifth year of secondary school. But it ends with the GCE O Level, whereas the French-speaking BEPC is taken a year earlier, in 3e.
When was the GCE Board created?
By Decree No. 93/172 of 1 July 1993. Its headquarters are in Buea.
Can you sit the GCE in a French-speaking region?
Yes: English-speaking schools exist in all ten regions. At the 2026 session, the Centre region even had the best GCE O Level pass rate (78.95%).
Is there a probatoire in the English-speaking system?
No. English-speaking students sit the GCE O Level in Form 5 and then the GCE A Level in Upper Sixth, with no intermediate exam in Lower Sixth.
Why did English-speaking teachers strike in 2016?
They objected to what they saw as the marginalisation of the English-speaking education system and demanded English-language teaching in schools and universities. Their strike, in November 2016, closed every school in the English-speaking regions.
Handle with care
Out-of-school figures linked to the crisis vary by organisation and date; Human Rights Watch's date from 2021 and no more recent UNICEF or OCHA figures are used here. MINEDUB's 'non-functioning' schools (2021-2022) include all causes of closure. The exact number of English-speaking secondary students is not broken out in the MINESEC yearbook. Some sites describe a former 7-year English-speaking primary cycle: the 1998 law sets 6 years, which is the length used here. For the 2026 GCE session, two reports give slightly different numbers of A Level candidates who sat (69,765 or 69,947).