The Cameroonian education system

Two subsystems, one law

Article 15 of Law No. 98/004 of 14 April 1998 states that the education system is organised in two subsystems, one English-speaking and one French-speaking, through which the national choice of biculturalism is reaffirmed. Articles 16 and 17 give both the same framework: nursery education (2 years), primary (6 years), secondary (7 years), post-primary (2 years) and teacher training for primary teachers (2 to 3 years). Article 18 provides for a certificate at the end of each cycle, in each subsystem.

The same law makes bilingualism a principle at every level of education, a factor of national unity and integration (Article 3), and makes primary education compulsory (Article 9). The main difference between the two subsystems lies in secondary school: the first cycle lasts 4 years in the French-speaking subsystem and 5 years in the English-speaking one, the second cycle 3 years against 2. The total is still 7 years.

The structure, level by level

Alongside this main track, the law provides for a 2-year post-primary stream (rural crafts and home economics sections, SAR/SM) and teacher training: the teacher training colleges for general (ENIEG) and technical (ENIET) education train primary school teachers. In 2024-2025, MINESEC counted 62 public ENIEG and 11 public ENIET.

Class-by-class equivalence, French ↔ English subsystem

The ministries do not publish an official equivalence grid online. The table below sets classes side by side by year of study, based on the structure laid down by the 1998 law and the class names used in the MINESEC yearbook. The two subsystems line up at the end of primary and at the end of secondary school, but not in between: the BEPC comes after 4 years of secondary school, the GCE O Level after 5.

Who does what: the four ministries

• MINEDUB (Basic Education): nursery and primary school, curricula at that level, literacy, supervision of secular and faith-based private schools, oversight of parent-teacher associations (PTAs). Created in 2004 when the former Ministry of National Education was split.
• MINESEC (Secondary Education): general and technical secondary schools, and primary teacher training colleges (ENIEG, ENIET). Also created in 2004.
• MINESUP (Higher Education): state universities, of which the minister is chancellor, grandes écoles and oversight of private institutes. A separate higher education ministry has existed since 1984.
• MINEFOP (Employment and Vocational Training): vocational training centres and employment policy. More than 80% of vocational trainees were enrolled in private centres in 2022, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

As a share of the state budget excluding debt, education and training accounted for 18.74% in 2019, 19.43% in 2021 and then 18.27% in 2022, slightly below the 20% recommended by development partners, according to the INS analysis of the sector statistical yearbook (2023). MINESEC alone absorbed about 59% of these resources, mostly in salaries. The World Bank, which uses a different base (total government expenditure), puts the figure at 13.8% in 2024 and at 2.84% of GDP in 2023.

Public, secular private and faith-based schools

The 1998 law allows private schools (Article 24). Official statistics distinguish three 'orders': public, private and community schools; the private sector is subdivided into secular, Catholic, Protestant and Islamic. The weight of private schools varies a great deal by level: they took in 67% of pre-school children in 2021-2022, but about a quarter of primary pupils and 31% of secondary students.

Key figures

Regional gaps remain wide. In 2021-2022, more than 6 in 10 five-year-olds attended pre-school in the Centre and Littoral regions, against about 1 in 10 in the Far North and North, according to INS. And only about 60% of children who complete primary school go on to secondary school.

Languages of instruction and bilingualism

French is the language of instruction in the French-speaking subsystem and English in the English-speaking one, and each teaches the other official language as a second language. The 1998 law enshrines bilingualism at all levels and lists the promotion of national languages among its aims (Articles 5 and 11). In French-speaking secondary schools, the MINESEC yearbook records bilingual classes from 6e, 'reinforced English' sections and, from 4e, a further foreign language (German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Italian).

The two subsystems are not confined to one part of the country: MINESEC records English-speaking general secondary students in all ten regions, and at the 2026 GCE session the best-performing region at O Level was the Centre (78.95% pass rate), a French-speaking region.

Frequently asked questions