(Business in Cameroon) - The 2019-2020 academic year has started today September 2, 2019, in Cameroon. According to Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa (photo), minister of basic education, 4,975,736 learners are expected in Cameroonian schools for this academic year. This includes 582,945 in preschool and 4,392,791 in public and private schools, the official indicates.   

These learners will be taught by 120,271 teachers in 27,659 nursery and primary schools. He reveals that the average teacher per public school is still low; 0.9 instead of the average 3 teachers per school.

The official also explains that in the Northwest and Southwest, secessionists closed or destroyed close to 3,000 schools (more than 4,000 according to the UNICEF). Some of those schools, a hundred to be precise, are being used as rear bases by secessionists, M. Etoundi Ngoa says. At the same time, more than 310,000 teachers, out of 400,000, have fled the two regions because of violence.

S.A.