Education in Cameroon: understanding the system in 2026

Access: 5.29 million primary pupils in 2023/2024 and an administrative net rate of 96.2%. The modelled out-of-school rate for primary age (UNESCO 2025) is about 5.5% — but 44.5% of lower-secondary-age youth and 71.9% of upper-secondary-age youth are out of school.

Learning: 72% learning poverty (World Bank). Of one hundred children affected, about ninety are already enrolled. Mathematics is the weak point of the francophone subsystem (PASEC 2019).

Completion: of one hundred children, about 78 complete primary, 50 lower secondary, 23 upper secondary (UNESCO 2025). Girls now complete more than boys at every level — a reversal from 2010s country briefs.

Teachers: 121,453 primary teachers (2023/2024), pupil–teacher ratio 43.6 — but 63.5 if only qualified teachers are counted. The special teacher status, filed in October 2023, was still unsigned as of 3 August 2026.

Financing: depending on the perimeter, education is ~13% of the state budget (debt included) or ~18–19% excluding debt. Secondary receives more than primary. APEE fees remain in force despite official free schooling.

Dropout is almost never a question of intelligence: it is a question of conditions. Side costs (APEE, uniforms, supplies), children called upon for small earnings, large classes, no homework help, and sometimes no birth certificate — without which a pupil cannot sit official exams.

Flows clog in primary: 13.3% over-age, 11.6% repetition in 2023/2024. Then primary-to-lower-secondary transition reaches only ~60% of pupils (INS 2021/2022). Beyond that, nearly three in four upper-secondary-age youth are out of school.

On gender, the story has changed: girls complete more than boys (parity index 1.08 at primary in 2025). Blind spots remain elsewhere — rural women's literacy (~50%, DHS 2018), and female teachers' qualification rates (60.4% vs 81.7% for men).

No factor predicts a child's school destiny better than region of birth. At the 2026 baccalauréat, the South-West reached 54.26% pass rates versus 26.27% in the Far North. PASEC 2019 already showed, early in primary, 10% of pupils below the language threshold in Littoral versus 90% in the Far North.

Priority education zones (Adamawa, East, Far North, North) concentrate the lag. In rural areas, access to the final year of secondary is only 5% versus 27% in urban areas (INS). Three in four upper-secondary students come from the richest 40%.

The partner association implements projects in intervention areas in Yaoundé, Bertoua and Zoétélé — the Belgian foundation funds and supports, without establishing itself in Cameroon.

Cameroon's core problem is no longer primary enrolment: it is what happens in the classroom, then at the transition to lower secondary. Individualised support — a homework school — acts on academic delay and confidence, without replacing public school.

Administrative support matters as much as pedagogy: PAREC established tens of thousands of birth certificates for CM2 pupils and unlocked as many transitions. Material conditions (latrines, canteens) have a documented effect on girls' retention, even when learning scores do not move.

Method lesson from a randomised evaluation: giving money to schools improves schools, not automatically learning. Child learning outcomes must be measured. The partner association's homework school in Nkolmesseng (Yaoundé) has supported more than 320 children in that spirit.

The most complete lever is school sponsorship: for €600 a year (or €50 a month), you cover a child's enrolment in public school, their school kit and homework-school support for the year — with regular news of their progress.

Other forms exist: a one-off contribution (€60 for a month of supervised support), the Circle of 5 (€5 a month collectively), or corporate philanthropy partnerships.

AWAKEN DESTINY is a Belgian private foundation (BCE no. 1016.499.721) that funds and supports: 100% of donations received are allocated to projects carried out in Cameroon. Only payment fees (Stripe) and bank charges are deducted by providers; the foundation takes no operating fee.