To boost basic education: Book council reviews new textbooks, didactics ahead of new school year.

This was during its 24th session for the evaluation of textbooks for the Ministry of Basic Education. The session was chaired by the council’s president, Jean-Paul Komon. 

Speaking in an interview at the start of the works, Jean-Paul Komon said the body will, during the session, evaluate more than 20 textbooks and workbooks submitted for selection.

This is in a bid to select new textbooks and workbooks that will be added on the official booklist for the 2024/2025 school year.

According to the president, new workbooks will be selected for the French, English and Mathematics subjects for the two systems as notably requested by the Ministry of Basic Education in its call for tender for new books in January this year. 

Two new textbooks, the president added, will also be selected and added to the official booklist in each of the two sub-systems of education. 

They include two books for Sound and Word Building for classes one and two for the English sub-system and the French sub-system equivalents. 

Two handwriting textbooks for classes one and two for the French sub-system, the president added, will also be added for the 2024/2025 school year.

According to the president, the new books will, upon inclusion on the booklist, serve as a major boost in the Cameroonian educational system at the basic education level, which is considered the heart of the entire system.

He said the books will particularly address issues like the recent reading challenge faced by pupils and other Cameroonian learners and several other lapses in the systems.

“The books are not going to change a lot, but they will be decisive to our educational system,” he said.

“All the books we are looking for are aimed at adding and improving on education. In the last years, we noticed that our children are having a lot of problems in reading and understanding what they are reading. We thought and are confident that Sound and Word Building, for instance, can handle that kind of a problem,” the president added. 

Prioritising quality 

According to Jean-Paul Komon, the council will not be complacent during the selection of the books. He said the institution will ensure it selects the books with the best quality to ensure it meets the demands of the educational system. 

“The focus of our evaluation is centered on quality because we have particular interest on getting very good books. We have received 11 proposals for the French sub-system and 15 in the English sub-system and we are very optimistic that we will select nothing but the best among the proposed pieces,” he said. 

Issues relating to the prices of books always come up during debates linked to the selection of books for schools. When asked if such constraints may affect the ongoing selection process, the president said all of that has been addressed already and will not serve as any hinderance during their talks.

“All the publishers who have submitted books for evaluation have given us their prices. For instance, if we can have textbooks sold for 1,800 FCFA, it means we can have workbooks that are sold at a maximum of 1,000 FCFA,” he said. 

Going for locally printed books to boost domestic market 

Besides the quest to select books of good quality to further enhance the efficiency of the basic education system while respecting the official price grading, the council also purely focusing on locally printed books, to boost the local market. 

According the president of the book council, all the books that will be selected will be those printed in Cameroon as instructed by the Prime Minister in an order in December 2020, within the framework of the promoting the National Industry of Textbook Production. 

He stated that the directive, which will be fully respected beginning this year, is the first step in the long and exalting walk towards the industrialisation of the book sector in Cameroon. 

The president insisted that the entire exercise is the beginning of the putting in place of what he said is the avant-gardist political vision spelt out in the December 2021 law on the book sector promulgated by the Head of State, President Paul Biya, to organise and promote the textbook industry.