Africa-Europe Conference on Higher Education Collaboration, 25 October 2019, Brussels „Investing in people, by investing in higher education and skills in Africa“ THE CONSTRAINTS OF INVESTING IN PEOPLE AND LOW ACAMEDIC ACHIEVEMENT AT CAMEROON’S STATE UNIVERSITIES UNIVERSITY OF MAROUA Project Presentation Project Results Investment in people in higher education and skills in The higher the demographic growth of students at the Cameroon is bedevilled by many socio-economic and universities in Cameroon, the more university infrastructure political problems : will deteriorate and the lower will be students’ academic Demographic growth and poor infrastructure has led achievement and their skills development. to the oversaturation and over-used of the ill- The higher the infrastructural poverty, the higher the the developed and multi-puposed classrooms which oversaturation of classrooms, the higher the rate of rotate between the various faculties. As a result, there absenteism because lack of space in the classrooms, the are: higer the oversimplification of examination papers to enable High rate of absenteism either because of lack of lecturers meet deadlines, the more lecturers over-strains economic means to go to the campus to follow lessons themselvs, the more the difficulties students have in or because of lack of space in the classrooms. heaaring the lecturers, the more lessons are interrupted, the Oversimplification of examination papers to enable less lecturers cover their syllabus and the more students lecturers meet deadline in the marking of hundreds of cheat during examinations. scripts and the publication of results. The lower the investment in research, the poorer Lack of microphones in classroom which over-strains laboratories will be equiped and the more abstract or the lecturer and penalise the students who hardly theoretical lessons will become as well as the less hear the lecturer. researchers will publish on local problems. Frequent interruptions of lesson because the halls are The poorer the teaching staff and didactic materials, the used for other purposes: conferences, examinations more non specialists will supervise students and the more and other curricular activities. students qualified lectureres will have for supervision as Course outline hardly cover because of lack of well as the more students will turn to unscientific sources teaching space often courses are hurriedly taught in in the internet for research. order to end the academic year. Project Activities The more unstable the political environment in Cameroon, Evaluation of students are not always the best the more there are thousands of internally displaced because of few invigilators to invigilate about two Firstly, we will carry out an in-depth identification of all the problems students in other part of the country, the more tens of hundred students so students cheat during that affect the investment in higher education and the development schools are burnt, the more lecturers are killed and examinations. of skills in Cameroon by using a pretest. This will be done using kidnapped, the more Students are caught between The Economic crisis has impaired investment in higher documentary research in which we will examine the growth of respecting orders from separatists and government. education in the following ways: university in Cameroon in relation to investment and skill The more English-speaking students leave to attend Low budget for research has led to poor laboratories development using a longitudinal method. This will enable us to university studies at French-speaking region, the more equipment which affects the output of the students. appreciate the problem in order to investigate it. difficulties they face in developing their skills because of Teaching is more abstract or theoretical than practical. Secondly, we will carry a profound research in the domain using the language barrier. Lecturers for example just tell students how the students of all the private and state universities of Cameroon. We software runs a programme without using a computer. will first of all pretest our measuring instruments in order that the Sustainability & Synergies More often students are not rich enough to go to the questions are exhaustive and accurate. Then we will use the laboratory center. sequential explanatory mixed method to carry the research. Very little publication on the local environment to Thirdly, we will recruit research assistants mostly university students When the skills of the students in Cameroon are increased, enable the adaptability of the students and for them and lecturers in all the major university centres of the country such it will lead to greater production in all the sectors and will to better appreciate their local research activities. as Buea, Douala, Yaounde, Dschang, Bamenda, Ngoundere, consequently affect the economic growth of the country as Poor teaching staff and didactic materials: Maroua and Bamenda to help administer the questionnaire which well as social inclusion and environmental durability. This There are more assistant lecturers who are more will take about two months. The selection of students will be by project will produce a change in investment in higher focused on completing their terminal degree than on simple randon sampling in which we will use the list of each education and skills and the dissemination of results will the courses they teach. Some take two weeks to university. We will number them in the sampling frame and then lead to organizational change and a new policy in higher complete a 60-hour course. generate a set of numbers randomly and select the students whose education in Cameroon. Results will stimulate the There is also a limited number of qualified lecturer to numbers we will be selected. Therefore the subjects will have an construction of more infrastructure, investment in supervise students. They supervise more than ten equal chance of being selected. The collected data will be laboratories, etc which will positively affect academic master and doctorate students per year. More often administered using software such as SPSS and others. performance and skills. supervision is not done by the specialists of the Fourthly, we will recruit professional statisticians to register the There will be a research synergy that will be created domain: not for expertise but to make money. findings in a software and then the data will be analysed. An between the lecturers of the various universities and Ill-equiped or no existing library that make research appropriate understanding of the result will lead us the fifth step of different faculties in order to better provide better ideas and very difficult and student have no option but to turn the research which is qualitative and it will be based on certain explore each other ideas and more especially to generate to unscientific sources in the internet. aspects after an understanding of the quantitative results. Sixthly, much better solutions. Very unstable political environment for the past three we will recruit experts in conducting interview preferably years have impaired skill development in Cameroon: sociologists, anthropologists and psychologist to conduct the Threats from secessionists from the English-speaking interview using a purposive sampling method. part of Cameroon has led to thousands of internally After the analyses of data, we will make an indepth Displaced students to other part of the country. recommendation per problem identified that will help to change Information Tens of schools have been burnt, lecturers have been policy and behavior that will better help in skill development and killed and kidnapped. investment in higher education. CONTACT INFORMATION Students are caught between respecting orders from Finally the result will be published in peer reviewed journals and Dr. Nanche Billa Robert separatists and government. books and will be presented in conferences and seminars. Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Sciences for The bicultural nature of the country also impaired skill Development development in the country. Difficulties of students Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences who find themselves in universities in the French University of Maroua speaking section of the Country in terms of language PO 664, Far North Region - Cameroon barrier. Tel1: 237677848241 or 237655790164 E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Social Media: https://web.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS SEARCHING FOR FUNDERS University of Maroua.