ITCIG , SENTTI and CISETEP Bamenda

“Since 2007 we have sent out over 4000 teachers”        

-Principal: Achecknew Emmanuel

Achecknew Emmanuel is the Principal of Special Educational Need Teacher Training Institute SENTTI which was authorised to open since 2007. The establishment trains Grade One and Special Need Teachers. Achecknew Emmanuel is equally the Acting Principal for CISETTEP which is Cameroon Inclusive Education Teachers Training and Empowerment Programme. He is the Coordinator of the various schools which function in the domain of training teachers for Special Education. There is also a third school in Yaounde; IBES SENTTI at Carrefour Obili at Saint Francis Primary and Nursery School.

How did this initiative begin?

Since 2007 we have sent out over 4000 teachers. These include Grade I Teachers in Special Need Education and Inclusive Teachers. We did this till 2015 when the Minister of Secondary Education realised that we were doing very good work and decided to step in. He ordered that Special Need Teachers Training be taken out and made a separate school. By so doing, two schools were created. You have CISETTEP with campus in Bamenda and IBES SENTTI in Yaounde which is an Evening School to train Cameroon Inclusive Special Need Teachers. Teachers Grade I Schools that we have are just the same like other Grade I Schools across the country leading to the award of Grade I Certificates or what is referred to in French as CAPIEM. However the difference between our teachers and the others is that ours carry out studies in Sign Language and Braille Transcribing and by the time they go out, many of them are very proficient in the communication skills. That’s why when you go round, many of our students are found everywhere.

During graduations, employers usually rush to get some of them because of they are versatile. They are capable of accommodating pupils irrespective of their needs due to their inclusive training.

Achecknew Emmanuel

What is the focus of CISETTEP?

With the CISETTEP programme, we are out to recycle Grade One Teachers who did not undergo the Special Need Programme. That’s why the Ministry of Secondary Education created that school. They train teachers who will be able to accommodate children with special needs like those who are visually impaired, those living with hearing impairment, the physically challenged, the hyper active among others.Training has been going on well for Bamenda but for Yaounde people are still slowly getting to know that we are there. By this medium I wish to draw the attention of parents that there is also a branch of CISETTEP SENTTI in Yaounde known as IBES SENTTI which is an Evening School. Candidates who are based in Yaounde can go there.

You can find our graduates at the National Rehabilitation Center at Etougebe in Yaounde. You have Morning Star in Akum, the Treasure Center, the Bulu Blind Center in Buea among others. We also have candidates who came in from Chad.

Considering the Bilingual Linguistic Background of Cameroon what do you do to take care of extra linguistic needs?

This was specially taken care of at the time we were drawing the programme. French Language is considered a very important aspect of the training. We even bring in teachers from the Linguistic Center to help us so that candidates who leave here are also very proficient in the French and English Languages. That is why the Vice Principal of the school Simo Daniel is very bilingual.

What have been some of the challenges that you’ve had and how have you handled them?

Inclusive Education is still a new concept to many people are not usually certain about it. Secondly many of them come thinking that its just the ordinary fees that they pay in Secondary Schools. Considering that Inclusive Education is very expensive they are unable to pay. We can say that most students who come here go out without completing the fees. We are however happy that if they can go out and help the suffering of those in need then the proprietress Urwick Uginia will feel fulfilled since that’s one of the main objectives she had in mind when creating the institution. She has been putting in a lot to make the place work and has been running it at a loss.

Do you have any last Message?

We want to say that disability is not inability. Everybody has a degree of disability but this does not mean that with disability the person cannot function. With our help you can become much more functional with your disability and then contribute towards the development of your community. Disabled children are not as useless as we used to think. People used to lock up these children at home and took them for useless people. Times are changing with the coming to light of these new concepts. We are saying that parents, friends, relatives, mayors and those in authority should help bring out these children to us. We have a school for them.  There is a cost but not as high as it should have been if you had to take these children to distant specialised institutions.

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CEFED Special Need Teacher Training Institute, Santa

 One of our girls who had no arms passed in five Ordinary level papers – Director, CEFED SANTA

Who exactly is Nungu Magdalene?

I am Reverend Nungu Magdalene, the Founder and Director of the Center for the Empowerment of women with disabilities CEFED Santa. I had an infection in my brain at the age of 12 which left me with physical disabilities but God used this physical disability to call me in the venue of Ministry and one of my partners is Joni and Friends, an outreach programme for families affected with disabilities. I am an English teacher in Government Bilingual high School Bamenda but professionally I am an Inclusive teacher. I did Special Needs and Inclusion and I am Founder of Shilo Special Education and Inclusive Bilingual Teacher Training Institute in Yaounde and Shilo Special Education and Inclusive Primary School in Mbangkomo,Yaounde. I am a conference speaker and minister of the Gospel to families affected by disabilities.

What inspired you to take this direction?  

  I had an infection in my brain at the age of 12 which left me with physical disabilities and I stayed on the wheel chair for a couple of months. I lost my voice and God reinstated it. Now I can walk the way you see me walking and my parents were very loving and I remember my dad always telling me that I could make it. That kept ringing in me as I walked through life. Later on, in looking for ways in improving on my mobility my parents sent me to Nguti hospital in 2007 for an orthopedic surgery. While in the hospital I met many children from several villages and neighbouring countries who’d come for orthopedic surgery. There I met a girl from a very wealthy home who was very bitter because her parents had abandoned her that she was good for nothing. There was this little girl called Glory who’d had about 14 surgeries who told me her mum would always cook food and give her last because she was good for nothing. Only Reverend Brothers were taking care of them. I was reading my Bible one night and I came across Isaiah 40 verse 29 which says he gives strength to the weary and he increases the power of the weak. I felt like reaching out with this strength and comfort that God had given me.  With the permission of the chaplain I started talking to these children and giving them courage. I kept telling them that in their condition they could become just anything that they wanted to become in life.  This scripture kept ringing in my mind. II Corinthians 2 v 1:4. Thanks be to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who comfort us in times of our tribulations so that we might in turn comfort others. This desire to reach out to others with disabilities has never left me since then. 

Fon  of Mankon and Senator Simon  Achidi Achu seen here at the Graduation Ceremony of CEFED SANTA at the Congress  hall in Bamenda

 

So concretely how did you get things started?

I started by creating the Center for the Empowerment of Females with disabilities with inspiration from Isaiah 40 V 29. God gives power to the weary and increases the strength of those who are weak. I teamed up with some women to look for ways on how we could go ahead with the programme. We started this association in the year 2000. Basically we went to small villages gathering people with disabilities and sharing my testimony to them and giving them symbolic gifts and telling them they had something to offer to their societies. So we went round in the local churches raising awareness on disabilities and telling them about the need for an inclusive Gospel. In 2004 I started a school for kids with disabilities.

Beginning the school was certainly a herculean task considering the financial demands?

Considering that it was a calling, I knew I was going to succeed. I contacted my friends and equally relied on the salary I was earning as a teacher in Government Bilingual high School Bamenda as a base and that’s where we started. We also met Senator Simon Achidi Achu who showed us a compound. There was water just besides it and it was accessible to the road side. We renovated the house and a friend brought in a TV. Others brought in mattresses, pots and before we knew it, the place was set to start up a school. That was really a big relief because one of the students was a case from Balikumbat with polio and barely crept to the road side to go to school and wait for somebody to help her with a lift to school and at the end of the day look for a bike to take her home. She could wait for two, three or even four hours. We tried buying her books and giving her other provisions but sometimes she still found it difficult to go to school. The fact that we set up that place in 2004 meant she had where she could go to school. We then brought in Sandra,an abandoned victim of violence from Bafmen. She was abandoned by the river side and considering that she was from the spirit realm she had these cerebral problems that affected her growth and speech. She could hear and could reason to an extent. Later on when she did not go back to the spirit realm she was abandoned to her grand mum who kept her and they lived in a small room where they kept fowls. We met her creeping on the ground where she had urinated and excreted on her body and picking food with her mouth because her arms were inactive. She had maggots all over her body and flies were trailing her. We had to clean her up, brushed her teeth for the first time and put her in clean sheets and in two weeks Sandra was a different child with a beautiful smile on her face. We started with four children but at the beginning of the second year we had 28 children and the following year we had 35..

So how did it move on to become a modern inclusive school?

In 2010 we created inclusive classrooms and opened up a school for neighborhood children. Eventually we saw the need for the creation of a modern inclusive bilingual primary school where these kids could interact with disabled children and appreciate the qualities in them as they studied together. This was a great achievement in the education of these kids within an inclusive setting.

How have the results at public examinations been?  

They have been having great results and they have not just ended at the government Common Entrance and FSLC First School Leaving Certificate but have gone way beyond. One of our girls who had no arms passed in five Ordinary level papers. She writes with her feet. We did her individual educational plan and followed up her studies at GBHS Santa. She has made it and some other students have equally made their A levels. The primary school has two sections: There is the Partial Inclusive Programme for kids with mental retardation. It is the only partial inclusive programme that has a boarding facility and harbors children from all over the country. From Yaounde, the North, Tiko, Muyuka to come and study alongside non-disabled peers. When this school was created, I went on a mission trip to the United States and met Dr. Anderson David who was the Director of Special Need Education in the Bethel University. When I told him that we were not trained to work with kids having special needs he offered me a scholarship for a Masters programme on Special Needs Education.I also lobbied for Joni and Friends; a huge Ministry in the United States to take up Cameroon in some of their outreach programmes which gives mobility to poor families affected with disabilities.

Who are those strong supporters that you think have greatly contributed to make this school what it is today?

The turning point was when Dr. Anderson David resigned from his position as Director of Special Need Education at Bethel University in Missouri to come over to Cameroon and work with me for two years. The Board of Directors of his Church and some friends supported him with up keep for two years. He came over to Cameroon in October 2007. We launched the Special Need and Inclusive Teacher Training Programme with the first badge made up of post graduate students from Ecole Normale Superieur who were either counselors, principals, teachers in Schools, Teachers in government Teacher Training Colleges and much more. There were 54 of them and 12 others who were doing the grade I Teachers Course in the Special Need and Education Programme. This cream of students who did a two year intensive programme with Dr. Anderson David including myself have not relented their efforts. Some are doing their Masters, others are doing their PhD

CEFED Director and Dr Anderson David

What are the entry levels into the school?

To get into CEFED Special Need Teacher Training Institute, you have either two A levels which will permit you to a one year course which will take you through a teacher training grade I Certificate and you will also get in the Department of Special Need and Inclusive Education which will earn you a Diploma in Special Need and Inclusive Education. Those who have five ordinary levels to one A Level will do two years to earn a government grade I Teacher Training Certificate and a Diploma in Special Need and inclusive education. Those who have four ordinary levels will do three years to earn the same certifications. In the Department of Special Need Education we have Post graduate Students and people from all other professions as well as other teachers studying in the field who can come and do just their internships in special need and inclusive education to update because now inclusive education is the focus. CEFED happens to be one of the Inclusive institutions that the government is relying on for super seasoned trained staff and we have content that we are giving out not only in the teacher training school but we have an inclusive practicing school there and a special program for kids with mental retardation who are doing a partial inclusive program.

What about the campus in Yaounde?

The difference with Shilo Special Education and Inclusive Bilingual Teacher Training Institute is that it is bilingual. Children with disabilities are found in both the English speaking and French speaking Cameroon so we need to be structured in such a way that suites this bilingual dispensation and that’s why in 2014 we started the Shilo Special Education and Inclusive Bilingual Teacher Training Institute to train inclusive teachers and the Shilo Bilingual Nursery and Primary Inclusive Bilingual School, located in Mbangkomo, Yaounde to take care of kids with disabilities and permit them study with kids with no disabilities taught by expert inclusive teachers in inclusive classes. These experts assess children before their Independent Educational Plans are drawn. These plans are respected by every school as a legal document.

 

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“There is a lot of Sabotage and Propaganda about schools in the North West” – Paffe Nungu Jackaline,Regional Pedagogic Adviser

 Paffe Nungu Jackaline Kenye is the Regional Pedagogic Adviser for Primary Education at the Regional Delegation of Basic Education for the Northwest Region. She is equally the proprietress and Founder of Model Inclusive Bilingual Complex which has a nursery and Primary practicing school. The complex also runs a Bilingual Teacher Training Institute which she refers to as the model of Inclusive Education in Cameroon.

 

What makes you refer to Model Inclusive complex as the model of Inclusive Education in Cameroon?

We have all types of children from different groups included in the same classrooms. The teachers managing all these different categories of children in the same classroom are equally inclusive. This makes us a model in inclusive education.

There is this tendency for clandestine schools to insistently stay on despite all the efforts put in to put an end to this phenomenon. You are at the Delegation and it is your job to observe activities in the field. What is your take on the present situation as school reopening draws near?

This is a very critical area because parents go out there to schools without knowing if these schools are authorized by the Minister. In Basic Education for example, we usually come out with a list of authorized schools and that list is published and announced through radio stations. Immediately schools reopen, we go out for the monitoring of school re-opening in all the Divisions in the Northwest Region. After the monitoring, we come out with the list of those schools which have not been authorized to function. We then form a team involving the Police, the Divisional Officers and we go out and close the unauthorized schools. It is therefore not correct to run a school that is not authorized by the government. These clandestine schools are harboring children who are all Cameroonians. We need to know what they are doing and if they are respecting the programme from the ministry. We need to know if they are secured and if the people running the school are qualified.  We have been following up this issue of clandestine schools and this year will not be different.

Design of the Model Inclusive Complex Building being constructed

You are in education and at the same time you are in a position of control at the Delegation of Basic Education. How are the establishments that you run shining examples of legalized schools?

As part of the team implementing policy in the region, I cannot run an unauthorized school. My Schools are authorized. The Model Inclusive Bilingual Nursery and Primary School was authorized on the 4^th of September 2012 and the school is receiving subventions from the Government. A school which is not authorized cannot receive subvention from the government. Secondly, the teacher training institute which came to supplement this primary school is also authorized. It was authorized on the 8^th of September 2015 by the Minister of Secondary Education, Louis Bapez Bapez at the time. That authorization was for the creation and now we’ve had an authorization given by the present Minister of Secondary Education which was signed on the 14^th of January 2016. This year, the Ministry of Secondary Education has sent the names of authorized schools in the North West Region and the maximum number of children to train. The name of Model Inclusive School came from the Ministry to the Delegation of Secondary Education. So we have been authorized by the Ministry of Secondary Education to train Inclusive Teachers. As indicated in the name of my school, when I was making papers for that school I indicated that we would be running two programmes. We had a special education need programme and the Teachers Grade one Certificate CAPIEM. So the Ministry authorized an Inclusive School. To get these authorizations, I presented my Master Degree in Special Need Education from a renowned European University. I studied in three universities in London, Czech Republic and Fontis University in Holland. From Fontis University I had a Master Degree in Inclusive Education.  I was equally trained by the Cameroonian Government as an Inspector from Higher Teacher Training College ENS Yaounde where I did English Modern Letters and Sciences of Education. We were trained as Administrators. I first of all worked in the Teacher Training College for eight years before being appointed as Divisional Pedagogic Adviser where I worked for three years. Presently I am the Regional Pedagogic Adviser for Primary Education.

 

What is that expert advice that you can give to students and parents at this very sensitive time when they can easily be dissuaded?

Parents should know that if they are interested in sending their children to a school, the best place to get information from is at the Delegations. Simply go to the Delegation of Secondary Education and ask for the list of authorized schools. Don’t listen to individuals because there is a lot of sabotage going on and propaganda that people make about their schools. This is because there is competition in business and some people have a coward’s attitude in the way they face this competition. Parents should not listen to individuals but should rather go to the various delegations linked to education and ask for the list of authorized schools. If you are interested in a field of studies, you need to prepare yourself before you launch into that field. The opening of an inclusive teacher training college doesn’t need that you just get up as a business person looking for a new area of investment and just get involved that you are running an inclusive school. You need to be prepared. Have you been trained to be an inclusive teacher? You can’t give what you don’t have. When you go out there to look for schools, look for educationists who have opened schools. Model Inclusive is a school for teachers by teachers.See more about model inclusive Complex at (modelinclusive.wordpress.com)

 

Interviewed by  Ekongang Nzante Lenjo

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ITCIG-SENTTI and CISETEP Bamenda churn out 138 Grade one and 40 Inclusive Special Education Teachers

The Special Education Needs Teacher Training Institute Bamenda has churned out 138 Grade I teachers and 40 Inclusive Special Education teachers. This took place during a joint Graduation and Prize Award Ceremony of the 10^th Batch of Grade one Teachers and the 9^th Batch of Inclusive Special Education Teachers from ITCIG-SENTTI and CISETTEP Bamenda on the 12^th of August 2016 at the Bamenda Congress Hall.

Achecknew Emmanuel (Principal) delivering keynote address

Speaking during the graduation ceremony, Achecknew Emmanuel, the principal of the establishment said since the establishment was authorized on February 14, 2007, it has been pioneering the ongoing development and implementation of the Cameroon Inclusive Special Education for ten years. After this period, he said the achievements have been wonderful and appreciative. He said “the products of this institution are everywhere in Cameroon pioneering inclusive education and inclusive principles across many ministries. Meanwhile, the department of inclusive special education was taken out and two post teachers post professional schools were authorized to function as separate schools with the name Cameroon Inclusive Special Education Teacher’s Training and Empowerment Programme CISETTEP functioning in Bamenda as a day school.” The second school he said is SENTTI-IBES which functions in Yaounde as an evening school. These two schools he said were already functional.

Grade One Teachers proceeding into Hall

This year’s graduation ceremony was celebrated under the theme “SENTTI-CISETTEP partnering with the Government in the professional training and development of general and inclusive special education human resource to meet the needs of inclusive education in Cameroon.”

Introducing the students graduating, the principal said the first group of graduating students, 138 in number were graduating with the Teacher’s Grade I Certificate after spending three, two and one year depending on their entry qualifications. The second group he said was leaving CISETTEP with a Higher Diploma in Inclusive Special Education. The teacher’s Grade one candidates scored 96% pass while the inclusive teachers scored 100% in their own examination.

The Governor of the North West Region was represented at the graduation ceremony by Nji Joseph Chief of Socio-economic and Cultural Affairs at the Governor’s Office said he had a dream “that this school has a bright future.” He called on the initiators of the initiative to place it at God’s footsteps. He further said “your hard work has yielded fruits with authorizations to open two professional schools to recycle professionals in inclusive education.” He called on the school authorities to continue working hard and encouraged professionals to make an endeavour to be inclusive.

Uginia Urwick: Founder of ITCIG-SENTTI/ CISETTEP

The Rector of the establishment, Professor Einstein M. E. Anyi said SENTTI was the only Inclusive Educational institution in Cameroon adding that work was presently going on at the permanent site of the institution and that in a very short while students were going to move over. In a bid to express the degree of the ambitions of the initiators of the establishment, he said soon they would move ahead with the creation of the All Inclusive University.

Nji Joseph: Governor’s representative

The initiator and Founder of the establishment Uginia A. Urwick announced that the initiative was launching a National Scholarship Programme which will benefit the disadvantaged children and focused on the empowerment of youths in the country.

One of the highlights of the occasion was an Academic Discourses on the role of stakeholders in the implementation of Inclusive Education in Cameroon.

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Trinity Comprehensive High School Bamenda

“We have taken an oath with parents to put in our best”

–NTALLA Abdoullayi MFOUAPON; Principal

Talla Abdulai, the principal of Trinity Comprehensive High School Ndamukong Street Bamenda is trained in the University of Besançon in France and also in Germany. In France he got an MA degree in Pedagogy and Didactics among other certifications that he obtained in Europe. Among other things he has disclosed that they have taken an oath with parents to give in their best He was interviewed by Cameroon School News’ Francis Ekongang Nzante Lenjo at his Ndamukong Street Office in Bamenda.

Yours is one of those revolutionary schools that have studied Cameroon’s educational landscape taken into consideration its weaknesses before stepping in to provide solutions. How far do you think you have been addressing these problems?

Our aim is first of all to build a community school taking care of those children without access to expensive schools. We have gone far in this direction as we have continuously reduced our fees. We are actually that community school since we take in children from any facet of society. We even give scholarships to some abandoned ones. All of these things make us a revolutionary school. A school that goes beyond the ordinary or above what stakeholders expects.

What kind of college is Trinity?

Here we have two schools in one. We have the Grammar section and we also have a commercial school. Both sections run from Forms One to Upper Sixth. We are making a difference because we have a school in which there is discipline and where a human being is taken care of completely. It is not just a question of preparing children for the General Certificate of Education GCE but rather a question of forming complete people to fit in society after the GCE.

With the inclusive background that you have one is tempted to believe that the quasi absence of inclusive education in Cameroon is one of those problems you plan to solve.

To push it into the educational system is a slow process but it is slowly being introduced. We have covered reasonable ground and we believe the population is beginning to understand us. Because when we started this school it took us two years to get the first physically impaired student. We had to adapt our environment like the steps. We were forced to introduce some slanting steps for children with tri-cycles. We have two children that are orthopedic. They cannot move like the other children but they can however move around with their friends using certain structures that we have designed for them. It is an inclusive environment not only socially but physically as well.

What were some of the highlights of the academic year that just ended and what new thing is the school bringing in this year?

We improved a lot during the past academic year in the sense that only two students repeated with an average of 8/20. It was wonderful and we have not had that for a good number of years. In the past we’ve always had a good number of students repeating but this time around with only two students repeating I think it’s a reasonable achievement. We have also achieved something academically in terms of GCE results. We had a percentage pass of 80.65% at the GCE O Levels. This is good considering the fact that we sent in a huge number of candidates. Qualitatively the results are also good since we had students scoring 22 and 23 points. We look forward to introducing general counseling sessions thrice a week. I am aware of the fact that we still need to improve upon the quality of our ordinary level results. This year we are going in for the first time at the GCE A levels. We plan to throw in all our weight to have good results quantitatively and qualitatively.

You certainly have a special message for educational stakeholders.

I call on all interested parties to put hands on deck to make sure that we succeed in attaining our objectives in this school. That objective is to make the school a real community school. We have also taken an oath with parents to give in our best in academics, discipline and socials

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Special Education Need Teacher Training Institute, Bamenda and CISETTEP, Yaounde.

“Children who go to school should eventually have means of survival”

-Achekni Emmanuel, Principal

What exactly are SENTTI and CISETTEP?

Achekni Emmanuel, Principal of SENTTI, Bamenda

I have been here for about ten years as the principal. When I came in 2007 we had two main programmes. SENTTI means Special Education Needs Teacher Training Institute. Our main aim was to train teachers who were capable of accommodating all learners in the main stream classroom irrespective of their background, disabilities or impairments. The first programme was to come out with Grade I teachers and the second was to train inclusive teachers knowing that the first one; teachers grade I was the foundation of the second; the inclusive education teachers. I want to say that ITCIG is the Information Technology Common Initiative Group. It is what first existed before around 2002 created by the initiator when she first came to Cameroon. After sometime she realised that this could not help all the people. Since she wanted that many more people’s lives should be impacted by the initiative she brought in the SENTTI to train teachers who would come in as holders of inclusive teacher’s certificates or diplomas who would be capable of accommodating all learners irrespective of their needs. This needed compiling the files, moving to Yaounde and convincing the authorities at that time to see with her. Fortunately they did and gave her the authorization on the 14^th of February 2007.

What do you have in store with the new academic year around the corner?

Before an academic year starts, we have a number of things that we do. We make preparations for registrations to write the entrance examinations into the various segments of the school. This usually takes us some time. It seems as if special and inclusive education is not yet well known because many people do not quite see the future in it. This is because the whole thing is new and they don’t yet understand its importance. It therefore takes time for us to get parents, students and communities to understand and come to us. It’s quite an expensive venture to make them get to us. We think that our endeavors are paying off because parents now come and the children themselves come to enquire.

What about the problem of getting teachers in this new domain?

There is also preparation at the level of getting the necessary teachers. This is also tricky because this is a new programme and we will not pretend to say that teachers have been on the ground. We have to search for the teachers and we even have to get some and have them trained on the spot. Many of those we train on the spot are now experts. According to the feed-back we get from the field, I think we have been working very well. When we do all of this, we prepare and the year starts. We however have a problem of running the two programmes. You have the teacher’s Grade I programme and the Inclusive teachers’ programme. We usually have to start one earlier than the other especially the inclusive teacher’s training programme because it is a full one year programme. It is very intensive so we start it in the middle of July usually between the 15^th and the twentieth of that month.

We have two theoretical blocks of ten weeks each. Each block ends with an end of block examination and each block has about 19 courses that we do. We usually end before Christmas and when we come back in January they go out for three months field placements; what the Francophones call stage. They do this in social centers spending one month in each center. One of them must be a school where you have children with some impairment such as those with hearing impairments. They have to go those schools and teach completely; writing their lesson notes and teaching. They also have to go to a school with learners having visual impairments and do the same. We also have schools with physical disabilities such as mental retardation amongst others in centers like SAJECA and other disability centers like the National Center for rehabilitation at Etougebe in Yaounde which constitute some centers that we use for field placements. After the three months, they come back and write projects. After defending these projects, the feed-back goes back to the various centers and stakeholders of Inclusive Education. This helps to bring about changes which we are greatly looking for.

How far do you think your ambitions have been met up with since the creation of these institutions?

I want to say with all confidence that we have met our dreams. I have been in this programme now for about ten years and I think the dreams that the initiator of the project had at the beginning which she shared with us have been achieved at about 90%. The sensitization has gone and we are implanting the structures on the ground and people are now aware of it and hierarchy has embraced it. That’s why we know that the seed has been well sown. We are sure that what we have planted will not die because hierarchy has adopted it. It is because of this initiative that after 9 years of operating, the hierarchy of Secondary Education decided that the special education programme that was enshrined in the whole SENTTI programme was not enough to bring about a quick recycling of teachers. We have created two schools; one in Yaounde called IBES which is a bilingual school and run as an evening school and the Cameroon Inclusive Special Education Teachers Training and Empowerment Programme CISETTEP. The other one is the special education teachers’ training in Bamenda which is an empowerment programme; a day school here in Bamenda. These have come up because hierarchy has been impressed by what we are doing and want many teachers to benefit from it.

What is your message to stakeholders of the Cameroon Educational System?

To the educational hierarchy and others in related services, I propose that they should grant study leaves to their staffs so that they can come in here to study. The two schools that have been created in Yaounde and Bamenda are meant for them so that they can be recycled. I also want the parents to know that one of the things they should have in mind when educating their children is the fact that these children who go to should eventually have the means of survival. After doing this programme, the job opportunities will be available in a very competitive labour market.

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Special Education Needs Teacher Training Institute:Bamenda

 

“SENTTI will be launching its National Scholarship Programme Very soon”

-Uginia Auick; Initiator

She is the initiator of Cameroon Inclusive special Education Teacher Training and Empowerment Programme. It is a programme that does not only train teachers but is also involved in the professional enhancement of all professionals in the domain of inclusive education.

How was the whole idea hatched?

The whole idea was hatched before the year 2000. I remember coming to Cameroon around 1994 to carry out some research on the culture of Cameroon because I was representing Cameroon in the Bahamas in the International Cultural Committee which I did for almost seven years. As a result, we had to present our countries in various forms. While doing this, I came across many other things such as cultural practices that were hindering many children from becoming what they wanted to be. Certain cultural practices were depriving many from exploiting opportunities like others. This pushed me to go further with my research. In 2002 I decided to formally register an organisation Information Technology Common Initiative Group. The approach was going to involve using many other people in the field to do the research and get what we wanted to know to move on with.

From ITCIG you found yourself being propelled into other things. How did it all happen?

The reasons I found myself in a different playground was because my overall objective ITCIG was to foster economic development in an inclusive manner. Fostering economic development and carrying out the programme under ITCIG proved difficult because I realised that those I was trying to reach were not reachable. As such I was only ending up diversifying the skills of existing people while those who had no skills to do anything were completely left out. That’s why in 2003 I came up with a workshop for teachers in integrating technology to education. This proved to me that the problem was not the teachers but the system or the format of training teachers. The problem was the way professionals were trained across the sectors in Cameroon. It had to do with the cultural practices in Cameroon.

So what was the next step you took?

The lack of policy implementation in Cameroon among other problems made me realise that I was not going to sit behind and cry. I decided to be part of the solution. and opted for another initiative for training of human resources for Cameroon to meet the socio-economic needs for inclusive development. That’s why I came up with this concept of Inclusive Special Education in the Teacher Training Approach. This means producing the caliber of human resources that would be able to cut across in identifying and re-addressing issues affecting persons with and without disabilities in the country.

Has the government recognised your efforts all along?

I am happy to say that in 2006-2007 academic year, we were lucky to have the authorisation from the state to implement this project as such and that’s how the whole dream of training human resource to meet the need of inclusive education in Cameroon came about. We have now trained for over ten years and we have trained more than 2000 teachers in Cameroon who are not just ordinary teachers but teachers trained for inclusive education and teachers who are sign language interpreters, inclusive special educators, among others. This implies that teachers from SENTTI can be employed to work in whatever domain they chose to work across the ministries. They either chose to teach or to work in other sectors. This is because when you train them, they come here to do a teacher grade I which is just a fundamental teaching level into the inclusive training education programme though within their grade I we provide them courses in special education but because it is still basic we don’t give them any qualification. In the post professional training, that is done. In a nutshell, our concern was about identifying issues affecting exceptional persons and removing barriers to access and it has now become a National Programme and is quite fruitful. We have delivered what we expected within a very short time.

As time went on you did a number of things as circumstances demanded. Can you explain how that happened?

Sometimes it is difficult to remember all the things I have done in this project. Because the ITCIG project in the course of doing research to transform the conceived alternative for training of professionals in Cameroon I was doing other things besides it. For instance, we provided an orphan educational outreach programme. We started this with children having vulnerable backgrounds from class six in primary school and gave them scholarships. These scholarships went up to high school and we continued if the children succeeded. Along the line we had to open our doors to train children from vulnerable backgrounds who could not go to general education due to lack of means in Information Technology. Within nine months they could actually be qualified professionals to put food on their tables. I equally won the first prize for Food Processing for the Northwest Region along the line. Besides all of this, I am a technical adviser to SPAR Cameroon and we had to give scholarship and funding to other projects within the Northwest Region. About 28 of them have benefitted from this.

What is the dimension of your activities on the national territory?

SENTTI itself has a scholarship programme for youths and this makes us a stakeholder for the National Youth Forum where we have been giving scholarships to youths for the past four years. A hundred percent scholarship of two years professional training for identified youths that were sent here by the National Youth Service. We will be launching our SENTTI Scholarship Board very soon during our graduation ceremony. It is a national scholarship programme targeting deserving youths. We realised that youths are unemployed in Cameroon because they lack professional training. The best thing was to professionalize what they have to help them have jobs.

How successful do you think you have been?

Feed-back from the field shows that we’ve been doing a great job. Thanks to us the GCE Board is able to have sign language interpreters. When they are writing professional examinations there is need for accommodation of children with special needs and they call SENTTI for assistance. When Primary schools are writing exams, those scripts that are written by children with special needs are marked by SENTTI graduates. When we talk about special schools in this country like Centre Handicape  at Etougebe in Yaounde, SAJOCA, Treasure Centre, Mbingo among many others have benefitted from SENTTI’s human resource for quality education. Transforming the quality of teacher education in Cameroon since 1960 has been static. We have remained with the same teacher training curriculum. Thank God to SENTTI that in 2012 through our advocacy and recommendation the curriculum was reviewed for the first time since 1960. SENTTI has helped to revolutionalize the quality of teacher training in Cameroon. SENTTI has made it possible for the Government to work towards creating universal access to education for all.

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