By Doh James Sonkey
Secondary Education Minister, Prof Pauline Nalova Lyonga has defined the priorities of her ministry in the 2026 budget which stands at FCFA 595,233,000,000, compared to FCFA 583, 056, 000, 000 in 2025, representing an increase of FCFA 12 billion. She was telling Members of Parliament at the National Assembly as she defended her budget in front of members of the Finance and Budget Committee last November 28, 2025.
Talking to reporters in Parilament, Prof Nalova Lyonga said, “the first thing is that the government is so committed to pay the debt that it owes the teachers. That debt is figuring in our budget. The budget of MINESEC, if you look at it, it has increased as a result of paying the teachers’ debt. So, we are very happy with that.’’
She however said ‘‘our priorities will be especially to develop software that uses AI, by that I mean artificial intelligence, to improve the workplace of the school. How the teachers teach, what they use to teach, how the students understand it, how the students are able to learn even by themselves. We are very committed to make the school a safe place, because in Cameroon we have come across the fact that our schools are not safe. And yet schools, as we grew up, everybody knew that a school, a church, you know, those are places that you cannot go in to try to kill anyone. But it is the opposite that is happening today.’’
The Secondary Education boss narrated that ‘‘we are developing the concept of the clean and safe school, so that all schools can be safe for everybody; female, male, to go in with very good standards. That everybody can have the standards. I think that Cameroon is going to enjoy the controls that we are going to put in our schools, using the software, as I said, that is driven by artificial intelligence.’’
The Minister stressed that, ‘‘we are not going to use all the negative meanings that have been attached to digitalisation and AI as something that they use without revealing who they are. We are living in an unprecedented moment today, where anonymity is the way to do things for the young people. So, they are very happy to go in there and create you like a monster that you don’t know, because they have these tools, they know them. But they don’t have those for education. The tools for education are very difficult, and that is what we are trying to use today. So, all of those changes, you will find them from January going on, when we shall have all the tools that go with digital technology.’’