UNESCO’s executive board has selected former French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay as the new chief of the United Nations’ cultural agency.

Azoulay, who served as a minister under President Francois Hollande, narrowly beat Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote on Friday.

Azoulay must be approved by UNESCO’s 195 members on November 10.

The 45-year-old Azoulay will succeed Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian who has led the body since 2009.

The voting comes a day after the United States announced that it will withdraw from the UN’s cultural organization, accusing it of “anti-Israel bias.”

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Thursday that Washington would establish an “observer mission” to replace its representation at the Paris-based agency.

“In this time of crisis we need more than ever to support, strengthen and reform UNESCO and not leave it,” Azoulay told journalists, saying she would modernize the agency.

“If I’m confirmed…the first thing I will do is to restore its credibility, restore the faith of its members and its efficiency so it can act,” she added.

UNESCO is known for designating world heritage sites such as Syria’s Palmyra, the Grand Canyon in the US state of Arizona and twenty-two sites in Iran.

Source: Presstv

The United States has announced that it will withdraw from the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), accusing the UN’s cultural organization of “anti-Israel bias.”

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Thursday that Washington would establish an “observer mission” to replace its representation at the Paris-based agency.

“This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects US concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO,” the statement said.

“US withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2018. The United States will remain a full member of UNESCO until that time,” it added.

UNESCO, which has 195 member states, is known for designating world heritage sites such as Syria’s Palmyra, the Grand Canyon in the US state of Arizona and twenty-two sites in Iran.

The head of UNESCO Irina Bokova voiced “profound regret” over the US decision, calling it a “loss to multilateralism.”

“I wish to express profound regret at the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from UNESCO,” Bokova said in a statement.

The US also withdrew from the organization in 1984 during the administration of former US President Ronald Regan, claiming it was biased in favor of the former Soviet Union.

Former US President George W. Bush rejoined UNESCO in 2002. The US stopped funding the body in 2011, after the organization accepted Palestine as a member.

US President Donald Trump is also reportedly considering withdrawing the United States from the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which his administration accuses of being biased against Israel.

Source: Presstv

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Soter Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

Some schools have remained completely closed in La Republique du Cameroun, despite vain attempts by the Francophone Ministers of Basic and Secondary Education to get academic institutions to begin classes in Southern Cameroons. Parents of children are in complete disarray in GHS Makoure and many other secondary schools in the Ocean Division and for good reason. Since the beginning of the school year, no teacher or even the principals of these government establishments have been visible.

Cameroon Concord News understands the governor of the South Region, Felix Nguelé Nguelé, completed a tour on September the 5th and announced on state radio and television that schools had effectively resumed. Cat calls have greeted the governor’s pronouncement with elites saying GHS Makoure never opened its doors on September 4th.

We learned teachers have not even returned to work three weeks after schools officially started throughout French Cameroun. In anger, the parents are pointing an accusing finger at Sieur Bikanda, the Divisional Delegate for Secondary Education. He is accused of having done nothing to improve the situation.

“The delegate wants to be the only elite in the area. His children are in Yaoundé and abroad studying in the best schools,” a parent said. The divisional delegation has however reacted saying, the situation is due to the fact that teachers were not assigned to the locality. In general, several institutions in the Ocean Division have assigned teachers who prefer to reside only in Kribi.

By Sama Ernest, CCN

The anti Anglophone Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo has told the Prime Minister and Head of Government that 80,000 of the 500,000 computers promised to Cameroonian students will be available as of November 2017. Fame Ndongo made the revelation during an extraordinary cabinet meeting that held on the 19th of September in the Prime Minister’s office in Yaoundé.

The controversial Francophone cabinet minister did inform Yang Philemon that he has put in place a transparent distribution mechanism that will take into account enrolment through the bio metric system in all the universities. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Higher Education, “The computers that students expect will be delivered to them from November on wards. The Ministry of Higher Education will simply have to dispatch the computers concerned to the students who will be enrolled beforehand by the bio metric system in order to avoid fraudulent or fraudulent distributions.”

Fame Ndongo and his higher education gang now say the computers should arrive faster than expected. Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo had made numerous declarations on the Biya Computer program but none has ever come out to be true. He promised the first wave by the end of December and then another delivery date was announced for the month of February 2017 and again deferred. Cameroon Concord News understands the devices are manufactured by a Chinese company that will also equip Cameroonian universities with digital technology centers.

By Sonne Peter, CCN

Last Saturday’s late arrival of the son of the President of the Republic at the examination centre for Cycle B “General Administration” into the National School of Administration and Magistracy, compelled the management of the exams to let the other candidates who came late into the hall.

A Mercedes brand vehicle matriculated CE 915 belonging to the Director of ENAM, Linus Toussaint Mendjana, having on board Paul Biya Junior entered the ENAM campus very late. Tongues have ever since been wagging on why the Director General of ENAM preferred to put his car at the disposal of the son of the President of the Republic.

4,837 candidates competed on Saturday 16 September for the entrance examinations at ENAM Cycle “B” of the administrative division. Paul Biya Junior sat for the exams in “G.A block 3” on constitutional law and general culture.

A week ago, Brenda Biya, the daughter of the President of the Republic, took part in the entrance examination to the cycle B “financial control” of the same school. The presence of the children of the President of the Republic in the list of candidates for entrance examinations to ENAM has generated a new debate in French Cameroun.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News

More and more children are being deprived of education in the Republic of the Congo over a protracted conflict and the country’s weak education system, an NGO says.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said Monday that some 850,000 children have been displaced and 900 schools have been destroyed as a result of intensified violence in Congo’s central Kasai region over the past year.

The group said the population is part of some 7.4 million children who are out of school in Congo as the conflict keeps taking toll on the country’s already weakened education system.

Some 92 percent of children in the six-to-11-year-old age group are out of school in the violence-hit towns of Kalemie and Tanganyika, the group said.

The group also warned that the vast Central African country risks losing its next generation as only 4 percent of humanitarian funds for education have been received this year.

“When children are displaced they are forced to suspend their education, or drop it altogether. This disruption to their development hinders their personal progress, and has detrimental effects to the socio-economics of the entire country,” said Celestin Kamori, the council’s Congo education program coordinator.

The campaigning group called on international donors to prioritize education emergencies.

“Donors should recognize that education is also a protection tool. Children enrolled in emergency education classes, catch-up classes and child-friendly spaces are less likely to join armed groups,” said Kamori, adding, “We need more funding to scale up emergency education support so that we don’t lose a generation.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council said many schools that are spared of the effects of fighting in Congo are used to shelter displaced families, further complicating efforts to restore the education system.

It added that school-aged children account for more than 17 percent of some 3.8 million people who have been displaced in Congo over the past two decades.

Source: Presstv

Thousands of students, shopkeepers and staff in Cameroon have protested this week against what they claim is the marginalisation of the country’s English-speaking minority population. The so-called ghost-town protests in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, including the city of Bamenda in the north and the town of Buea in the southwest, which led to the closure of schools, shops and market stalls, are the latest in a series of actions launched in November 2016.

Initiated by teachers and lawyers, the protests have revolved around encouraging people to use absenteeism to challenge what many English-speaking citizens claim is the dominance of French in society. Thousands of students stayed away as schools resumed this week. Petrol stations and shops were also empty.

Many protesters called for full linguistic representation in schools, courts and in the government. Cameroon’s English-speaking citizens make up around 20 percent of the nation’s total population of almost 24 million. The rest of the country speaks French, which is the language of use for government business.

Activists in the Southwest Region of Ambazonia told Al Jazeera that a mass skipping of the first day of school – Monday, September 4 – was a success. “Some people think that parents are not sending their kids to school because of the militarisation of these two regions, but that’s not the case,” said a participant who wanted to remain anonymous.

“How do you want kids to go back to a system that we are protesting against, the system that we want cleaned? It’s a peaceful protest.” On Monday, pro-government newspapers, the Cameroon Tribune and L’essentiel du Cameroun, published front-page stories showing children attending school as normal.

Security forces were also deployed in the affected areas at the start of the week to ensure there was no repeat of last year’s violent protests which witnessed the use of live ammunition and tear gas by state security forces. Since protests began last year, the government has frequently cracked down on disorder in the Anglophone regions of the country.

President Paul Biya, in power for 35 years, ordered a series of arrests and shut down internet access for three months. Security forces have killed at least six people to date and arrested hundreds more. Last Friday, President Biya ordered the release of dozens of political activists in a move seen as an attempt to ease tensions. The UN has called for both sides to engage in constructive dialogue.

Source: Al Jazeera

The French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya has announced a financial package to entice religious leaders and some proprietors of private schools in Southern Cameroons to open their doors for the 2017 academic year. The Minister of Secondary Education said the sum of 2 billion FCFA has been made available as subvention to private primary and secondary schools in the country.

The Minister of Secondary Education, Jean Ernest Ngalle Massena Bibehe specified that the secondary and basic education sectors will each receive CFA one billion. The envelope will be distributed to both religious establishments and lay private schools that will go through a CPDM audition.

It was also revealed that 658 schools will benefit from the subvention including 28 teachers’ training schools, 508 schools within the general education category, 123 technical schools and 35 school management boards. Education officials have also hinted that payments will depend on the size of the institution and that only schools that had previously applied have been shortlisted for the grant.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has however rejected the move stating that it remains a vain attempt at stifling the Southern Cameroons revolution. A spokesperson for the Consortium told Cameroon Concord News that the regime is broke and Biya has been unable to provide simple computer laptops he promised students in higher institutions of learning in the country.

By Rita Akana with files from CRTV

There are reports of tension mounting in Kumba, the chief city in the Meme constituency in Southern Cameroons over the issue of ‘back to school’. Cameroon Info.Net recently revealed that the many key players in the educational sector have received threats from unknown Southern Cameroons militant groups ordering them to end all forms of activities in their schools latest August 14.

We gathered that some schools in Kumba had started organizing holiday and catch-up classes in preparation for the anticipated academic year 2017/2018. However, most proprietors confirmed that they are not ready to risk their lives, or that of their pupils and students or even their assets for school resumption.

Registration of students and pupils for the new academic year in Southern Cameroons has remained very slow as the revolution enters its 11 month. Some proprietors and school administrators confirmed that many parents were sending their children to schools in Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam.

The demand for transfer certificates by Anglophone parents to send their kids to schools out of West Cameroon has been unprecedented. Most of the parents are still skeptical about school resumption in the Anglophone regions after the failure and political GCE that was staged last academic year by the Francophone regime in Yaoundé. In Kumba in particular, tension has generated panic and safety issues to the effect that most parents do not want to send their kids to school.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net