Expansion Policy of Secondary Technical Education as A Correlate to the Acquisition of Basic Technical Skills by Students in Cameroon

This study is aims at investigating the relationship between the expansion of secondary Technical Education on the acquisition of technical skills by students.  Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has been expanding quantitatively yearly without paying enough attention to its adverse effect on quality and the acquisition of the essential practical skills required by students in Cameroon. This study was guided by three research questions and hypotheses.  The sample was 40 Secondary technical colleges and 20 High schools spread in the Center, Extreme North, Littoral, North West and South West Regions of Cameroon. This included 60 Regional Pedagogic Inspectors, 60 Principals and 300 Teachers in the sector who were retained through a simple random sampling technique. Each grouping filled a structured questionnaire that was designed based on a 4-point Rikert Scale for data collection. The data was analysed using the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient.  The findings revealed that: the expansion policy of technical education has significant implications on the attainment of the fundamental objectives of this type of education; the expansion of secondary technical education has a significant impact on the quality of technical education provided by the Cameroon government; that infrastructure is grossly inadequate to enhance the acquisition of technical skills as observed in most of Cameroon’s technical colleges, thus defeating the original objectives to facilitate the development of technical skills.  It was recommended that the government should put a hold on the expansion policy for a period of twenty years and explore strategies and best practice on how to invest in the existing situation with ample provision for infrastructural development, material and human resources required by this sector. Keywords: TVET, practical skills, expansion policy, infrastructure, implementation, implication and correlate

Prevalence of stillbirth at the Buea Regional Hospital, Fako Division south-west region, Cameroon

INTRODUCTION : the study investigated the prevalence of stillbirth at the Buea regional hospital, by taking cases of pregnant women who attended antenatal clinic(s) and those who did not attend but had their deliveries at the Buea regional hospital. The study specifically estimated the prevalence of stillbirths; identified possible risk factors associated with stillbirths, and determined whether the number of antenatal clinic visits is related to the occurrence of stillbirths-because during antenatal clinic visits, pregnant women are educated on risk factors of stillbirths such as: preterm deliveries; sex of the stillbirth; history of stillbirth; history of abortion(s); what age group of mothers are more likely to have a sti llbirth. METHODS : the study was a hospital based retrospective study at the maternity in which there were 3577 deliveries registered at the Buea regional hospital dated May 1st, 2014 to April 30th, 2017. With the aid of a checklist data was collected, analysed and presented with the use of tables, pie-charts and bar charts. RESULTS : the prevalence of stillbirths was 26‰; possible risk factors associated with stillbirths included: preterm deliveries; women aged 20-29 years; history of abortion(s); a history of stillbirth; sex of stillbirths were more of females than males; and insufficient antenatal clinic attendance (≤1 antenatal clinic attendance) had more stillbirths. CONTRIBUTION : the study established that stillbirths can occur in any woman of child-bearing age. possible risk factors associated with stillbirths included: preterm deliveries; women aged 20-29 years; history of abortion(s); a history of stillbirth; gender of stillbirths were more of females than males; and insufficient antenatal clinic attendance (≤1 antenatal clinic attendance) had more stillbirths.http://www.panafrican-med-journal.comam2020School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH

Driving force analysis for food loss changes in Cameroon

Reducing food losses (FL) is a promising way of improving food security. This is much more urgent for the developing world with a high level of food insecurity. However, driving factors contributing to the changes of FL are poorly understood. Here, we report on an investigation into the contribution of five potential driving factors to FL in Cameroon between 1994 and 2013, using a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) approach. The results showed that FL in Cameroon has increased more than 4 fold during the study period. The increase of FL per unit crop production (intensity effect) contributed the most to increase FL (36.87% of the total change), followed by the increase of per capita crop consumption, i.e. supply scale effect (34.55%), population growth (26.72%), and changes of crop production structure, i.e. structure effect (5.079%). Only the dependency on self-production (self-sufficiency effect) contributed to decrease FL (3.22%)