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Appropriation of the Secondary School Project in Cameroon and

Optimization of Results According to the "Accessibility-Use-Usage"

Model By Kemoko Touré

Armand Bouges ZAMBO ATANGANA

, Pr. Emmanuel NDJEBAKAL SOUCK

, Dr. John Thierry

BANEN

Faculté des Sciences de l’Education Université de Yaoundé 1 Cameroun

Université de Yaoundé 1 Faculté des Sciences de l’Education

Université de Yaoundé 1 Faculté des Sciences de l’Education (FSE)

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.903SEDU0628

Received: 20 September 2025; Accepted: 28 September 2025; Published: 11 November 2025

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to facilitate the appropriation of the school project in secondary schools in Cameroon,

in order to optimise its results. It has been observed that those involved in developing, implementing and

monitoring the project are reluctant to take ownership of it. This reluctance has harmful consequences,

including a drop in learner performance, a low rate of socialisation and a loss of visibility for public schools.

The main objective of this research is to propose an approach that will make it easier to appropriate this

management tool, which is a major means of optimising results. This approach is based on the ‘accessibility-

use’ model of appropriation developed by Kemoko Touré (2018). The present study was carried out using a

mixed-methods approach, and sampling techniques were also employed appropriately. Data collection was

carried out using a questionnaire and an interview guide, allowing the survey to be conducted in three high

schools in the city of Yaoundé: the Ngoa-Ekelle high school, the Nkolmesseng high school and the bilingual

high school. The sample studied comprised 32 participants. The study population consisted of members of the

school board, administrators, teachers, parents and the students themselves. The data collected was processed

using SPSS software, and the hypotheses were then subjected to Pearson correlation analysis.

Key words: Accessibility, Provisional system, School project, Optimisation of results, Use, Usage.

INTRODUCTION

In the context of the sustainable development goals, Cameroon, under its National Development Strategy

(NDS) for the period 2020-2030, considers its sustainable development as intrinsically linked to the

demographic configuration of its population. On the one hand, this development aims to satisfy the needs of

populations by providing them with the amenities of modern life, notably employment, health, social and

economic well-being, etc. Conversely, this development cannot be achieved without a population with

appropriate characteristics, in particular good education, health and social and economic well-being. This

dynamic implies a dual approach to the population, considered both in terms of beneficiary of the fruits of

development and as a factor of development. Indeed, development should no longer be considered as a

variable ex nihilo, but as a primordial resource, constituting the basis on which any action leading to economic

growth and endogenous and exogenous development of any nation must rest. Education and training are then

of crucial importance.

The State of Cameroon, in this planning order, indeed signed on May 5, 2000, circular N°13/B1/1464, adjusted

by that of N°39/13/C/MINESEC/CAB of December 03, 2013 relating to the development, the implementation,

validation and evaluation of the general and technical secondary school project, thus marking the

implementation of this managerial innovation in all establishments. In the guide for management staff of

secondary education institutions in Cameroon, which entered into force since the start of the 2014-2015 school

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)

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year by decree N°336/14/MINESEC/CAB of September 12, 2014, it is further specified that the establishment

project is 'the main tool for managing a school. It is from him that all the other steering tools derive" (p. 25).

For 20 years now, the establishment project has been positioned as the defined strategic tool for managing

public schools. The goal being for the State to make public schools, organizations autonomous in terms of

contextualizing educational policy and in turn facilitate the inclusion of school in its environment with the

perspective of bringing ithere to contribute to its proper functioning. It is a compass for managing schools that

clearly indicates their priorities, the actions to be taken, the implementation mechanisms, plans and funding

sources.

It is important to note that, 23 years after the signing and implementation of the circular on the development,

implementation, validation and evaluation of the school project in secondary and technical education, the latter

remains invisible, even unknown to the actors of this order of education. Indeed, in the Centre region, for the

school year 2021-2022, out of a total of 1,078 establishments listed, only twelve submitted their establishment

project to the departmental delegation for secondary education, and among these, only nine were deemed

satisfactory. This situation suggests a non-appropriation of the main steering tool, as defined by decree

n°336/14/MINESEC/CAB of 12 September 2014. This non-appropriation could be the cause of the limits of

the school system, as we will see in the following section.

The decline in learner performance

The quality of results due to learners' performance remains one of the weaknesses of the Cameroonian

education system, as revealed by the Strategy Document for the Education and Training Sector (DSSEF 2013).

The statistics of the Office du Baccalauréat du Cameroun (OBC), the body responsible for managing English

and French-speaking secondary exams, provide us with better information on the extent of this problem.

Success rates have rarely exceeded 60%, especially when one is interested in general education only. The

observation of overall success rates from 2016 to 2021 in general baccalaureate exams, for example, according

to the CBO indicates a jaggy evolution with private establishments, particularly denominational ones, at the

top of the ranking at the expense of public establishments as illustrated by the graph here-below :

Source : The author on the basis of the data bank of the OBC

The graph above illustrates, as previously indicated, a jagged evolution of the baccalaureate success rate in

Cameroon over the period 2011-2022.

Non-appropriation of the establishment project, cause of low socialization at school

There is a drastic increase in the rate of violence in public secondary schools in our country. Between 2018 and

2022, eleven major incidents of violence were recorded in schools in Cameroon according to the Ministry of

41.23

52.35

53.44

55.11

57.14

52.72

60.5

47.22

48.44

2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022

Années

Graphique 1 : Taux de réussite au Baccalauréat entre 2011 et 2021

Linear (%)

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Secondary Education (MINESEC). Stabbing here, fighting there, traumatic verbal exchanges, the educational

community has been besieged by violence for several years. Despite the security efforts made by the heads of

schools supported by law enforcement forces, the list of victims, teachers and students is growing. The last

case is that of the Yona School Complex, where the student stabbed his principal on Wednesday, April 6,

2022, putting his days at risk. The incident occurs nine days after an assault on a female supervisor by a

student at Nkol-Eton Bilingual High School (Monday, March 28, 2022).

Even more recent, the assault of a police officer at the General Leclerc High School on Tuesday, May 2, 2023

by an individual during the official physical exams. In her presentation, during the two-day conference held in

Yaoundé from 20 to 21 December 2022, Mrs. Bernadette Mbiah Sansi, Director of Guidance, Life and School

Assistance at MINESEC, presented the forms and faces of this phenomenon. At first glance, an observation of

some facts shows the recurrence of acts of violence and drug use in the months of February and March. Then,

the analysis of all these cases of violence revealed that 70% come from general secondary education and 30%

from technical secondary education, adds the presentation regarding the physical geography of violence.

This presentation highlights the inexistence of these latter in rural areas and their marginality in semi-urban

areas, while urban areas are the main centers of deployment of school violence. These acts of violence

contribute to significantly reducing the attractiveness of parents for public institutions. Moreover, the lack of

involvement of parents in school life cannot explain the low rate of inclusion observed in secondary schools.

Indeed, there is a significant disparity between the different layers of the population, which translates into

lasting inequalities of inclusion. According to the report of the Central Office of Censuses and Population

Studies (BUCREP) of Cameroon on World Population Day 2022, the school enrolment rate for girls reached

42.45% during the 2018/2019 academic year. This increase is particularly noticeable because it occurs despite

the decrease observed between 2015 and 2019 in the enrollment of secondary students. The analysis highlights

a persistent disparity between gross and net enrolment rates for boys and girls, with the former remaining

systematically higher than the latter, regardless of the school year considered.

Within the framework of educational policies put in place by the government of Cameroon, several framework

documents serve as references in terms of educational strategies. These include the Education Sector Strategy

Paper (DSSEF), as well as the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (DSCE). An analysis of these

documents reveals a relatively timid, if not absent, approach to the integration of the necessary means for the

effective implementation of this steering instrument within schools. In other words, if the strategy aims to

promote social inclusion and prevent violence, with a focus on improving learner performance, it often

overlooks, even rarely, to place at the heart of his concerns the question of the effective management of

schools. The objective constraint that is the establishment project, the main tool for managing establishments

in this field of education, a guarantee of internal and external productivity, is rarely, if ever, taken into account

by educational systems. This strategic and operational negligence could lead to the rejection of this planning

tool in context, which could justify the failure to achieve performance optimization objectives by general

education secondary schools in Cameroon. Hence the meaning of this study, which proposes an approach

facilitating easier appropriation of this management tool, a major axis for optimizing results based on the

"accessibility-use-usage" model of appropriation developed by the Guinean author and writer Kemoko Toure.

(2018).

METHODOLOGY

As part of this study, we conducted an analysis of resource availability, identified as the main determinant of

the accessibility variable. We then examined the profile of the actors, considered as a determining factor for

use. Finally, for the usage variable, we studied the strategic followed modality. Our methodological approach

combined different types of approaches including qualitative and quantitative. To do this, we designed an ad

hoc questionnaire and an interview guide, which were used to collect data from a sample of 32 actors in the

educational chain, from three high schools located in the city of Yaoundé: the high school of Ngoa-ekelle, the

high school of Nkolmesseng and the bilingual high school. These are the parents who are members of the

management committees, the principals, the censors, the general supervisors, the students' parents and the

teachers. Field data was processed using the latest version of SPSS and hypotheses were visualized using the

Pearson correlation test.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)

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Study Resultats

This section is devoted to the testing of research hypotheses that we have formulated. These are three

hypotheses that concern the variables of the actors' profiles, resource availability, and strategic monitoring is

related to the optimization of educational results..

Stakeholder profile and optimization of results Correlation table between the profile of the actors and

optimization of the results

Corrélations

Actors Profil

optimization of results

Pearson Corrélation

,460

Sig. (bilatérale)

,008

Pearson Corrélation

,460

Sig. (bilatérale)

,008

**. The correlation is significant at level 0.01 (bilatéral).

The table above deals with the correlations of the first variable. It shows that there is a positive and moderate

link between the profile of actors and the optimization of results. The Pearson correlation presents the

following results: (r = 0.460, p = 0.008 0.05). We conclude that the link between the profile of the actors and

the optimization of the results is average, namely 46%. One can deduce that there is a link between the profile

of the actors and the optimization of results in general education high schools.

Availability of resources and optimization of results

Correlation table between resource availability and results optimization

Corrélations

Disponibility of ressources

optimization of results

Pearson Corrélation

,449

Sig. (bilatérale)

,010

Pearson Corrélation

,449

Sig. (bilatérale)

,010

**. The correlation is significant at level 0.01 (bilatéral).

The table above deals with the correlations of the second variable. It shows that there is a positive and average

link between the availability of resources and the optimization of results. The Pearson correlation present the

following results: (r = 0.449, p = 0.010 0.05). It is concluded that the link between resource availability and

performance optimization is average, at 44%. We can deduce that there is a link between resource availability

and performance optimization in general education high schools.l.

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Strategic monitoring and optimization of results Correlation table between strategic monitoring and

results optimization

Corrélations

strategic monitoring

optimization of results

Pearson Correlation

,478

Sig. (bilatérale)

,006

Pearson Corrélation

,478

Sig. (bilatérale)

,006

**. The correlation is significant at level 0.01 (bilatéral).

The table above deals with the correlations of the last variable. It shows that there is a positive and moderate

link between strategic monitoring and the optimization of results. The Pearson correlation presents the

following results: (r = 0.478, p = 0.006 0.05). It is concluded that the connection between strategic monitoring

and result optimization is average, at 47%. We can deduce that there is a link between strategic monitoring and

result optimization in general education high schools..

DISCUSSION

The question that guided our research was as follows: how to get school heads to appropriate the school project

as a steering tool, according to the 'accessibility-use-usage' approach, in order to optimize their results? The

main hypothesis put forward is that the triptych "accessibility-use-usage" plays a decisive role in the

appropriation of the establishment project by the actors, and that it constitutes a key factor for optimizing

results. Our engagement in this research has been driven, in part, by external factors. This methodological

approach focused on the analysis of published results statistics, the evaluation of the quality of documents

related to the establishment project produced by the target establishments, and finally, pre-surveys conducted

among the establishments of the city of Yaoundé, capital of the Central Region of Cameroon. In addition, the

endogenous approach focused on the level of socialization at school, measured through indicators of violence

and inclusion. However, it seems that the added value of this management instrument is underestimated,

which, as field observations have revealed, is capable of creating an environment in a school conducive to

optimizing results in terms of performance, of teaching and socialization (prevention of violence, inclusion and

school appeal for public institutions). The creation of this favorable environment requires the adoption of this

management tool by the main stakeholders. This adoption can be facilitated by following the accessibility, use

and usage approach proposed by Kemoko Touré.

The level of knowledge and skills of the actors likely to develop and manage this management tool must be

taken into account at all stages of the process. Indeed, according to the results of the analysis of data collected

in the field, there is a positive and moderate correlation between the profile of actors and ownership. It

emerges from the Pearson analysis (r=0.460; p=0.008 less than 0.05); which allows validating the alternative

hypothesis at the expense of the null hypothesis.

Indeed, the appropriation of the establishment project is linked to the level of training of the actors. This

training must be perceived both on the initial plan and in the continuous. The possession of a secondary

diploma is important for each actor in order to facilitate understanding of primary data such as reading

invitations to work sessions related to the establishment project. The need for a university degree is based on

an understanding of the technical (financial and managerial) aspects required to manage such a planning

instrument. The mastery and manipulation of planning instruments such as specialized software, evaluation

matrices, such as reading and/or writing activity reports, require a university degree and even continuous added

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value. The authors Drucker, Waterman and Peters following Kurt, through the theory of planned change,

validated the significant effect that the profile of actors has on the success of a project in the education sector.

From our interviews with the heads of the establishments, it appears that the various actions of the

establishment project were entrusted to actors whose skills were proven in specific areas, which led to limiting

time losses, to work efficiently in order to optimize the results, a guarantee of ownership.

We have made a second hypothesis: The appropriation of the establishment project involves the accessibility

of the resources necessary for the project. Indeed, according to the results of data analysis, there is a positive

and moderate correlation between the availability of resources and the optimization of results that guarantees

appropriation. The Pearson analysis shows the following coefficients r = 0.449; p = 0.010 < 0.05; which allows

us to validate our hypothesis.

These results prove that resources have an important role in the success of the ownership process of the

establishment project, which guarantees optimization of results. They are necessary to complete the tasks and

achieve the project’s objectives. Resources include material, financial and informational resources. The authors

Lewis and Pinto (1996), having worked on the theory of the impact of resources in a project whose premise is

that resources are one of the key factors determining the success or failure of a project, already set the

milestones of the significant importance of resources for the project, ensuring its ownership. Indeed, for these

authors, resources can be limiting or facilitating factors for the achievement of project objectives. They allow

to finance the different activities of the project, to respect deadlines, to ensure the quality of work and to

minimize risks. Without sufficient financial, material and informational resources, a project may be delayed,

poorly executed or even abandoned leading to the rejection of its appropriation by the actors.

Finally, our last hypothesis was that the appropriation of the establishment project, a guarantee of results

optimization, requires quality strategic monitoring. Indeed, according to the results of the analysis of data

collected in the field, there is a positive and moderate correlation between strategic monitoring and

optimization of results. The results of the Pearson correlation present the following data: (r = 0.478, p = 0.006

0.05), thus validating our hypothesis because the Pearson correlation coefficient is less than 0.05. These

analysis results highlight the fact that the strategic monitoring of a project is crucial for its ownership because

it allows to monitor the progress of the project, identify problems and take corrective measures in a timely

manner. By regularly tracking KPIs, project stakeholders can assess whether the project is going as planned,

meeting deadlines, budget and expected quality. These different activities contribute effectively to the

appropriation of the establishment project because a local support and a thorough knowledge of the different

aspects of the project.

CONCLUSION

For more than twenty years, since the establishment project has been positioned as the main tool for managing

secondary schools in Cameroon, its appropriation remains very weak or even almost non-existent in the

establishments. From this observation, we came out with the following main question: How to get the heads of

establishments to appropriate the establishment project as planning tools in order to optimize their results? To

answer this question, we relied on the determinants of each variable of the "accessibility-use-usage" model

developed by Kemoko Touré. From this main question arose three hypotheses related to the three modalities of

our triptych. The analysis of field data by the SPSS software validated our three secondary hypotheses and

indeed our main hypothesis. We can thus conclude that, in order to optimize their results, the actors of the

establishment project can use the "Accessibility-Use-Usage" model developed by Kemoko to facilitate its

appropriation and make its development and implementation easier..

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