Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Mimi Mefo Info
Published on 2024-03-22 20:27:28
The idea has been approved by the Minister of Justice to allow children at the end of primary school who do not have a birth certificate to take their Primary School Leaving Certificate (CEP) exam.
A joint study by the National Civil Registry Office (Bunec) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the 2018-2019 school year revealed that 1.6 million kindergarten and primary school students do not have birth certificates. As a result, these children are unable to take their Primary School Leaving Certificate (CEP) exam.
To address this issue, the Minister of Basic Education (MINEDUB) requested assistance from his counterpart, the Minister of Justice (MINJUSTICE), Laurent Esso, to establish and issue birth certificates for students at the end of primary school. In a letter addressed on March 19 to Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, the head of justice informed his colleague that he had contacted the presidents of the courts of appeal and the chief prosecutors near those courts, “for the holding of special mobile court sessions in their respective jurisdictions for the issuance of supplemental birth certificates to the aforementioned students from April 1 to 19, 2024.”
The purpose of these mobile court sessions is to allow students at the end of primary school, who are not registered in the civil registry, to obtain supplemental birth certificates. This document is essential for taking the Primary School Leaving Certificate (CEP) exam that is taken at the end of the primary school cycle in Cameroon.
While the issue of birth certificates affects all regions of Cameroon, the Far North region is the most affected. Last year, more than 400,000 children were unable to take their exams due to lack of a birth certificate.
According to official figures, 66.1% of children under 5 years old are not registered in the civil registry (MICS 2014). To reverse this trend, the government is implementing initiatives to give legal status to children in order to strengthen the civil registration system. The deadline for declaring births has been extended from 30 days to 90 days to allow parents more time to obtain this essential document in the life of every citizen. The issuance of a child’s birth certificate is free when done within the legal deadlines. The law also allows parents who have not declared the birth of their child to the civil registry office within the prescribed time to bring their request before the competent court in the jurisdiction where the civil registry office is located to obtain a supplemental birth certificate.
Albert Atangana
Read the original article(French) on Mimi Mefo Info
