Higher Education:3 fake foreign certificates detected

Members of the National Evaluation Commission For Training Domains Offered Abroad held its 80th session yesterday June 22, 2016 during which a fake foreign diploma was uncovered.

The session, which was chaired by the President of the Commission, Minister of Higher Education, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, in the presence of the Vice-President of the Commission, Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, Michel Ange Angouing, verified the authenticity of some 289 foreign certificates obtained by Cameroonians abroad while giving these certificates an equivalent in the country.

The certificates, which include CEF, BEPC, Baccalaureat, GCE/AL, DEUG, Bachelor, DEA, Masters and Doctorate. Professional diploma- CAP, BT, BP, BTS, HND, postgraduate, professional bachelor and Master, doctorate in medicine and pharmacy, among others are coming from 37 countries in the world’s eight continents.

The commission made proposals on equivalence between foreign and national certificates, academic titles and grades, as well as recognised foreign institutions whose certificates can lead to the absorption, reclassification or advancement of civil servants of the various corps of the Cameroonian civil service while respecting the rules and regulations in force.

Amongst the certificates examined were three fake diplomas. According to the Director in Charge of the Coordination of Academic Affairs at the Ministry of Higher Education, Professor Wilfred Gabsa, the number of fake certificates detected this year is not much as compared to past years.

The National Commission also rejected three certificates and sent one back to the inter-ministerial sub-technical committees for re-evaluation.

Prof Gabsa said these diplomas have effectively gone through three different inter-ministerial sub-technical committees which were made up of experts from the Ministries in charge of Secondary Education, Professional Training, Public Health and had began the job of scrutinising foreign diplomas.

These committees have already taken decisions that were re-examined and validated by the National Commission for the Evaluation of Training Domains Offered Abroad.