SOLUTIONS

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Although some criteria like the presence of a
gymnasium are not directly linked to educational
performance, they are being considered because of
their potential to create an enabling environment
for studies. The partial presentation above shows
evidence of redundancy in the use of human and
financial resources, poor infrastructure and the
overarching problem of limited trained staff as
perceived in the field and reiterated in various
evaluation documents.
If these issues are addressed such that the two
schools serve not only as an environment for
acquiring knowledge but also for testing and
generating new knowledge, then a learning
hub is born. This would imply greater outreach
since local farmers would benefit from the
dissemination of the technologies invented.
Both institutions have tremendous potential
for this.
How can Impact
Evaluation Help?
The impact of the training program has been
strengthened partly by AFOP financial support
to graduates in the form of loans and advice to
foster self-employment and the sustainability
of economic activities. It is worth noting
here that not all graduates benefit from this
scheme (also called the “starting block”) partly
because some prefer to seek employment in
already established farms or enroll in other
institutions to obtain higher certificates, and
partly because the funding body rejects some
projects for non-feasibility. Nonetheless, it is
necessary to investigate the efficiency of the
use of resources and the quality of the final
product – the graduate, irrespective of the postgraduation
path taken.
Impact evaluation is an essential tool to
measure the program’s value added by
comparing different scenarios. Examples of
questions asked when verifying the impact of
a program may be: how different is an AFOPgraduate
2 from a non-AFOP graduate? If selfemployment
is the target, how is an AFOPgraduate
different from a non-graduate? The
relevance of this second question emerges from
the fact that there is such a thing as “learningby-doing”
that has been proven to be effective.
An attempt to answer these two questions leads
to an analysis of the resources employed in each
case scenario. Other concerns that may arise
include the justification of the 150,000 FCFA
tuition fee (recently raised to 200,000 FCFA)
compared to the universal flat rate of 50,000
FCFA that all public institutions in Cameroon
levy (except some specialized ones like military,
external relations, etc).
2 The term is used for convenience to refer to a graduate from an
institution receiving support from AFOP.
Table 2: RCA and TSA Bambili Evaluation Results, 2014-2015
Area of concern RCA Bambili TSA Bambili
Teaching
• 10 trainers with minimum qualification of Ingénieur
Technique en Agriculture;
• 150 trainees in first and second year;
• Library, projectors, computer room;
• No sports complex
• 7 trainers with minimum qualification of Ingénieur
Technique en Agriculture;
• 102 trainees in first and second year;
• Computer room and projectors present;
• No library, no sports complex
Administration • 2 dedicated administrative staff • 4 dedicated administrative staff and 1 director
Financial or budgetary
Wealth or Asset
• 3 sources of funding: Public funds (public investment
budget), tuition fees, AFOP and other activities;
• Mode of consumption is satisfactory
• Sufficient classrooms + abandoned buildings and nonfunctioning
latrines, tiny offices, tractor present, possesses
78 hectares of land, standby generator present
Others • No clean water • No clean water
• 3 sources of funding: Public funds, tuition fee, AFOP and
farming activities;
• Mode of employment is satisfactory
• Sufficient classrooms, abandoned buildings and nonfunctioning
latrines, tiny offices, possesses 8,5 hectares of
land, tractor present, standby generator absent
eVALUatiOn Matters