OSIA: AI guidance for Cameroonian secondary students ^{CEFR B2}

OSIA is an AI platform designed to improve further education and careers guidance for secondary students in Cameroon. The project was developed by Frédéric Ngaba, an AI researcher with a PhD in analytical mathematics from the University of Yaoundé I, and a team who aimed to fit the solution to local realities. The virtual tutor is trained on Cameroon’s education programmes and can operate in twenty languages.

The platform offers a bank of more than 400 exam-type tests compiled with support from the Cameroon Baccalaureate Office and the General Certificate of Education. Users enter annual grades and personal aspirations and complete a psychometric test. The AI analyses the results to produce an academic profile intended to reveal hidden talent and propose ways to nurture it at school and at home. Subscriptions cost 3,000 CFA francs a year for Cameroonians; there is a separate fee for students living abroad. OSIA already has 13,500 subscribers across 23 schools and its founder hopes to increase that figure tenfold. The project has received awards and support from the World Bank, Orange Cameroon and Awiti in Morocco.

The launch comes amid clear pressures on Cameroon's education system: in 2022 about 27 per cent (8 million) of the country's 30 million population were in school, and official figures show the baccalaureate success rate was just 47 per cent in 2025, down from 37 per cent in 2024. Observers point to funding shortages, administrative burdens and a lack of qualified local personnel as major challenges.

OSIA is authorised to operate by the Secretariat for secular private education for the Centre region (SEDUC). Lazare Tsimi, head of SEDUC, said the tool is improving and he expects benefits to extend to the wider system. Ngaba and others say OSIA is not meant to replace human guidance counsellors but to personalise and improve an obsolete system; counsellors and teachers stress that AI cannot fully replace human interaction, emotional follow-up or the role of parents and social context. A national AI strategy document was drafted during the National Consultations on AI held in Yaoundé in July and is to be put before the Cameroonian parliament.