Bac and GCE in Cameroon: streams, probatoire, O and A Level, calendar and next steps

Information checked on 2 November 2026.

In Cameroon, the bac and the GCE are the two doors to university, one per subsystem. On the French-speaking side, you sit the probatoire in Première (the year before the final year), then the baccalauréat, both run by the Office du Baccalauréat du Cameroun (OBC). On the English-speaking side, you sit the GCE Ordinary Level, then the GCE Advanced Level, run by the Cameroon GCE Board. Here are the streams, the pass rules, the calendar, how to read your results and what comes next, based on the texts these two bodies publish.

Bac and GCE in Cameroon: two subsystems, two bodies

Both subsystems also have a technical track: industrial and commercial baccalauréats and probatoires (AF, F, STT) at the OBC, TVEE exams (Intermediate and Advanced Level) at the GCE Board. This article focuses on general education.

The OBC baccalauréat: streams, probatoire, passing

Upper secondary streams

An order of the Minister of Secondary Education of 17 March 2022 sets the French-speaking streams:

The OBC publishes which streams are open for each exam. For the 2026 bac they were A1 to A5, ABI, AC, C, D, E and TI; for the probatoire, SH replaces A5.

The probatoire, a condition for the bac

The decree of 24 February 1995 on the baccalauréats is clear: to sit the bac you must hold the certificat de probation, that is, have passed the probatoire. You register for one stream per year. Failing the probatoire costs you a year before the bac, so prepare it like a real exam. Our tips to revise with past papers work for it too.

How you pass

The same decree sets the rules for the general bac:

• each paper is marked out of 20, then multiplied by its coefficient;
• written papers fall into two groups: the first group covers the specialist subjects of your stream, and its written papers are eliminatory;
• you pass with at least a 10/20 average across all compulsory papers and at least 10/20 in the first-group written papers, with no eliminatory mark, unless the jury decides otherwise;
• optional papers and PE only count for points above 10/20;
• scripts are marked anonymously, and the jury's decisions are final.

Honours follow your average: passable below 12, assez bien from 12 to under 14, bien from 14 to under 16, très bien from 16.

What each subject weighs in C and D

Coefficients come from a second order of 17 March 2022. In the final year they match the weekly teaching hours:

The same text shows that stream D only starts in Première: in Seconde, the table only provides C on the science side. We compare the two streams in detail in our article bac C or bac D, which stream to choose.

The GCE O Level and GCE A Level

O Level

According to the GCE Board, the Ordinary Level is for pupils who have completed five years of secondary school. The exam covers 21 subjects. You take at least six, which must include English Language, French and Mathematics, and at most eleven (the eleventh must then be Religious Studies). Paper one of each subject is a fifty-question multiple-choice test, all questions to be answered.

A Level

To enter for the Advanced Level you need, among other options, the Cameroon or University of London O Level with passes in at least four subjects, a Teacher Grade II certificate, or a certificate the Board deems equivalent. You take at most five subjects. The exam is open to private candidates on the same terms as school candidates, with no limit on the number of sittings. The Board lists its fees: 9,000 FCFA registration, 2,000 FCFA per subject, 5,000 FCFA for a practical and 1,000 FCFA for franking Form G3.

Unlike the bac, the A Level is not passed "as a block": each subject is graded separately. Choose them with your future studies in mind, because universities and schools will look at the subjects you passed.

Calendar: what happened in 2026, what we know about 2027

Each session's calendar is set by a decision of the Minister of Secondary Education. The one for 2026, signed on 25 September 2025, planned:

In practice, the GCE Board released the 2026 results on 21 August 2026, after the planned date: do not treat the calendar deadline as a promise.

For 2027, the order of 14 August 2026 on the 2026-2027 school year says official secondary exams and competitions will take place between 19 April and 30 July 2027, with precise dates set by separate texts. As of 2 November 2026, we had not found that text on the OBC or GCE Board websites. On the GCE side, registration for the 2026 session opened on 20 October: ask your school now.

Results: where to find them

• GCE: the Board publishes PDF lists on camgceb.org (O Level, A Level, TVEE), and individual result slips are collected from the registration centre.
• Bac and probatoire: the "Résultats" page of the OBC website still pointed to the 2024 session on 2 November 2026. Rely on your school and the channels the OBC announces, and be wary of pages that ask for money to view a result.

Cheating: what the decree says

The 1995 decree provides for the elimination of candidates who communicate with each other, immediate removal from the room when caught in the act and, for a candidate found guilty of cheating during or after the session, exclusion from the exam and a ban from sitting it for the next three sessions, as well as from any entrance competition of a public higher education institution during that time. Anyone outside the teaching staff guilty of fraud or complicity faces criminal prosecution. A "paper" that circulates the night before an exam is never help. The rules for honest sharing are in our article on sharing an exam paper.

After the bac or GCE: next steps

In Cameroon

Public engineering schools recruit through competitive exams. The École nationale supérieure polytechnique de Yaoundé, for example, offers registration for each of the two subsystems and publishes past entrance papers on its website. Our article on entrance exams for top schools in Africa covers preparation.

In France with Campus France Cameroon

Campus France Cameroon has published its 2027-2028 calendar: submit your file before 15 December 2026 for first-year bachelor's, before 1 February 2027 for other programmes (bachelor's years 2 and 3, BUT, master's, engineering school), interviews until 1 March, answers until 30 April, final choice before 31 May 2027. If you studied secondary school in English, the office points out that you can continue in English in France, in more than 1,200 programmes. For a first-year bachelor's taught in French, however, the office's "Les types de procédures" page states that candidates schooled in English must take a French language test (TCF without the speaking part), run by the Institut français du Cameroun in Yaoundé and Douala; that page still shows the years of an earlier campaign, so check with the Institut français. The full procedure is in our Campus France Cameroon guide, and the Campus France simulator (in French) compares your grades with admitted applicants for free.

Scholarships open to Cameroonians

Our page of scholarships for Cameroonians (in French) gathers the programmes we checked on their official websites. Two leads for a strong science student: the AIMS master's in mathematical sciences (in French), which has a centre in Cameroon, later in your studies, and foreign excellence scholarships from the bachelor's level. Turn on scholarship alerts (in French) to get the deadlines.

Revising with Compatri

On Compatri, join your class group: one group per class and per city ("Terminale C, Douala"), where you ask questions and mark the best answer, and where you find the same class in Yaoundé, Bafoussam or Buea. The exam archive (in French) accepts bac, probatoire, GCE O and A Level papers; it is still small and grows with each paper shared after the exam. And to look further ahead, the Cameroonian diaspora brings together Cameroonians already living abroad, including volunteer mentors who walked the path before you.

Compatri is not the OBC, the GCE Board or the ministry: only their texts and announcements are binding.

Official sources

• Office du Baccalauréat du Cameroun: general secondary exams (streams)
• OBC: decree no. 95/035 of 24 February 1995 on the organisation of the baccalauréats
• OBC: order no. 91/22/MINESEC of 17 March 2022 defining upper secondary streams
• OBC: order no. 92/22/MINESEC of 17 March 2022 on the nature, duration and coefficients of subjects
• MINESEC: decision setting the 2026 exam calendar
• MINEDUB and MINESEC: joint order of 14 August 2026 on the 2026-2027 school calendar
• OBC: results page
• Cameroon GCE Board: home page and 2026 results
• Cameroon GCE Board: GCE Ordinary Level
• Cameroon GCE Board: GCE Advanced Level
• ENSP Yaoundé: programmes and admission
• Campus France Cameroon: 2027-2028 application calendar
• Campus France Cameroon: English-taught programmes in France
• Campus France Cameroon: types of procedure