The Prime Ministerial Order granting age exemption of up to five years for persons living with disabilities in Cameroon is indicative of government’s determination to improve their living conditions.
The new measure signed recently by Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute adds to a panoply of others dedicated by government through the Ministry of Social Affairs to improve upon the wellbeing of persons living with disabilities. The issue here is promoting all-round social inclusion of these people by strengthening their access to basic social services such as the right to education. Government and its partners have through actions as strengthening the legal and institutional protection frameworks, preventing impairments and the rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration of disabled persons, continued to protect and promote the rights of people with disabilities.
The order specifies that persons with disabilities who can benefit from the age extension must be holders of a disability card and must have undergone school, university or professional training.
The age extension is dependent on the launch of an official examination or a recruitment exercise into the public service. It also covers a maximum of 5 years above the age limit fixed for the particular official examination or recruitment exercise the candidate is taking. It is further specified that even after benefiting from the age limit extension and succeeding in an official exam, final recruitment for candidates will depend on the compatibility of candidates to the posts solicited in conformity with the list of trades available to persons with disabilities as established by the minister of social affairs. The measure which also applies to the integration of physically challenged persons into the public service, is attached to a number of conditions which the said candidates must fulfil. The first of them is ownership of a disability card, the computerisation of which was initiated two years back.
In fact, a partnership was signed between the General Delegation for National Security and the Ministry of Social Affairs in view of computerising the national disability card, validation of the benchmark for assessing impairments and disabilities of people with disabilities in Cameroon. This document would now make it possible to harmonize and streamline practices in determining the potential permanent disability rate of persons living with disabilities.
Claudette CHIN
