By Mokum Thomas and Wambo Emmanuel in Bamenda
The Member of Parliament for Bamenda/Bali constituency, Hon. Forbi Nchinda Simon cautioned the government not to force the General Certificate of Examination, GCE on students in the Northwest and Southwest regions who have not been to school since December 9, 2017.
He made the remark during a meeting chaired by the minister of Basic Education Jean Ernest Ngale Bibihe and attended by the registrar of the GCE Board, Humphrey Ekema Monono including other education stakeholders.
The meeting in Bamenda comes on the heels of a similar meeting that took place in Buea aimed at ensuring that the GCE exams take place in the English speaking regions which have been witnessing some crisis for months now.
During the meeting it was noticed that the Northwest region has registered fifty thousand students less than what obtained last year. It was because of this statistics and other issues raised that Hon. Forbi said the statistic are to poor for the exam to hold in the Northwest region “Forcing examination on students will cause a serious problem”, the Hon.Forbi said, “the quality of the education that was delivered during the academic year 2016/2017 where there has been no teaching, Mr minister if you insist on holding the exams, then you will kill the Anglophone system of education because students will come out with certificates that will not be recognised in the world” he added.
Monono splits with basic education minister
On the second day of his three-day working visit to Bamenda, the Northwest regional capital, the minister of Secondary Education, Ngale Bibihe announced that students who have not registered for the 2017 session of the end of year examination can write but the registrar of the GCE board, Humphrey Monono told the minister that examination papers are printed as per the number of registered students and it will be logistically impossibly to allow unregistered students to take the exams.The minister insisted that the end of year examination in the northwest is a big problem and he is trying to seek a big solution to it.
Catholic schools have reservations
During the meeting most Catholic school principals were very vocal about the decision by the minister that that the end of year examination must hold, the principal of Our Lady Of Lourdes college told the minister that the students have been out of school since the December 9, 2017 and even though the gates are open, there are no students in the school. “Mr minister we of Catholic schools, we take time to train or students that is why we produce the results we produced year in year out”, she added. The same sentiments were shared by her colleagues of Saint Paul’s Collage and Saint Beads who added that they cannot give certificates to students who will not be able to defend it.
As concerns the guarantee by the minister that the state state will ensure the security of students and schools, some of the principals retorted “Mr Minister, forget about your so-called security because our schools are always targeted and when we call the police it is either they come too late or they don’t show up at all.
After the working session the minister paid a visit to four government institutions including; Government Bilingual High School Down Town, Government Bilingual High School Nitop (a school whose administrative block was burnt down some months back because they had classes on ghost town days) Government Bilingual High School Bamendakwe And Government Bilingual Teachers Training Collage .
GCE to be written under tight security
Prior to the minister’s visit, there was a mid-year evaluation meeting fondly called in the educational milieu as the Sector Conference which took place at GTHS Bamenda bringing together educational stakeholders of the entire Northwest region. The meeting that was chaired by the Secretary General at the Northwest governor’s office was aimed at brainstorming on security measures so that the end of year examinations will move on smoothly. Some of this measures adopted include: The guarding of examination centres 24/7 by security officials, no transportation of examination materials by bikes, body search of both students and visitors during the examination period using metal detectors, accreditation of food vendors amongst others.
“This school year was unique and the end of year examination should be unique” the regional delegate of secondary education, Mobaquet Victor told stakeholders. But some principles of school feared for their personal safety. They questioned what will become of them after the examination since some of them are already receiving threats from unknown sources.
The practical part of the GCE will commence today Monday, May 15, 2017 while the written part will start on June 15, 2017.