GCE Board in tight corner.
BY ESTHER QUI
The Cameroon General Certificate of Education (CGCE) Board seems to have been pushed to a very tight corner as they a scrambling to save the 2016/2017 academic year in the face of inability for schools to resume in the North West and South West regions of the country.
Members of the Cameroon General Certificate of Education (CGCE) Board Council have appealed for the effective resumption of schools by March 7, 2017, so as to enable the smooth run of the various end-of-year examinations organized by the Board. This appeal, among others, was made during a press conference held after an extraordinary council session on Friday March 3, 2017.
During the press conference, members of the Board answered questions regarding the blurry state of affairs in the education sector in particular and Cameroon at large. The statutory members of the council as well as representatives of Cameroon Teachers’ Trade Union (CATTU) and Teachers’ Association of Cameroon (TAC), called for parents to send their children back to school on Tuesday March 7 to ensure the effective resumption of schools.
Though the resolutions that emanated from the extraordinary council session of the Board failed to give an exact calendar for GCE examinations, the Board Registrar, Ekema Monono suggested that “It is very important to note that as we are adjusting to accommodate for this lateness, we will equally with all kindness and understanding, adjust the examination timetables to make sure that they are retained for a specific time. This is to give candidates enough time to go over the syllabuses. For now, we cannot give you statistics because registrations are still going but when the time is right, we will do so. It is time for us now to gather up the pieces and tie up the loose-nuts.”
To begin with, these professionals sought to know from the education gurus what ‘magic’ they are going to apply in order to cover up the syllabuses which have not been covered for close to three months. In response, Dr. Humphrey Monono, Registrar of the GCE Board said:
“We shall cooperate with the pedagogic wing of the ministries of Secondary and Basic Education in order to propose methods of covering these lapses. The measures are already there but when we propose measures, they may be watered down since schools have not resumed. There are so many measures we will be proposing as soon as we see the doors of the schools open. The GCE Board is prepared to move the timetable, to allow for people to cover some of the lost periods.”
Another worry which popped up was the shutdown of the internet which has in recent years, become a pivotal tool for 21st century learners; commercial, science, arts and technical students alike.
Joining his voice to that of the Registrar, Prof. Peter Alange Abety, Chairman of the Board, said: “I think the decision to shut down the internet is just a temporal measure taken by the government so as to avoid the terrible lies, misinformation and exaggerations that were being spread on social media, and to curb the inflammation of a people that have problems and want to sort them out. If you look at it very keenly, this temporary shutdown is very salutary.”
Prof. Peter went on to cite an instance of the misinformation spread through the internet: “I was at Bamenda Up Station, at the time when the ad hoc committee meeting was going on, when a message entered my phone that Trade Union leaders have all been arrested and their phones seized. This caused chaos and thousands of people were rushing from town to Up Station to rescue them. It was then that Dr. Fontem Neba, after receiving the same message in his phone, came out of the meeting and addressed the crowd, assuring them those rumours were false, that they were all fine.”
He concluded by saying that: “If everything went back to normal by Tuesday, well, we will not be surprised that very soon afterwards, that normality will extend to the internet. However, if we do not do that, we will continue to be inflicting a lot of punishment on ourselves.”
A question directed to the representatives of the Catholic and Protestant Education on why these two education bodies have not given a fixed date for students to return to school, was greeted with another.
Taking the floor, Rev. Father Zephyrinus Yem Mbuh insisted that: “Our doors have been open since January 7, 2017, yet students have not resumed schools. It is the ministry that fixes the calendar for the school year; it is neither the Bishops of BAPEC, Protestant nor Lay Private Education. And I think in this matter, we should not escape the question. The real question is ‘Why are parents keeping their children back home?’ And if there is any parent who has brought their child to any private school and that child has been sent back home, that parent should cry foul and loud.”
With all the appeals made by the education body for schools to resume, the Board was then asked why it cannot make the same appeals for Government to stop the mass arrests of persons and the unconditional release of those in detention.
Dr. Humphrey Monono gave a rather diplomatic reply: “Such questions should be addressed to the administration and not educators.”
Meanwhile in his opening statements, Prof. Peter Alange Abety, Chairman of the Board, remarked that: “If nothing is done to cover up the time that has been lost, we may compromise the standards of our exams and our certificates will lose credibility. We acknowledge of course the problems that have caused teachers and students to be away from school for this length of time. We are however appealing to teachers and parents to make it possible for us to resume school again, in order to cover up the lost time and syllabuses that the GCE Board has put in place. We understand that we as Anglophones are angry but no matter the anger, we must be able to calm down at some point, to look for ways to solve our problems. Our greatest concern at the GCE Board is that if they do not go back to school now, it will be difficult for us to set exams that cover the entire syllabuses.”
On his part, Dr. Humphrey Monono, Registrar of the GCE Board, frowned at the fact that some media organs have had to publish misconstrued information concerning the Board and its activities.
“Let me seize this opportunity to inform you that the GCE Board will never become the Baccalaureate Board. It may also interest you to know that the time that we have lost will be recovered effectively by the pedagogues. Once this calendar will be produced, our teachers should please make it a point duty to respect it. It is very important to note that as we are adjusting to accommodate for this lateness, we will equally with all kindness and understanding, adjust the examination timetables to make sure that they are retained for a specific time. This is to give candidates enough time to go over the syllabuses. For now, we cannot give you statistics because registrations are still going but when the time is right, we will do so. It is time for us now to gather up the pieces and tie up the loose-nuts.”
Valentine Tameh Nfon, National President of Teachers’ Association of Cameroon (TAC): “I will like to say that we called a strike on November 21, 2016; a strike that had been in gestation for long. I remember the last time we threatened but had to suspend on January 4, 2016, hoping that everything was going to be done so that we should not get there. By the time we were giving Government another warning that we were going to strike on October 5, 2016, nothing had been done. That is why the strike became inevitable. We went in with 11 core points which many have come across. We formed a Synergy because there were a number of teachers’ trade unions which came together to call the strike and we decided to focus on educational issues. This is because many of the teachers work in the basic and secondary sectors of education. According to our law of orientation for basic and secondary education states on page four section eight, that ‘Education shall be apolitical’. Hence, we went in to fight to right educational wrongs, although along the line, some community issues cropped in. Some of us decided to focus on education, not because we wanted to invalidate the community issues, but because we understood the repercussions of keeping the kindergarten and nursery school children out of school for as long as it will take to play political chess games. Unfortunately along the line, things went way out of hand. Nevertheless, we said that while we were going to continue insisting that community needs be met, we will like to appeal to the community to send the children back to school. We therefore join our voices to the appeals that have been made. We must be able to be moving while complaining.”
Valentine Semma, Acting National Executive Secretary General of Cameroon Teachers’ Trade Union (CATTU): “I will like to inform us that we are looking at the fate of almost 800.000 learners in the North West and South West Regions, whose future is almost being jeopardized by the non-resumption of classes. The ad hoc committee was created to address educational grievances and at the end of our deliberations in Bamenda, that committee was dissolved. We were not competent enough to discuss health, economic, political nor judicial matters. Government has been able to address our worries. During the ad hoc, all of us resolved and arrived at certain timelines that stretched up to 2018. We can therefore not wait until 2018 when all of these timelines have been met before we go back to school.”
Resolutions
After incisive deliberations, the Council unanimously agreed as follows:
• Appeal to parents, students and other education stakeholders to effectively take their children back to school on Tuesday March 7, 2017, for those who have not yet done so.
• Call all education Secretaries of both Lay Private and Confessional Schools to disseminate this information, calling back students to their various schools by Tuesday March 7, 2017.
• Congratulates parents, candidates and Chiefs of Centres for undertaking the registration exercise as the tradition of the Board holds; and in this light authorize the Registrar of the Cameroon GCE Board to publish all data on the 2017 examination organized by the Board.
• Exceptionally, authorize the Registrar of the GCE Board to reopen registration in all centres to cater for extra late registration that will end on Monday March 20, 2017, at 2pm.
• Reiterates the position of H.E the Minister of Secondary Education that in consonance with UNESCO principles and rules, there will be No Blank Academic Year in Cameroon this year. And therefore calls on candidates, teachers and parents to continue preparations for all certificate examinations organized by the GCE Board.