By Elah Geofrey Mbongale and Wifah Jennyhans Nde
As the heat of the Anglophone crisis continue to bellow, most Cameroonians especially those in the North West and South West regions of the country – the two regions directly hit by the crisis, have their fingers crossed as the General Certificate of Education, GCE exams take off on Monday, June 12.
The serious security challenges cloaking the English speaking parts of the country coupled with the fact that most schools have been shutdown since November 2016 presents a bleak picture for the successful organization of the GCE.
It should be recalled that it was only on May 13, 2017, after about five months of no classes that the Catholic Education Authority, following instructions from the Archbishop of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua, asked the administrators of catholic schools to open their doors for GCE candidates to access their centers and sit in for this year’s session of the exams. Other schools have had some timid attendance and classes have been ongoing but a good number of schools have not had a single class since the beginning of the crisis in the North West and South West regions.
Generally, some principals, especially those of government schools have revealed that the practical part of the exams unfolded successfully with no major hitches but for the student who suffered an attack from unknown vandals around GBHS Bamenda and her hand badly wounded while on her way to sit in for the B.E.P.C exams. A principal however expressed worries over the turnout of candidates at this year’s GCE exams as the numbers keeps dwindling every day.
For security reason, some centers have been earmarked to host this year’s GCE and the time for the afternoon session has been changed from 2pm to 1pm so that by 4pm, all centers would have finished writing for the day. Without mentioning centres that shall host candidates this academic year for security reason, some centres shall accommodate up to 20 schools and above.
In modification of the minister’s instruction that any student willing to write the GCE even without prove of registration should be given the chance to write, it has been resolved that registration continuous and shall stop when the written part of the exams begin. This was affirmed to The SUN by Mr. Bainjong Ezikiel, divisional delegate of secondary education for Momo.
The SUN equally gathered that candidates who present receipt of registration at any center should be allowed to write. Candidates are also permitted to go to writing centers without uniforms.
The number of centres in the North West region has been drastically reduced this year such that candidates who used to leave Akwaya to write in Guzang for example must now have to bear extra cost to move to Batibo where most of the centers have been concentrated. The move according to the Divisional Delegate of Secondary education is such that with the limited financial resources and security personnel, the security of all candidates can be assured.
It should be recalled that the practical part of the 2017 General Certificate of Education, Ordinary and Advanced level examinations, were written on Monday May 15, 2017, all over the national territory with centres in the North West and South West regions under tight security.
It could be noticed that there was a good number of forces of law and order present in and out of the campuses, alongside the schools’ own security men.
According to the Fako Divisional Delegate for Secondary Education, Helen Ikundi, despite the poor turnout of students, the security measures taken were quite impressive: “We have security men at the level of the schools and security forces allocated by the administration so that the exams go on hitch free. And we can say that the exams went on smoothly.”
It is expected that government will ramp up security during the written part of the GCE in both the North West and South West regions considering the recent spades of attacks on schools infrastructure and some students preparing to write the exams.