As Controversial GCE Starts Tomorrow, Unidentified Persons Have sworn to Butcher Those Daring to Write
Cameroon Journal, Bamenda – The written part of the
General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations are due to begin
tomorrow June 12 according to an announcement on state-owned CRTV. The
examinations are being written amid a lot of controversy, the greatest
being the fact that students have been out of classrooms since November
21 2016, following a strike action by Anglophone teachers in the two
English-speaking regions.
Secondary Education Minister while on a trip to Bamenda on May 10 to
“assess the level of preparedness” for the exams, sent shockwaves across
the nation when he austerely told GCE Board Registrar Humprey Ekema
Monono to create “special centers” to accommodate unregistered
candidates so that they can take the GCE exam. The Cameroon populace,
especially those of English expression are yet to fathom this action
which many see as a desecration of their noble exam.
Tomorrow’s examinations are being written (if they will be written)
amid lots of fear and uncertainty, given that unidentified persons have
made it a sworn duty to butcher those daring to write the exams. This
was the case on June 5
th where some students of GBHS Bamenda
were attacked with machetes by unarmed persons, leaving the students
with severe injuries that forced them to undergo surgery. There was (and
still is)a lot of fear as the public now questions the security which
authorities have pledged to provide, with some asking how a school as
GBHS Bamenda under such heavy military guard could be attacked if in
fact this is not a scheme by the very people claiming to be protecting
the children.
Meanwhile, Tapang Ivo and Mark Bareta, two Southern Cameroons
activists known for their passion for the Anglophone struggle have in
posts on Facebook suggested that Yaoundé has been behind the arson and
wanton brutality on students in the Northwest and Southwest Regions
within the past 7 months.
The GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations are some of the most
decisive examinations for Cameroonians of English expression because
most students never go beyond their O’ or A’Levels and so for government
authorities
and their supporters to compel students to forcefully write an exam
like this which will affect their very lives, without having been
taught, is to destroy the future of those children to say the least.
In spite of calls by the Prime Minister, various CPDM diehards and
Ministers for schools to effectively resume, the calls have fallen on
heedless ears and parents across both regions have kept their children
home. Authorities in Yaoundé are now pointing accusing fingers at
church leaders, and lambasting a youthful generation for using social
media and labeling those who boycotted 20
th May celebrations to stand with those they arrested, as “enemies of the state”.
In an interview on CRTV on January 21st, 2017, Paul Ombiono, a
university lecturer and philosopher had stated that should UNESCO
declare a blank academic year, it will not affect only schools in the
Southern Cameroons, but equally those in French Cameroon. Some have said
this is the reason why gov’t is doing everything to see to it that the
GCE is written at all cost.
It remains to be seen how tomorrow’s GCE will be written, given that all parents who spoke to the
Cameroon Journal
vowed to keep their kids home for as long as the stalemate persists.
“Why should my daughter go to school when our church leader is standing
trial for simply asking government to look for eternal solutions to this
crisis?” an embittered parent asked rhetorically.
Unregistered
candidates sitting GCE examinations in West Cameroon are in a dilemma
following a declaration made by an official on state broadcaster, CRTV.
The official revealed on Monday that a special report would be written
about unregistered candidates taking the rather controversial exams. The
same official pointed out that such candidates had been set apart at
their centre in order to facilitate writing the report .
