Sunday 26 June 2016

Evil scheme against Anglophone educational system:




Memorandum to the Prime Minister
We forward herewith, the Memorandum written by Anglophone Teacher Trade Unions to the PM, calling on him to restrain Minister J. Fame Ndongo who is determined to wipe out Anglophones and their educational system.
• Denounce appointment driven anglophone pseudo-intellectuals who continue to defend the ongoing harmonization;
• Say the Minister lied about the way the harmonization is going;
• Denounce marginalization of Anglophone children in professional schools in English-speaking universities;
• Say Anglophone children are the victims of a corruption racket at the MINESUP;
• Say plan to destroy the Anglophone educational system was concocted a long time ago;
• Warn that Fame Ndong should be held responsible when Anglophones go on the streets;

The Prime Minister and Head of Government,

Dear Sir,
BAREFACED ATTEMPTS BY THE MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION TO 
ALIENATE ANGLOPHONES IN CAMEROON
At our regular consultative meeting in the month of June 2016, it became necessary to reflect on the situation of higher education in Cameroon and particularly the myriad of changes that have gone on under the helmsmanship of Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo. From the façade, these changes give the impression that higher education in Cameroon is being modernized, but in the course of our consultations with stakeholders, we have unraveled a sinister plot that has been concocted by this same Minister to rid Anglophones in Cameroon of the meager chances they ever had to get jobs after school, or enjoy their identity. Using the policy instruments of the State, this Minister, in a typically “racist” and xenophobic fashion, has gradually and surreptitiously harmonized Higher Education in Cameroon, creating such nuances as ‘it is harmonization, not uniformization’. From the recruitment of lecturers to the admission of students into professional schools and more recently, trying to create a uniform template for academic programmes, one sees the same sinister motive – the hidden grand design to alienate Anglophones in Cameroon.
                In this memorandum, we illustrate the extent to which this wicked plan has been hatched, and call on your good office to do everything within your power to stop the “raw deal” Anglophones have been served up till now.

Admission of Students into Professional Schools
                One of the areas where Anglophone parents feel the most aggrieved is the admission of their children into professional schools. Teachers too feel that all their effort is wasted because their students never really have a foothold they can boast of.
                Many years ago, the Cameroon GCE was the measure by which intelligent students were rated and it served as an independent, unbiased selection device. This means that for any admission or selection, students with the highest points in the GCE A/Levels qualified according to their performance. It applied in scholarship programmes and eventually in the scoring of candidates applying for admission into the University of Buea. Although regional balance was often mentioned, it was never to the detriment of meritorious students.
                Of recent, the Ministry of Higher Education (MINESUP) has jettisoned the concept of excellence in favour of a more mediocre unnamed concept which has given rise to fearless corruption and injustice. The situation is even more critical because even in universities that were created to diversify our educational system and reduce the extent of Anglophone marginalization in State Universities, Anglophones have become an endangered species under the watchful eye of Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo.
                We would like to recall that the Universities of Buea and Bamenda were created by Presidential Decrees specifying that their character is Anglo-Saxon; a tacit recognition, by the Head of State, that Cameroon is made up of French-speaking and English-speaking peoples. This reality is enshrined in the fundamental law of the land. But what this Minister and his collaborators at the MINESUP have done is – flout the Presidential Decrees and install a cabal that is out to humiliate, alienate and discriminate against Anglophones. He is even quoted as saying that ‘if he had been consulted, the University of Buea would not have been Anglo-Saxon’. In the bid to render ineffectual the attempt by the President to bring higher education closer to Anglophones, he has systematically undertaken to marginalize them in the admission of students into professional schools in the Universities of Buea and Bamenda. This move is also in line with the design by the MINESUP to devalue the Cameroon GCE and the Anglophone sub-system of education.  A look at the admissions into some professional schools will attest to this fact:
a.The present Level 200 class of medical students at the University of Buea has only about 12 Anglophones out of 80 students;
b.  In the first general admission into Faculties of Medicine, one cannot count up to 50 Anglophones of North West and South West extraction.
c.  In the Higher Technical Teachers’ Training College Kumba (University of Buea) and Bamenda, about 90% of the students in the industrial traits (building, electricity, etc) are Francophone;
d.  In the Higher Teachers’ Training College (ENS), and other professional schools in the University of Bamenda, Anglophones are only an infinitesimal segment.
                Although these institutions were created to enhance human resource development among English-speaking Cameroonians, there seems to a manifest determination by some individuals to use these same institutions to disenfranchise, alienate, abuse and keep Anglophones permanently in oblivion. Even students who perform exceptionally well in the GCE A/Levels are no longer given any special consideration. As a result, many have been exiled to look for greener pastures out of the country, when they would certainly have liked to study at home.
                Your Excellency, it may be interesting to know how the machinery of the MINESUP works. It is well tailored and organized, and seemingly, logical explanations are given to justify each step that is designed to vitiate or debase Anglophones.

How the marginalization machinery in competitive entrance examinations works
                Under the guise of control or oversight, the MINESUP ensures that it vets all lists of students declared successful in competitive entrance examinations into professional schools. For the most part, the lists are mutilated because those involved in the organization of examinations and compilation process attest that the names sent to the MINESUP are never the same names which come back. It is believed, and justifiably so, that at the MINESUP, the lists are “doctored” by a ring of corrupt individuals who extort huge bribes from parents who can afford. Those who know the networks find their way and easily put their children’s names on the list. The pretext for marginalizing Anglophones is usually regional balance; yet everyone knows from the composition of those lists that it is the highest bidder who gets his name on the lists. The case of the University of Buea where the erstwhile Vice-Chancellor lost his post because he published the list of meritorious candidates which turned out to be at variance with the Minister’s list is a case in point. It is also common knowledge that some parents pay over three million Francs to have their children’s names on that list, and some children even boast about it.
It becomes obvious that competitive examinations are just a means of raising money through stamp duty and to swell some individuals’ pockets.  Otherwise, how does one explain why the selection process is shrouded with such opacity only to the detriment of Anglophones? Most of these students who come in are tabula rasa in English. Although the decrees specify that the proficiency of Francophone students seeking admission into these professional schools be certified, they are never required to take an English language proficiency course. More than any Minister of Higher Education, this one perpetrates injustice, discrimination and the marginalization of Anglophones.

The Recentralization of Admission into Medical Schools
                Formerly, the University of  Buea used to select its candidates based on merit. At least, even if there was regional balance, the scoring of certificates always made it possible for students who performed distinctly in the GCE A/Levels to have a chance of admission if they performed well in the entrance examination.
                In the last two years, the MINESUP has recentralized the process of selecting students into medical schools. All students write a common entrance examination set in French and poorly translated into English. Anglophone students must write whether they can understand the questions or not. Some complain that when they pass, they are sent to French-speaking universities they did not choose, in towns where life can be very challenging. Some give up their chances because of the cost of living in those towns. Generally, the few Anglophones who are selected are sent to private medical institutions where they pay exorbitant fees while Francophones take over their places in Buea and Bamenda.
                We think that our children have been sufficiently traumatized by the system put in place at the MINESUP. It is time to allow English-speaking universities to set their entrance examinations, not manipulate and exclude them from professional training as the case is now.

Harmonization or Uniformization of University Programmes
                All over the world, universities have their specificities; they run programmes which are comparable. The reason why universities can never be the same is simple – although they engender universality, they are agencies for cultural transmission. In a bi-cultural country like Cameroon, it is appalling that the MINESUP will carry out studies in the bid to harmonize by only visiting Francophone countries like Senegal and Cote D’Ivoire, while flying over Nigeria and Ghana or forgetting South Africa.
                It may be interesting to note that the much talked about BMP system is not new to the Universities of Buea and Bamenda which have a credit value system, unlike other universities which pretend to practice the BMP while doing the contrary. An impartial investigation will reveal that what many other State Universities practice is not BMP although huge sums of money have been spent to make it look or sound like BMP. To destroy the actual BMP, a harmonization of programmes was organized after the Minister and his men with the complicity of some Anglophone appointment-driven, pseudo-intellectuals. They concocted a plan to uniformize academic programmes in State Universities under the pretext of permitting students to transfer from one university to another. At a time when universities should be competing to offer diverse programmes that can address our numerous social and economic challenges, it is strange and suspicious that Professor Fame Ndongo should deploy so much of our scarce resources to discuss how students can transfer from one university to another.

Your Excellency,
                We are weary of the manipulations of this Minister and think that he has insulted Anglophones in Cameroon too often and used big words to explain it away. Even as he frantically denied harmonizing or standardizing programmes a few days ago, there is evidence that programmes in the Faculties of Agriculture and Medicine have already been harmonized across the board. We are also aware that Political Science programmes have been harmonized. The Minister has stubbornly gone ahead with this harmonization without regard for the specificity of Anglophones. We believe that Minister Fame Ndongo has declared war on Anglophones in Cameroon and it is important for Government to hold him responsible for any unrest this will ultimately cause.

Recruitment of teachers who are not proficient in English
                In 2011, when the Head of State decided to recruit 25,000 young Cameroonians, the MINESUP saw it again as an opportunity to flout the Decree creating the Universities of Buea and Bamenda. Out of about 1000 lecturers recruited by the MINESUP, less than 100 were Anglophone. Proof is that the Anglophone universities were flooded with French-speaking young Cameroonians who could not speak a word of English and no arrangements were made to upgrade their proficiency. They never went through the regular unbiased interview process put in place in Buea and Bamenda universities to verify their quality and specialty. Up to this day, there are many lecturers in the University of Buea recruited at that time, who have never taught a single lesson because they have refused to learn English and their quality is doubtful. In the University of Bamenda, most of them teach in approximate English. Students either laugh because it is all fun or the teachers simply switch to French when they can no longer sustain the stalemate. The fact that the MINESUP flooded the English-speaking universities with people who cannot speak English does not mean that there were no qualified Anglophones. The reason is that Anglophones don’t matter to Minister Fame Ndongo’s “racist” disposition, and so our subsystem of education can be plundered and our children rendered useless.
                As teachers and parents, we cannot continue to watch how our standards are watered down by an insensitive Minister who delights in such provocative remarks as “Any Cameroonian can work anywhere”, without regard to their profile; in flagrant disregard for the decrees which created the English-speaking universities.


Crucial implantations
                To achieve his Machiavellian designs, the Minister has been instrumental in the appointment of Francophones as Deans to some of the Faculties he would like to see destroyed. In Buea, the Faculty of Education, which is responsible for laying the foundation of the Anglophone sub-system is headed by a Francophone; the Faculty of Health Sciences is also headed by a Francophone who is recruiting Francophone medical doctors, with no mastery of English, to teach to the exclusion of Anglophone doctors. To Professor Fame Ndongo, the Head of State made a mistake by creating Universities for Anglophones. That is why he is gradually undoing its fabric using a system of patronage, harmonization, corruption and uniformization. To him, there are no Anglophone Professors who merit appointment. We have also been intimated that when the HTTTC Kumba was created, he initially recommended a Francophone to become Director but it was turned down. He also caused the Head of State to appoint Francophones as Deputy Vice-chancellors in charge of Academic Affairs in Buea (Prof. BlaiseMukoko) and Bamenda (Prof. BarthelemyNyasse) so as to complete his heinous design. We have also learnt that the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences is about to be split, and the MINESUP plans to send Francophones to flood the structures about to be created. This may not be far from the truth; after all, in the University of Bamenda, a significant number of Heads of Departments are Francophone. This plot had been prepared long ago!
                Apart from using Francophone appointees to achieve this heinous scheme, the Minister is also using retired Anglophone professors who are desperate to extend their stay in service. The Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, UB (Dr. Pierre Sakwe) has been on retirement for almost a year now, but is still in office, contrary to presidential instructions and the Prime Minister’s directive that all retirees should leave. By accepting the harmonization, he hopes to win the Minister’s favour by getting a two-year extension. The Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, UB (Prof. MarcelinNgoweNgowe) is Francophone, the vehicle by which Anglophone medical doctors are sent away from the college of medicine and the facilitator of the harmonization of the Medicine programme. In fact, he runs the place like his private farm. Even the competent Anglophones sent to work there run away for diverse reasons.

Double standards
                It has been observed that there is far greater transparency in organizing a competitive entrance examination whose outcome is not direct employment, compared to one which inevitably leads to employment. We have observed that admission into ASTI is more transparent and expedient since translators are not directly employed, compared to Colleges of Medicine, HTTC (ENS) and HTTTCs where employment is guaranteed. In these examinations there is a lot of secrecy and going to Yaounde and back with so much waiting and delay. The shady and secret manner of handling these examinations fuels the feeling, and truly so, that there is a corrupt network in the MINESUP which determines who is admitted and who is not. We have even learnt that some students brag about their parents’ ability to pay three million for their admission into the Medical School at UB and that “It is who can, not who wants”.
                At the 2016 University games, the Minister personally oversaw discrimination against English-speaking universities to the point that Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea, Dr. NalovaLyonga walked out on him. Two years ago, during university games, the University of Buea was fined several hundreds of thousands of Francs for coming late to a football match. But in this year’s finals, when the University of Yaounde I team came several hours late after UB had been worn out by the heat of the sun, the Minister unashamedly asked that the two teams go for penalty shoot outs during which UB lost. One would have expected UB to win by forfeiture. It is shocking that this Minister can be so mean and crafty to descend to the level of a match delegate in a university competition just to favour his team.  Such happenings betray the biased and bigoted mindset of Minister Fame Ndongo and the extent to which he is prepared to go to humiliate Anglophones.

Your Excellency,
                This kind of tyranny which consists in using the law to oppress the people is most unfortunate. Minister Fame Ndongo is using his position to destroy the future of our children; to maim our cultural aspirations, to enforce poverty among our people and to spread ignorance. In fact, they are being robbed of the chance of growth the Head of State has given them through their systematic exclusion from the very institutions which ought to serve them. The very institutions which were meant to give the people a sense of belonging are today being used to divide them, humiliate them, discriminate and marginalize them. The plots and evil designs of this minister make Anglophones to genuinely feel that Cameroon is an institutionalized conspiracy to degrade and wipe out the identity of Anglophones.

Your Excellency,
- Having considered this deplorable situation whereby our children are being unfairly targeted – their academic aspirations, their job prospects, their humanity;
-  Knowing how much the Minister has sweet-talked the government into believing that harmonization is a good thing for our country and that it does not imply uniformization;
-  Recognizing that irrespective of the name given to it, the harmonization/uniformization/standardization process is going on and is intended to blot out Anglophone specificities, and will not stop if the Minister is not asked to do so by the Government;
- Recognizing that the appointment system in place has been the instrument by which these wicked designs have been concocted, facilitated and implemented;
-  Viewing that the minister’s “racist” passion, as shown in the way he treats Anglophones, could ignite the anger of the weary Anglophone population;

We Anglophone Parents, Teachers and Lawyers of Common Law extraction,
-  Request that the Universities of Buea and Bamenda be excluded from Minister Fame Ndongo’s on-going harmonization/uniformization project and that the uniformization of the Medical, Agriculture and Fisheries and Political Science programmes should be nullified.
-  Request that henceforth, admission into the Colleges of Medicine in the English-speaking State and Private Universities be conducted transparently in English and that in future, the list sent to the Minister of Higher Education for signature should be based on merit and visaed without any alterations whatsoever.
- Demand that each university should be allowed to admit students subject to its capacity to accommodate and train them as predetermined by the technical assessment.
-  Demand that henceforth, Anglophones be given due consideration and priority in admissions into Colleges of Medicine, HTTC (UBa), HTTTC (UB and UBa) and that the business of these establishments be conducted in English.
-  Demand that henceforth, the language requirement for admission into English-speaking institutions be respected not only by Anglophones, but by Francophones as well. Francophones should show proof of English language proficiency before admission into professional schools in the Universities of Bamenda and Buea.
- Demand that Anglophone education trade unions be represented at every stage of the admission process into English-speaking higher educational institutions to ensure that corrupt practices like influence peddling and bribery do not continue to alienate deserving students and fuel injustice.
-Demand that Anglophones be appointed to oversee academic affairs in English-speaking institutions and Medical schools to ensure that our cultural plurality as a nation can be protected and have its true meaning.
- Demand that Francophone teachers who do not have the linguistic profile to teach in English-speaking institutions or cannot speak English be redeployed to French-speaking institutions.
-  Demand that the Universities of Buea and Bamenda interview and recruit their lecturers according to their needs as it used to be, and is still the case in Yaounde, Douala, Dschang and Ngaoundere.
- Demand that an independent commission be set up to investigate the injustices and humiliation Anglophone children and their subsystem have suffered in education in the last ten years.
                Charles de Montesquieu once said, “There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” The destruction of Anglophone higher educational aspirations has been officially presided over by Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo, using the instruments of Government policy and administration. The pretext for marginalizing Anglophones has always been regional balance, and other obscure criteria. This attempt to destroy Anglophone basic and secondary education, which has always been resisted, has now extended to higher education. It is clear that the purpose is to overwhelm and decapitate the educational system.   This is not justified; it is abusive and disregards our identity in our bi-cultural fatherland.  When the two Cameroons were reunified, we were given a promissory note that our safety and wellbeing will be guaranteed. Instead, our children have become motor bike riders and call-box operators. Today, the educational system which is all we have to be able to compete internationally is being demolished.
                We are hereby calling on the Prime Minister and Head of Government to put an end to this tyranny which has preyed on Anglophones and reduced them to second class citizens within their country. A stitch in time saves nine!

Done in Bamenda this Wednesday 22 June, 2016.

Prof. James ArreyAbangma
For SYNES-UB

Tassang Wilfred Fombang 
 For CATTU

Tameh Valentine Nfon
For TAC               

Afuh Stephens Kwah 
 For PEATTU

Amuntung Joseph Tumasang
For UPTA
                                              
Ayeah Emmanuel K. Ngam 
For BATTUC

Kimfon Michael Yufenyuy
For CEWOTU

Bobga Harmony              
For the Anglophone Common
Law Lawyers Conference

CC:
-              The President of the Republic
-              The President of Senate
-              The President of the National Assembly
-              Heads of Diplomatic Missions





No body wants to kill the 
Anglo-Saxon university system
  -Jacques Fame Ndongo, Higher Education Minister
Jacques Fame Ndongo
Talking to the press last week, the Minister of Higher Education said rather than kill the Anglo-Saxon Universities of Buea and Bamenda, the harmonization of training programmes in the different state universities is meant to respect the particularities of each of the two sub-systems of higher education in Cameroon. This and more is contained in the interview below.
                The State Universities of Buea and Bamenda are denying the harmonization of their academic programmes. What is the situation?
                The harmonization of programmes is a statutory activity of the Ministry of Higher Education. It is prescribed by article 29 of the decree of 1 October 2012 relating to the organization of the Ministry of Higher Education (MINESUP). The goal is to ensure coherence of the curricula of training with the aim of enabling the mobility of students, the comparability of certificates and the transferability of credits. It is not about drawing up programme-types but rather referential ones through which each university can conceive teaching programmes. It is about respecting the particularities of each of the two sub-systems of our higher education.
                In the memorandum of Synes (the national trade union of higher education teachers), MINESUP is accused of concentrating on some disciplines which do not facilitate employment or the spirit of enterprise, whereas the University of Buea is known for its diversification, for having sections such as journalism, public relations, banking and finance and management. What do you have to say about that?
                On this, I would say that the ministry does not draw up programmes. All the programmes come from the universities which must get them validated by the university council. What we are recommending to universities is that they should not do things in isolation; they should share their experiences with other universities. Besides, it does not seem that journalism, communication and banking and finance are the prerogative of the University of Buea. These disciplines are studied in other universities and even in private institutions of higher learning.
                Another thing that is said is a design to “to kill the Anglo-Saxon tradition of the University of Buea.” Is this founded?
                The government cannot create an Anglo-Saxon university and “kill it” as you say. Of course, it is the government that endowed the universities of Buea and Bamenda with specific texts that made them Anglo-Saxon. And, truly, it is the Anglo-Saxon model that we have adopted in all our higher education system - the LMD system. Let me remind you that the Francophone diplomas such as the “Maitrise”, “Doctorat de 3ème cycle”, and “Doctoratd’Etat” have all disappeared in favour of the Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD. This choice is irreversible especially as they are in keeping with the prescriptions of the Heads of State of CEMAC. What we are henceforth looking for is to better understand the LMD system, to have the same understanding of it so as to better implement it in the universities.



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