Tracts circulating in K’ba warning against schools resumption

It was business as usual in Buea Road, Kumba, after the release of GCE results Friday

Tension is brewing in Kumba, economic capital of the South West region, as back-to-school gets closer. This is coming in the wake of the crisis in NW and SW regions that has entered the 10th month and with no solution yet in sight.

                While the government has embarked on a massive media campaign to get classes resume on September 4, tracts are flying all over the city of Kumba threatening both parents and teachers not to dare send children to school.

                Some school proprietors confirmed to this newspaper that they have recieved threats from anonymous persons urging them to end all activities linked with preparation for schools resumption.

                But that notwithstanding, catch-up holiday classes are continuing in several schools here in preparation for the new school year.

                While the authorities of some schools are going ahead with registration, some proprietors of private schools who spoke to this reporter off the record said they are not ready to risk their lives and that of their pupils and students or even their properties all because of school resumption.

                In the meantime, registration of students and pupils in anticipation of the new academic year in all of Southern Cameroons has remained very slow. Many schools proprietors said they haven’t registered any students for the new academic year.

                The proprietors regretted that some parents have opted to send their children to schools in towns across the Mungo, Yaoundé, Douala and Bafoussam especially. They revealed that many parents have come asking for transfer certificates to enable them send their kids to schools in Francophone Cameroon.

                This is because most parents are still sceptical about school resumption in the Anglophone regions after they lost all of last year. The fear and intimidation by men of the underworld is not helping the reticence of the parents about schools resumption.

                At the Kumba main market just like in most markets in NW and SW, there is no sign of ‘back to school fever’. Shop owners say business has remained slow and discouraging especially giving the difficult economic situation. Even bookshops are yet to see the hustle and bustle that characterizes such periods in past years.

                After ten months of an unprecedented crisis in Southern Cameroons, the stand-off between government and the Southern Cameroons activists is far from over. Both parties have refused to come to a compromise.

                Government unilaterally closed the doors to dialogue in January and instead arrested the leaders of the ‘struggle’. Both sides have now resorted to political propaganda to sell their views and win sympathy from the suffering public.