Examination Management in Cameroon:

Francophone ‘spies’ at GCE Board
  Mbella Ephraim in Bekora
In Cameroon education is managed by the ministry of education along with two assessment bodies: the GCE Board and the BAC Board. But the GCE Board is of particular interest here because of the way it came into being, how it has fared and the prospects of its future. In this three – part series of articles we are going to examine the GCE Board’s functioning in detail and from it, deduce its likely future.
    There are three different bodies or organs who could answer the question: who owns the GCE Board? These are: the government of Cameroon, the Teachers’ Association of Cameroon (TAC) and the population of the former Southern Cameroons.

The Cameroon government
    The government of Cameroon can claim custody of the GCE Board because if it did not allow its creation, the Board would never have come into being. Apart from that, its organization and functioning allows the government to not only provide finances in terms of subventions, but play a major role in the policy formation and governance of the Board. All this happens in the background of the bicultural context of the country which is inscribed in the constitution of Cameroon.
    However, there have been happenings and occurrences in the functioning of the Board which put to question the future of the Board that is, if the government should carry on with its comportment viz-a-viz the GCE Board. It has been reported several times that the GCE Board is a product of a three-year long  and sometimes brutal and violent battle between the Teachers’ Association of Cameroon TAC, the entire people of the former Southern Cameroon and the government of Cameroon.     That is why these three can claim ownership of the Board. In this confrontation referred to above, the government stood out as one which did not cherish the creation of the Board and so it put obstacles in the way and made it extremely difficult for those who wanted the Board created. That is why it took three years with violent confrontations with the security forces. In the end the government lost the battle and the Board was formed. The government was forced to forget oppression and come to the table of reason.

    But since then the same government has not forgotten the fact that it lost and has constantly done everything in surreptitious way to hijack the Board and usurp its functioning. It began by suddenly appointing the late Dr. Herbert Nganjo Endely to immediately take over from the pioneer chairman of the Board, the late Sylvester N. Dioh who had been at the forefront of the struggle for the Board. Dr. Endely had absolutely no pedigree; i.e. if you had asked him what his opinion was, not to talk of his contribution in the struggle to get the board created, he would not have had anything to say. But he accepted to come in as chairman of an institution he opposed.
    Through him the government brought in their well-trained lynchpin in the person of Dr. Omer Weyi Yembe, whose story is replete with handing over all anglo-saxon institutions in this country to the (dominantly francophone) government for eventual erosion and depletion. When he was principal of CCAST Bambili, the privileges which the school had at that time were all suspended and it went from a prestigious pre-university secondary school to an ordinary school. When he was cultural delegate at the Cameroon embassy in London, university students lost their bursaries and other benefits they were enjoying from the government. When he became the director of ENS Bambili, it lost its autonomy and became only an annex to ENS Yaounde. When he became Registrar of the Board, the technical exams which the Board was trying to develop died because he brought in a different text of application which introduced French oriented exams like BACC and Probatoire.
    Even then, the government did not relent. Having lost the struggle for the Board it wanted to hijack it completely. The government just can’t tolerate the autonomy and independence which the board was created to enjoy. So it has contrived to make the board constantly dependent on it for every action needed to make itself a robust corporate entity. 
    The government created a finance committee for the Board which is now turning out to be the training ground for future Registrars. It contrived to bring Mr. Monono Humphrey into this committee to permit him to understudy the financial management of the Board so that when he becomes the Registrar, he will already know the workings of the institution. That way his induction will not be a tedious exercise.
    Yet the government still believes that they (francophones) own this country and everything that happens must be what they allow to happen. And so the other main component of this country’s bicultural system, the English culture is being bludgeoned into submission and even eventual elimination. Many Cameroonians of the English – speaking subsystem have been harboring the fear that from the way this government has been toying with the Board, it could one day get a francophone to manage the Board as well and the University of Buea.
    These murmurings are getting stronger these days when one considers the brazen manner in which the affairs of the country are being conducted viz-aviz the English-speaking subsystem in this country. The government is busy creating hybrid Cameroonians; (francophone by birth and origin but Anglophone by education and training) in whose hands it intends to hand over this country. Thus a francophone woman, Mrs. Mpoudi Ngole Evelyn finds herself at the very helm of the GCE Board (the Examination Executive Committee) where she determines the academic policy of the Board. It is through her that the Board is being turned now into an obnoxious and incomprehensible outfit (which the Minister referred to as a bilingual GCE Board), with the introduction of a subject called French for francophones.
    Today, also there is one Dr. Rose Njilla, of francophone origin who has been on the finance committee of the Board for many years and who, like Mr. Monono could be appointed Registrar of the Board anytime soon. When contacted, some people argue that such is not possible because it requires the vote of the council of the GCE Board. But it should be noted that that council, headed by Dr. Peter Abety is worse than a rubber stamp. Right from March 1997 when Dr. Endely contrived to replace some of the pioneer members so as to vote out the pioneer Registrar, Mr. Azong Wara Andrew, all the members of that council have formed themselves into a cabal of self-seekers. This is particularly true of the representatives of teachers on that council and it represents how the government rules by crating lackeys and stooges who only do the will of the government whether it is good or bad.
    The government does only what pleases it, especially when it comes to annexing and annihilating the English speaking component of the country. It makes rules and breaks them when it wants to. It has already pointed the gun on the entire country and the people of southern Cameroon in particular by promulgating an antidemocratic and even primitive anti – terrorism law which bans all protests.         These are the elements with which the government can claim ownership of the Board. So the idea that the council of the Board can prevent the government from making a francophone the Registrar is a pipe dream.
    Next in the line is the Teachers’ Association of Cameroon.