Monday, 29 February 2016

Preserving Anglo-Saxon sub-system of Education:

Teachers advocate separate educational council for Anglophones
By Njodzefe Nestor and Ngong Song Jean Marie
Some five educational associations in Cameroon have launched fresh calls for government to create separate educational councils in Cameroon that will better manage issues of education from primary to university.
                This was part of the fallouts of a three day workshop organised by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung that grouped the 5 associations namely the Association of Retired Educationist, ARED, Teachers Association of Cameroon, TAC, People Earth wise, Cameroon Educational Forum and the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union, CATTU on February 25 to 27 2016 in Bamenda.
                The separate educational councils which will cater for and reflect on the different sub systems of education in Cameroon according to the pressure associations will redress the reigning cacophony wherein reflections are done in French and just translated wrongly in English.
                In a strong worded statement to the press, Wilfred TassangNfor, on behalf of the five associations noted that they are into nation building hence have been in constant quest to propose an alternative solution to the way things should be done in  Cameroon especially in providing quality education to young Cameroonians.

                “We are not opposition to the system. The government is us when it succeeds or fails, and it is incumbent on us to irk our heads and our hearts to be able to give government the best way of doing things” lamented Wilfred TassangNfor.
He regretted that over the years, the francophone system of education has been down playing on the anglo-saxon system of education.
                “The unions and the Cameroon education forum have concerted and arrived on the following solution to our education; that two separate systems of education be created with none superior to the other” revealed the firebrand activist.
                As for the vision of the separate councils, Wilfred TassangNfor said it will be to nurture, develop and empower the educational system to excellence, producing an innovative and patriotic citizenry.
                As for the mission he said it will enhance, create and enable the provision and monitoring of quality education in pre-primary, primary, secondary, professional and teacher education through the elaboration of quality curricular, provision of adaptable infrastructure and material encouragement of scholarship and personnel development.
                Tassang bemoaned the existence of several ministries of education in Cameroon with each going its own way adding that there is chaos and confusion with curriculum revised and developed in basic education done without any consideration to what is done in the secondary and tertiary sectors.
                He added that the need for a super structure like the educational councils was indispensable as it will bring all these levels of education together to come up with a curriculum for Cameroon that connects all stages of education.
                One of the major resource person at the 3 day workshop, Lucas TassiNtang, education consultant, vice chair of the education forum, parent and personnel f the former ministry of national education. He said his contribution in the workshop was to give the necessary knowledge and introspection of the kind of education that existed comparable to that which obtains today.
                “To do advocacy, lobby and to challenge, you need knowledge. I gave them an overview of the type of education we had up to today and a simple description of the whole thing reveals that we have done a lot of work without vision, in make believe statements, in a system that is politically too heavy, where the centre is too heavy and when the system is too strong, the leadership becomes overwhelm” added Lucas TassiNtang.
                The pressure associations believe that if the education councils are created, they will check duplicity in education, transfer issues, accommodation and electricity difficulties that scare teachers away from rural areas, by providing fuel allowances from the educational tax that will be introduced alongside the council.


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