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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