As an educationist who
exactly is Ottu David Orock?
I was a trained Technical student from the then lone
Technical College in West Cameroon; Government Technical College GTC Ombe. I
completed there in the year 1985 and left for Government Technical High School
Kumba in the year 1985- 1986 and had Baccalaureat
in the year 1989. I worked with the Analyses Department at SONARA in Limbe for
a year and with Camerounais Thermique
Industriel in Douala working in the Thermal Department in SONARA, Limbe. I
left because I had the interest in going back to school and taught in Family
Technical College Limbe for one year during which I became the Vice Principal
of the school in 1990. In 1994, I left the school when I passed my entrance
into Higher Technical Teacher’s Training College known in its French acronym as
ENSET in Douala. Between 1994 and 1997 I had DIPED 1 and continued to obtain DIPED
2 in 1999. From there, I was sent to Government Technical High School Nkambe
where I worked for six years but in 1995-96, I was made the Chief of Works for
the Industrial Section in GTHS Nkambe. In 1996-97 I was appointed Chief of
Works and sent to Government Technical High School Alabukam where I was made
the Acting Vice-Principal in 1998. In 1999 I was made a principal and sent to
Government Technical College Kesham in Akwaya Sub Division. I spent four years
as the principal of the school and the pioneer when the school wrote its first
badge examinations and later moved to GTC Okoroba in the Eyumujok Sub-Division.
After a brief stay there I was sent to Government Technical Teacher’s Training
College, Kumba in 2013 to start the lone GTTTC in the Southwest Region of
Cameroon.
How are the efforts
that you have been putting in place streamlined towards solving the problems of
technical education especially as far as English speaking Cameroonians are
concerned?
I think my experience in the field is really counting because
I went to a technical school which at that time was purely Anglo-Saxon in
orientation. By the time I went to High School, a new culture was ushered in
which we started writing Probatoire,
Baccalaureat and our center was in Douala. So I have an insight of what it
takes to handle the situation we have in hand. We are presently working to feed
the students with what they need to compete fairly in the present educational
dispensation in the technical sector. As such, we are looking into the difficulties
that we face and what is expected of the technological innovations of today. In
order to meet up with the Cameroonian dream of becoming an emerging economy in
2035 according to President Paul Biya, we are asking ourselves what we are
supposed to do to emerge. Technical Education must be at the center of
education for Cameroon to emerge because no country can develop without
technology. We are telling the students not only to be able to read and write
but to be able to use what they have learnt practically. They should not depend
on only working with the Government Sector. At the level of GTTTC Kumba, the
knowledge they get from here should not only be used to teach but to also build
and fabricate.
Tell us about the
History of the institution.
This is a new school created by Prime Ministerial Decree No.
2012/200/904/PM of 4th October 2012 and the Ministry of Secondary
Education Decision Number 434/13/MINESEC/SECEN of 18th August 2013.
Because this school was created in an emergency situation the special
competitive exam was launched for the school. This took place following a
decision creating it. It was written in the same year and the results came out
and school started on the 18th of September 2013, two and a half
months after other schools reopened. Presently we are functioning at a temporal
site in a structure attached to GBTTC Kumba called CEFOC. We presently work in
collaboration with other workshops in town since this temporal structure hasn’t
got certain things that we need. There are however some department in the
schools that we can boast of like Home Economics and Office Automation which we
have the material and necessary training equipment within our reach. In other departments
like wood works we have partnerships with wood workshops in town where we
prepare our material and then do the coupling in school. In Industrial Maintenance
and we also have some of the material and we come and do the finishing in
school. We want to fit the students squarely in the context of the new
technological innovations.
What trends have been
noted as far as Technical Examination results are concerned and how does these
affect the way you train your teachers?
Firstly, I want Cameroonians to know that the first
orientation they had about technical education was wrong. They made us think
that it was meant for dull students. Technical Education is meant for the best
students who leave primary school. The reason is that when you go to secondary school,
In General Education, you can specialize in a number of subjects but in
technical school you are compulsorily doing everything which comes before you
since you are not permitted to choose. In Electricity, you do the same subjects
with somebody doing Sciences in General Education with technological as well as
the arts subjects included. Technical Education as such needs a level headed
person to be able to succeed. The reason why at first children were failing
technical examinations was because parents thought they were sending dull
children to come and learn a trade. The children who came there could not cope
and as such failed in the examinations they wrote. They blamed the system for
poor results instead of putting the blame on the poor quality of students that
go for Technical Education. Clever students should go for Technical Schools and
they will bring out what President Paul Biya requires for an emerging Cameroon
in 2035.
Following the examination evolution we have seen that at
first, examinations in Technical schools had very poor results but if you take
the trend in Technical GCE they are performing well in function of the number
who registered and those who passed. This is because those who were supposed to
go to technical secondary school have started going there and the teachers are
now those who give the exact material that the children need. That is what we
are doing here; we are following the trend of Technical education in Cameroon
and training the children who will be capable of teaching and giving the exact
material necessary for the quality technical education needed for Cameroon.
What about the language
problems and the tendency to translate questions and sometimes incorrectly?
Yes those problems exist. If I take for instance the
Technical GCE, such a problem has never occurred because the questions which
are moderated and proof read by teachers who are fit to do it and that is why
those problems don’t come. Where problems come is in examinations such as the Probatoire, Baccalaureat and CAP. These examinations are run by the
Ministry. What we are saying is that if questions are set in English and
because Cameroon is a bilingual Country, a good technical question can be used
by the French system of technical education and a good French question can be
used by the Anglophones. They should use the competent people to translate
those questions so that no ambiguity should exist in the questions and create
problems of interpretation.
What are those specific
problems that GTTTC as a new school is facing?
The problems are enormous and we have to fight to overcome
the difficulties. For now, we need equipped workshops because looking at the
new programme following the Competence Based Approach CBA, if you teach
technology, there are aspects that you have to exhibit practically so as to
permit the students see the theory and the practical. We are however struggling
to cope with what we have. Hierarchy knows and since it is them that have
created the programme they are working in order to put things in place. At our
permanent site eight classrooms have already been constructed and eight
classrooms are under construction. The Administrative block has equally been
constructed while other parts of the school are still under construction. We
are pleading that the workshops should follow immediately so that the theory
and practical should be complete in order to attain the full technological
innovations needed.
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