“Education is a Social Service that cannot be provided by the Government alone” –Chief Asaba, AGES Kumba

      

 Chief Asaba Awung Luc is an educationist who intervenes in many segments of the educational family in Meme Division and beyond. While he acknowledges this in his interview, he also hints that the effects of his actions are far reaching since he runs an establishment called AGES College in Kumba and is also the coordinator for Lay Private Schools in Meme I and Kupe Manenguba and the Vice Principal of CCAS Kumba. He is equally the traditional leader from Lebialem Division in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. He insists that Education is a service that cannot be provided by the Government alone and that educators in the private sector should not be treated as business men.

What segments of education does the AGES initiative focus on?

 
It is a three section educational establishment. We have the General Education Section, the Technical Industrial and Technical Commercial. On the whole as at now, 80% focus is on Technical Industrial and Commercial Education. We are running about seven trades now. We are running the Building Construction, the Wood Work Department, the Electricity Department, Motor Mechanics, Plumbing, Welding and Sheet Metal Department.

Inappropriate orientation has caused very little attention to be directed to Technical Education even at the level of Government Policy in Cameroon. What is your take on this?

 
I think Government Policy is now redirecting itself towards a good footing because of the Head of State’s Vision 2035. For Cameroon to become an emerging nation, professional and Technical Education must occupy a central place. Without this then the dream of vision 2035 is simply a bad one. We however expect that with that vision in mind Government needs to put more emphasis on Technical Education and put plans in place which will progressively mold the country towards the dream of vision 2035. This in my opinion implies that overcoming the present difficulties in Cameroon notably the growing graduate unemployment, the absence of basic amenities such as roads, electricity, water supply, poor hospital services, poor standards of education and infrastructure can only be sorted out if more attention is paid to Professional and Technical Education. This will empower the private sector; enhance job creation and the coming in of foreign investors.

As somebody involved in Technical Education what do you think are the obstacles delaying the attainment of these lofty dreams?

 
Where AGES my own school is operating, we have faced the greatest challenges such as accessibility, the absence of electricity and water supply even though the school is situated in an urban center like Kumba. These challenges have challenged the growth of the school so much. It is surprising that local authorities and the council have taken very little action to improve on the infrastructure for the children to have access to that education facility.

As the Vice Principal of such a huge and legendary school like the Cameroon College of Arts and Science, Kumba you would want to throw light on the nature of your work?

 
I have learnt so much by being one of the Vice principals of CCAS Kumba. First of all, we are dealing with a very big population with an enrollment of over 4000 students. My Principal is a fine administrator and I have learnt so much from him. We are trying to guide the students even though CCAS Kumba is generally a general education establishment but our orientation of the students is such that we focus on how these students will eventually face the challenges of taking care of themselves in life. We are very concerned about the combinations these children take in their examinations. We as such advice the students to constantly on options available to them in the choice of their combinations.

At the level of Lay private education, what do you think are the major challenges faced?

 
The challenges are many. The problem of access to school in the various private schools is still a problem because the municipal authorities pay very little attention to it. This is certainly because they don’t see the importance of education because if they did, then they would step in to help schools in this direction. School proprietors are not the sole beneficiaries of the facilities they have put in place. Other challenges have to do with the idea of misunderstanding what the education sector means in Cameroon. Sometimes the Taxation authorities try to mislead by giving the impression that schools are a business and trying to force them to declare quarterly revenue as if they were a business. We have always told them that schools do not constitute a business and the Government is very aware of this. The Government considers the Educational Sector as the Social Sector where the government alone cannot provide the service. It is for this reason that the Government goes ahead and assists the schools with some subvention or grants. If the Government considered the schools as private business, they wouldn’t go ahead with grants. They also face challenges in their attempt to provide services. You know we are dealing with two sub sectors of education. The Francophone sub section is very different from that of the Anglophones. The latter has such traditions as uniforms for the schools, provision of some basic amenities for the children like the Bus services and the provision of books and basic items in the canteen. Now this idea is misconstrued by some government authorities notably the Department of Commerce to prohibit the sewing of uniforms in schools. It is ridiculous to think that children should attend school in assorted dresses or go ahead and sew uniforms in an indiscriminate way. That is not of our system. The Mission or confessional schools are strong enough to stand their ground. The school buses for example which are owned by the lay private schools to facilitate the movement of children and should not be compared to private buses which are purely commercial in nature. So when Park fees are introduced for school buses that again is a contradiction of Government Policy. These proprietors go through a lot of difficulties to maintain these buses so that children should go to school. Most of the buses are old because they cannot afford for new ones. Buses reduce security risk and the risk of having accidents when students are transported on motorbikes to school.