“Political” GCE written in Cameroon?

Main Opposition Party says exam is a farce but CPDM MP says the exam is credible because only those who prepared will pass.

The written part of the GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level is being written nationwide, amidst calls for boycott by Anglophone activists.

While government says it has taken security measures to ensure hitch-free exams, a debate is brewing on its credibility.

The opening of the June Session of Parliament last week provided an opportunity for some parliamentarians to speak out on the exams. Taking the cue from House Speaker, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril who hailed the technical ministries for the successful organisation of the end-of-course, thus averting a blank academic year wished by saboteurs, two MPs sparred on the credibility of the exams.

Hon. Chief Paul Nji Tumasang, SDF MP for the Santa Special Constituency, told journalists that the exams would be a farce, given that students studied just for two out of the eight months earmarked for the 2017 academic year. He said the exams were only being organized for political ends, regretting that credibility had been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

But countering that opinion, Hon Ikome Gladys Etombi, CPDM Deputy for Fako East and Muyuka Constituency, said the exams would be credible and would reward those who made an effort to prepare for them. She said the results of the Common Entrance in which only hardworking pupils passed spoke volumes about the rigidity of the grading.

“Any child who would pass that exam warrants to pass. The grading of the exam is not going to be sacrificed for anything sake. It is people who are ready for the exams who were expected to sit them. And so the children who sacrificed despite the odds, are going to gain from writing the exams. You can see from the Common Entrance exams that those who were not prepared didn’t write. Those who thought they were prepared wrote but didn’t pass. The grading was done to keep the standard of the exams. It was not traded for anythings sake.”

Hon. Ikome who is an educationist urged parents to send their children to school because education is worth more than silver and gold.

“I just want to encourage those not writing their exams and their parents to know that education is the best thing you can give to your child. It is not the wealth you amass and leave for them. When September comes they should send them to school so that they could be part of this train which is moving forward”.

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