By Walter Wilson Nana
The Southwest Regional Delegation of Secondary Education is making efforts to promote government policy in that sector of national life, but on the ground, the reality is different.
At the first sector conference of secondary education for the Southwest Region, in the build up to the 2012/2013 academic year that held at the Buea CNPS hall recently, Francis Mokomba Ngundu, Southwest Regional Delegate of Secondary Education and the Governor of the Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, respectively, chastised some education stakeholders for abhorrent and unexpected practices in their activities.
Bernard Okalia Bilai, Southwest Governor delivers speech at Secondary Education sector conference
In his superfluity of worries Ngundu noted the non-respect of ministerial directives on class enrolment and space, the stubbornness of some school heads, who continue to sell articles in their schools, the impunity in which some school authorities still collect unauthorised levies, the execution of school budgets without defined purposes, the relegation of pedagogy, which is the raison d’être of the ministry to second place while the building of more classrooms and unauthorised expansion take precedence.
According to Ngundu, the non-respect by many school managers, especially in the submission of their periodic documents is nauseatingly embarrassing. He questioned why many government and PTA approved projects are gauchely executed, with complicity of some devious school heads.
The Delegate expressed dismay on the non-existence of libraries, laboratories, furniture for teachers and science kits in many schools in the Region.
He mentioned that many schools run without sanitary facilities, while workshops, which are due for learning purpose have been turned into store rooms, equipments, tools abandoned to dust and cobwebs.
Education stakeholders & regional administrators pose for a family picture after the conference
The Delegate will be corroborated by the Governor, who took a commitment to clampdown on corrupt practices, dubious contractors and suppliers of school amenities.
Okalia Bilai said school officials who issue fake certificates of assumption of duties to people out of the country will be sanctioned according to the law in force.
He told education stakeholders, theirs is an exercise to encourage and set Cameroon’s education on the move, reminding them to be human but firm, respect defined rules and orientate teaching towards professionalism.
The Governor entreated members of the secondary education family to maximise their performance, understand their hierarchy, learn their profession, know their community and reject corruption.
To him, there are reasons to promote good governance, management, transparency, follow managerial strategies and look out for absentee colleagues. To the private colleges Okalia said; “Put government subvention into judicious use.”
However, it was not all gloomy, as the Secondary Education Delegate enjoined his colleagues to attempt to hold success lurking at their footsteps or die in their endeavours to succeed. “We’ve to remain focussed and set new performance records for ourselves,” he said.
Participants at the first Southwest Secondary Education sector conference for 2012 & 2013 school year.
He invited the stakeholders to professionalise education as a therapy for the emergence of Cameroon saying; “Our teaching should be assimilated to training. Let’s abandon the world of theory to embrace practice. Teachers must tailor their syllabuses and teaching methodologies to societal needs. We should impact on our children life-skills, a culture of networking, reading and competences.”
Ngundu lauded the efforts and effectiveness of some of the confessional and public colleges in the Region, whose brilliant and remarkable results at respective certificate examinations illuminated their chart of excellence and brought glory to his department.
Earlier, in a related exercise, the Bishop of Buea Diocese, Mgr. Immanuel Bushu told Principals of Catholic Colleges in the Diocese at a meeting in St. Anne College, Limbe, to give knowledge and be good administrators.
He advised the Principals to not only concentrate on the academic side of their students but to also foster spiritual development. “The Church is out to offer intellectual and spiritual formation,” he said. He noted that failure is an indicator that something is not going on well; hence school heads should work with their collaborators. “You have to be available, no matter the circumstances and be prayerful all the time. We should do God’s work with God’s ways and make the best of the new school year,” he said.
