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Rita Akana

14.Mar.2017

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The Cameroon General Certificate of Education, GCE Board Council, in an extraordinary session on March 3, in the conference hall of the Board’s head office, Buea, among other resolutions, extended the deadline for GCE registration to March 20.

This is the third time the deadline has been pushed forward, largely due to the ongoing teachers’ strike and the Anglophone Crisis which has paralysed schools in the Southwest and Northwest Regions.

After deliberations that took close to seven hours, the session attended by the statutory members of the Board and representatives of trade unions, namely; Tameh Valentine, President of the Teachers Association of Cameroon, TAC, and the Acting Secretary General of the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union, Semma Valentine, the Council “unanimously agreed” to:

“(1) Appeal to parents, students and other education stakeholders to effectively take their children back to school on Tuesday March 7 2017 for those who have not done so.

(2) Call all Education Secretaries of both lay private and confessional schools to disseminate this information, calling back students to their various schools by Tuesday, March 7, 2017.

(3) Congratulate parents, candidates and Chiefs of Centre for undertaking the registration exercise as the tradition of the Board holds; and in this light authorise the Registrar of the Cameroon GCE Board to publish all data on the 2017 Examinations organised by the Board.

(4) Exceptionally, authorise the Registrar of the GCE Board to reopen registration in all centres to cater for Extra Late Registration that will end on March 20, 2017 at 2pm.

(5) Reiterate the position of H.E the Minister of Secondary Education that, in consonance with UNESCO principles and rules, there will be no Blank Academic Year in Cameroon this year; and, therefore, calls on candidates, teachers and parents to continue preparations for all certificate examinations organised by the GCE Board.”

In a question and answer session, the Council answered questions from journalists among which were the tactics to be used in order to complete the syllabus and maintain the GCE’s standards. The Registrar of the Board stated that the lost days will be covered effectively by the pedagogues. He also remarked that the GCE examination timetable can be adjusted to give the candidates time to cover the syllabuses.

The Chairman of the GCE Board Council, Prof. Peter Abety asserted that they do not want to compromise the standards of the GCE, reason why they are appealing to teachers and parents to make it possible for schools to begin effectively. He mentioned that the Board will not want to pretend about what has been going on in the Anglophone community.

The Board Chairman of the also mentioned that in order to maintain the standards of the GCE board, students have to be tested on the whole syllabuses and not just part, reason why schools have to begin as soon as possible. He went on to not that, all the other classes have to resume too and not just the examination classes because the GCE syllabuses begin from other previous classes.

The TAC, Tameh Valentine said, the strike has been in gestation for too long, and that teachers have every reason to be in school, because some of their demands have been made.

Cameroonpost

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Rita Akana

12.Mar.2017

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The March 08 Elig-Edzoa train accident comes to add to the series of accidents that CAMRAIL has been involved in since it started operations in Cameroon in 1999. The railway corporation in a release speak of 2 deaths and 3 persons wounded while eye witness reports contradict the release.
“I think that I counted five deaths on the spot, while two others were seriously injured at the level of the knees” says an eye witness.
This accident is coming close to five months after a CAMRAIL train carrying over 1000 passengers derailed in Ezeka killing at least 80 people and leaving over 300 wounded. The incident which happened the 21st of October 2016 has been described as one of the deadliest accidents of CAMRAIL. This accident was also characterized by great discrepancies between the death toll reported by Rail Way Corporation and eye witnesses reports. The exact number of death is still to be known since the results of the in-depth inquiry ordered by the head of state have not yet been published.
In Agust 2009 CAMRAIL was again involved in two accidents. The first was on the 28th when a train transporting fuel from Douala to Yaound where two people died and 4 others woinded. On 29th another train that left Ngaoundere to Yaounde derailed at Etoudi killing at least 7 and injuring over 300.
In all of these accidents, critics argue that several deceased victims have never been accounted for.
Eye witnesses and other experts in the transportation sector have it that the March 08 train accident could have been avoided if the train locomotive was located at the front rather than the back of the train.
 “When work is been carried out in an Urban area, security measures need to be taken to protect the population. In this case, those measures have not been taken by CAMRAIL” says the Managing Director of a defunct railway maintenance company. “Since the locomotive was located at the back of the train, there was no indication to show that the train is moving. I think this is a fatal error on the part of CAMRAIL” he adds.

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Ndi Derek Giyoh

10.Mar.2017

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When one thinks about international schools in Cameroon, one thing immediately comes to mind: They are very expensive. Their tuition fees may range between 1,000,000frsCFA to 10,000,000frsCFA. These schools are characterized by low intakes and of course high tuition fees sometimes beyond the capacity of the common Cameroonian to pay. In these schools are found mostly children of expatriates and extremely rich Cameroonians.

Since the strike started late last year, Anglophone students in Form five and upper sixth were particularly concerned about their future with GCE 2017. After two months of staying at home this future became bleak and they set out to look for other ways to continue their education. Rich parents have turned to International schools for solution.

Of late there have been massive intakes in some of these schools around Douala and Yaounde due to the ongoing Anglophone strike. This has given these international schools good business.

“For the last 2 weeks, students from affected schools and those from local schools within Douala have been streaming in the school to inquire if they can be registered as private candidates to take the Cambridge IGCSE/GCE in May/June 2017” says the Director of a popular International School in Douala”.

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Rita Akana

09.Mar.2017

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The flags of the 52 member countries of the Commonwealth fly high at the Ministry of External Relations in Yaounde this 6th March 2017, as the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella launched week-long activities ahead of the commemoration of the Commonwealth Day on 13th March 2017.

The launch of week-long activities took place simultaneously in the nine other regions of the country. The theme for reflection for this year’s commemoration is, “A peace-building Commonwealth.”
Referring to the theme, the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations in charge of relations with the Commonwealth, Joseph Dion Ngute emphasised that peace-building is an essential instrument for welfare of people.
He stated that the Commonwealth has been a major actor in peace-building over the years.
The agenda of the Commonwealth Week includes a visit to victims of Boko Haram and refugees of war on 7th March, 2017 and the opening of the Commonwealth village on 9th March 2017.
The Commonwealth village incorporates exhibitions and round-table discussions on peace-building topics.
A peace march has been scheduled for Saturday, 11th March 2017 in Buea.
A major highlight of the D-day, 13th March 2017, is a theatre competition for primary and secondary schools organised by the Ministry of External Relations.
Commonwealth Day is a day to raise awareness on contemporary global issues and promote the understanding of values like the rule of law, democracy, human rights and sustainable development.
It is an annual event organised on the second Monday in March.
The Commonwealth of Nations or Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire.

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Mbi James

07.Mar.2017

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Over 40 youths from Southern Cameroons working at the SWISS FARM PALM D'OR, a large palm plantation located between Edea and Kribi in Cameroon have been arrested by Cameroon security agents.

Boris Bertolt,a Francaphone journalist working with Le quotidien and Mutations newspapers in Cameroon,reports that yesterday March 2nd 2017, there was an altercation between two agents of the African Security group which is guarding the plantation and Anglophone workers. Eventually an anglophone died.

The situation resulted in a revolt of the members of the community which has more than 200 employees working and residing on the plantations. They stood up today Friday, 3rd of March 2017, to fight back the African Security agents and their accomplices. But government security forces intervened and arrested more than forty anglophones and severely assaulted others.

[gallery title="Anglophones molested by security forces" width="IMAGE_THUMB_WIDTH" height="IMAGE_THUMB_HEIGHT" columns="3"]
[gallery_item title="Anglophones molested" src="/images/kribi/1.jpg" video_addr="VIDEO_ADDRESS"]Boris Bertolt[/gallery_item]
[gallery_item title="Anglophones molested" src="/images/kribi/2.jpg" video_addr="VIDEO_ADDRESS"]Boris Bertolt[/gallery_item]
[gallery_item title="Anglophones molested" src="/images/kribi/3.jpg" video_addr="VIDEO_ADDRESS"]Boris Bertolt[/gallery_item] [gallery_item title="Anglophones molested" src="/images/kribi/4.jpg" video_addr="VIDEO_ADDRESS"]Boris Bertolt[/gallery_item]
[gallery_item title="Anglophones molested" src="/images/kribi/5.jpg" video_addr="VIDEO_ADDRESS"]Boris Bertolt[/gallery_item]
[gallery_item title="Anglophones molested" src="/images/kribi/6.jpg" video_addr="VIDEO_ADDRESS"]Boris Bertolt[/gallery_item]
[/gallery]

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Rita Akana

03.Mar.2017

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