GCE 2017 in Cameroon: Government concedes defeat

The central government in Yaounde has finally conceded  defeat in the fight to stifle West Cameroonian students. In a press release read on the lone state broadcaster, the Minister of Secondary Education declared on Saturday that unregistered candidates or students can sit all the official examinations to be taken in West Cameroon. The case of candidates whose registration was problematic is a minute detail.

The press release comes barely two days after the minister’s tour of the two regions of West Cameroon.  Mr Ngalle Bibehe had undertaken upon himself to go to the field and see the story for himself and evaluate the level of prepared for the examinations.

After the tour, it was said that government had made a historic decision to have unregistered candidates sit examinations they did not prepare for. Thus, on Saturday, the minister simply confirmed it and rendered it official.  

Since the start of the unrest in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, the majority of students and pupils in the regions have not been going to school.

Until recently, the central government in Yaounde had held tight to the claim that schools had resumed in West Cameroon.

The GCE Board equally claimed previously that the number of registered candidates was encouraging.

Some months back the Prime Minister toured the North West Region to urge students to go back the school, all to little avail.

What does this move mean to Cameroonians? If ministers must go to the field before making historic decisions, then we are “moving forward.”

The Minister of Secondary Education has been in Cameroon since the start of the unrest, we guess.