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Cameroon: GCE Board Issues 85,000 Certificates
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The Post (Buea)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Ernest Sumelong
The Cameroon General Certificate of Education, GCE Board, has issued some 85,836 certificates to holders of the GCE Ordinary and Advanced Levels in both the General and Technical sectors, and the Baccalaureate in English.
The issuing of the certificates is novel for technical students since it is the first time-ever in the history of the Board to issue such. Of the 85,836 certificates, general education candidates had 53,700, while technical candidates bagged home the rest.
The absence of certificates over the years has cost especially technical students admission into engineering schools abroad and employment opportunities. The worrying situation created room for delinquent people who forged certificates just to get admissions or jobs. The issuing of the certificates, from 1995-2007, which cost some FCFA 36 million, was realised with funds provided by the Ministry of Secondary Education.
Thus, Thursday, March 20, the GCE Board organised a symbolic certificate award ceremony under the patronage of Secondary Education Minister, Louis Bapes Bapes, at Bilingual Grammar School Molyko, Buea. Some 47 students, who recorded outstanding performances at the 2007 examinations the Board organised, received the first certificates.
The ceremony was also peculiar in that it was the first time a Minister was awarding certificates to students.In his address at the occasion, GCE Board Registrar, Humphrey Ekema Monono, admitted that the Board owed its students a debt and it is paying that debt by issuing the certificates.
He also conceded that students, especially technical students, have suffered greatly due to the absence of the certificates. The landmark event, Monono said, was the effort of the Board and the Ministry.
Besides the certificate award, the Registrar retraced the path the Board has travelled so far, naming the achievements it has recorded, albeit its many hurdles. He credited the Board foundation and reputation to its pioneer Registrars, Andrew Azong Wara and Dr. Omer Weyi Yembe, who set the pace.
Among other things, he named the prompt publication of examination results, efforts at minimising fraud, the increasing number of examinations they organise and ever-growing number of students they have to grapple with.
But the Board suffers due to limited staff both in numbers and specialised skills, lack of accommodation facilities and the constant need to update and repair equipment, according to Monono. He appealed for more staff training and working facilities.
GCE Board Registrar, Monono, hands certificate to a student
The Minister took up the issue of accommodation when he announced an FCFA 200 million for feasibility studies for the construction of an office for the Board. He praised the Registrars of the Board for the steering it on the positive path. He announced that work on the harmonisation of technical examination is complete and has been deposited with the Prime Minister for endorsement.
Speaking to the press, Bapes Bapes contradicted speculations that FCFA 200million was too much for feasibility studies on the Board's office. According to him, the project would take billions.
One of the laureates told The Post that government does little to promote students who excel in technical education."I was the over all best technical student last year, but there was no scholarship for me. I planned to do engineering but I have been forced to go to ENSET and would end up as a teacher," he bemoaned.
He also regretted the lack of a higher technical institution for Anglophones, since he receives all his lectures in French.
Meanwhile other laureates told The Post the award would motivate them to do even better.
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Also present at the occasion was former Minister and current Chairman of the GCE Board, Dr. Peter Abety.
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