Anglophones launch campaign for separate education system! Insists on return to federalism

By Mbom Sixtus

 Anglophone educationists have launched a fullscale campaign to free the Anglo-saxon education from the stranglehold of Francophone policy-makers who they say are bent on destroying what they have qualified as an international acclaimed system. 

At an impressive public conference that was staged in Bamenda on April 30, 2014, three fiery speakers elaborated on the systematic destruction of everything Anglophone since 1961. They warned that if the nihilism on the part of the Biya regime is not immediately stopped, there will be absolutely nothing left of Anglo-saxon values by 2061 which will mark the first centenary of reunification. The three key speakers were John Taiti Fodje, Rev. Father Humphrey Tata Mbuy and Hon. Tasi Ntang Lucas.

John Fodje who presented a paper titled “Democracy and the minority question; the case of the English subsystem of education in Cameroon”, almost drew tears from the eyes of listeners. John Fodje who is a seasoned economist, began by elaborating on the relationship between La Republique du Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons which before reunification he likened to two companies that are about to merge. 

Hear him: “Two companies which have different set ups, management style and human as well as financial procedures. The two companies were to operate on equal terms. But what has finally emerged is the complete take-over of one company by another”. He regretted that the leaders of La Republique are behaving as if they bought over the Southern Cameroons territory. 

There was generalised anger when Fodje disclosed that La Republique, not contented with squandering the resources of and destroying the economy of the Southern Cameroons proceeded to the ruin of its educational system. He cited the case of GTHS Ombe which produced some of the best technicians in Cameroon. He recalled that it was a Francophone principal who knew absolutely nothing about the lofty goals set by the Southern Cameroons government who he said took over the administration of the technical college.

According to Fodje, the next institution to suffer from Francophone takeover of Southern Cameroons is CCAST Bambili which was meant to be the precursor of the university college for Anglophones by the Foncha-led government. “This was when Mongo So,o, the Francophone minister of national education, converted it into a mere high school. This was the first sabotage on Anglophones who couldn’t get admission into the federal university in Yaounde”, a crest-fallen Fodje bemoaned.

Fodje regretted that Anglophones have been portrayed as anti-technical education whereas Francophones are those who have made them hate it by teaching students and setting tests, and exams in a language which is neither English, French, pidgin nor any of the Cameroonian local languages. He said higher institutions like the federal university of Yaounde, Polytechnique Yaounde, the Yaounde Advanced School of Public Works etc were all tailored to suit Francophones in language and subject content. He regretted the damage also done to general education, but was pleased that Anglophones have stood their grounds, especially with their resistance to Francophones to destroy the GCE. 

He praised the late Simon Nkwenti for championing the fight to preserve Anglophone education and concluded by recommending that the only way to ensure that Anglophones and their subsystems are protected is a return to the federation in which Anglophones can determine policies reserved for federal states. He called on the Cameroon Teachers’ Trade Union, CATTU and the Teachers’ Association of Cameroon, TAC to continue to be the watchdogs of the Anglophone subsystem together with the PTAs.

Former SDF MP for Santa and educationist, Hon. Tasi Ntang Lucas in his own presentation also noted that only a federal system can ensure the survival of the Anglophone subsystem of education. He regretted that there is no act of parliament on education. But more painfully, he said, a sprawling collegiate administration is destroying the Anglophone subsystem.

“We have a deficit in most secondary schools, particularly in rural areas, but there is a plethora of vice principals and senior discipline masters. Some high schools have as many as 20 vice principals. But the worse occurrence is at university level. The state universities of Buea and Bamenda are Anglo-saxon in theory and therefore are supposed to be autonomous. But the minister of higher education has a vice-like grip on the vice chancellors and rectors”.

 Tasi Ntang praised the late John Foncha, Yong Francis, the Catholic and Presbyterian missions for opening universities which he said have rescued frustrated students in state universities and the number leaving the country to further their education abroad.

For his part, Rev. Father Humphrey Mbuy’s paper was titled “Retrieving and consolidating values of Anglo-Saxon educational system.A prerequisitefor an emerging Cameroon by 2035”.

He began by noting that the future of any country depends very much on the quality of education that she has put in place and appreciated the fact that many Francophone parents are sending their children to Anglophone schools, a scene admission that they highly appreciate the Anglo-Saxon subsystem. He enumerated some of the values of the Anglo-Saxon system of education which include bringing up children to become more human and therefore holistic.

 In the general discussion that followed, he disclosed that Francophones who gain admission into Catholic colleges will be kept at 20% as opposed to the prevailing situation where they almost out number Anglophone children. The public conference moderated by CATTU’s executive secretary, Tasang Walters, was part of a programme initiated by Dynamique Citoyen.

It held barely a week after Anglophone lawyers staged a demonstration in Yaounde, during which they threatened to break away and revive the West Cameroon Bar Association following plans by the Biya regime to appoint notaries in the two Anglophone regions of North West and South West.