Jubilations by parents whose children made it in all public examinations in the basic, secondary and higher levels of our educational ladder were short lived for the simple reason that it reminded them of the herculean task that lies in wait for them at the time of school re-opening. And if, between June and September seemed a long time away, here we are face to face with the unpleasant moment of “rentre scolaire”.
What makes the idea of “rentre scolaire” so unpleasant is the misleading perception that education is free in Cameroon.
Assuming however that the FCFA 7,000 for registration of students can be taken as a token fee, the final analysis shows that education is not free as the state attempts to argue. Parents pay at least FCFA 22,500 per child and the greater part of this amount goes to the PTA.
Under this circumstance, we are at a loss on whose door steps to lay the blame, the PTA or the state? There is one thing signing a decree to create a school in any part of the country and there is another providing the necessary and conducive infrastructures to house these institutions. It usually happens that with the zeal of the inhabitants of that area to have an institution sited in their locality, in the absence of the necessary infrastructures, the people take up the challenge to provide any available space to accommodate the school.
And while this practice seems to have become a tradition, the state in some form, always tends to shy away from its responsibilities, pushing the whole burden on the Parents-Teachers Associations.
To further prove that education is not free, private schools have become so expensive that they have fallen exclusively within the reach of the rich.
As if this is not bad enough, state policy equally imposed another burden on parents allowing that school text books especially primary schools have to be changed every year, and this has only given rise to a multiplicity of text books’ authors, each of them buying their favours in the ministry for their books to be accepted and forced on schools.
The regrettable thing is that the whole burden of this policy mounts on parents; we believe that the majority of Cameroonians live within the poverty level, because even with the impending increase in the basic salary to FCFA 36,250 this class of people will continue to find themselves at the bare edge of existence.
That every year, a parent should throw away a text book which his elder son or daughter must have handled with care to bequeath to his junior one, only lead such parents to scratch the ground in order to raise money to buy the new series of books is indeed punitive.
An honest survey in the number of school drop-outs will certainly point to the fact that the cost of education has become too high for some parents to withstand.
On the issue of creating schools merely on paper, government should not politicize this sector. Before creating any school, all the ground work must be seen to have been done. There is no sense in government taking credit for creating schools, when in real sense the burden falls on PTA and parents.
On the issue of changing books every school year, we would suggest that this should be done after every five years at least, or after every ten years at most. This will certainly reduce the burden on parents.
The issue of private schools charging exorbitant fees in their institutions turns the noble mission of education into lucrative business. They should be rigorously checked.
