Teacher arrested in Bamenda for embezzling exam money

Authorities of the Education Board of the Cameroon Baptist Convention, Bamenda in the North West Region of Cameroon are wondering what must have caused one of theirs, a class six teacher of Cameroon Baptist Primary and Nursery School Up Station Bamenda to have embezzled money meant to register nineteen class six pupils of the school for the Government Common Entrance and First School Leaving Certificate examinations without the notice of education authorities of the region.

The Head teacher of the school, Alima explained that over the years, this teacher has been entrusted with the responsibilities of collecting the examination fees from the pupils and proceeding with the registration process as the class teacher.

The nineteen pupils who were refused entrance into the examination room for lack of evidence of registration, like Acceptance Slips, were bundled back to their school campus in Up Station Bamenda accompanied by their Head teacher who is reported to have collapsed alongside the pupils because she could not withstand the shock of seeing their future being thrown into darkness by their own teacher who had all along prepared them for the examination.

The congregational Pastor who resides on campus rallied some parents and the PTA president for a rescue mission. The Regional Delegate of Basic Education, Fon Susan, who was contacted on phone gave instructions to the Chief of Centre to allow the pupils write the examination while registration process is regularised and reports shall be affected and forwarded to the Ministry in Yaoundé.

Meanwhile, the class six teacher who refused showing up that morning to take the children to the examination centre was later that afternoon picked up by elements of the Gendarmerie for investigations. Tantoh Thomas one of the parents of the pupils speaking to this reporter, blamed the school Head Teacher for allowing such an important exercise in the hands of an irresponsible teacher.

The authorities of the inspectorate of Primary and Nursery Education for Bamenda Central have equally been blamed, considering the school in question is an old school and the absence on the list of registered schools should have drawn the attention of the inspectorate given that it is the central point for all registration processes.

The parents of the pupils have called on the Baptist Education Secretary, Hadison Luma and his school manager to throw in the towel for lack of proper control of their educational establishments else they were going to massively transfer their children to neighbouring schools.