A law that shames Cameroonian Nation

Although I call it a law, I believe legalists and jurists may have a different terminology for it. Even so, the bottom line remains the same.

It is the controversy surrounding the status and role of Religious Studies as a curricular subject in Cameroon. This thinking on my part was provoked by a recent announcement Cameroon`s Defence minister put over the radio inviting interested candidates to apply for recruitment into the army. For holders of the GCE Ordinary Level, the minister said Religious Studies was “excluded”. Similarly, he excluded the subject for holders of the Advanced Level.

Surely, there is something wrong here. Mebe Ngo`o the minister is of course, not the first government official to “exclude” Religious Studies from the GCE subjects considered for recruitment in the public service. It is an old practice that dates back to tens of years. Strangely enough, no reasons are ever given for the barring.

The outlawing is paradoxical for two reasons, the first of which is the claim by the government that it is fighting corruption in the country. If the government were sincere in this direction, why would it prohibit the only curriculum subject which ought to support the anti-corruption campaign? The second oddity is that the same government that forbids Religious Studies freely (one would say provocatively) allows it to be taught in the nation`s schools and even to be freely examined at the GCE. It is also a practice which the GCE Board upholds and implements rather blindly and unquestioningly.

As it turns out, the segregation against Religious Studies appears to be a blow dealt directly at the Anglophone community of the country. This is because unlike the Francophone educational sub system, the Anglophone one is that which sticks to teaching and examining single subjects such as Religious Studies.

That means as far as the State is concerned, a candidate who passes in ten Ordinary Level subjects including Religious Studies, has to come to terms with the bitter fact that the pass is really only in nine subjects. From that perspective, Religious Studies at the GCE appears to be nothing more than window dressing and a hollow sham. That to me is broad daylight robbery of a hard-earned victory.

What baffles me further is that Anglophone officials who have been in top positions in the country and who consequently know where the shoe pinches more than their Francophones counterparts have not done much to fight the injustice. For instance, the Anglophone community has had a string of Prime Ministers, Education Vice Ministers and Secretaries of State, yet they have not been known to challenged the injustice. Why have they condoned it?

I am raising this issue now because universities and other institutions throughout the country are reopening for the new school year in this month of October, yet many holders of Religious Studies at the GCE will be penalized by a government that is flogging them without telling them why it is doing so. The policy is unjust, untenable, immoral and unethical.