Excellence Has A Price Tag!

Yesterday, Cameroon Tribune carried a special report on the various forms of corrupt practices plaguing entrance examinations into many of the nation's elite institutions.For understandable reasons, the inquiry could not go as far as many would have expected even with the wide-scale nature of the phenomenon, because few are those who would be ready to come forward and give testimonies about having given money to obtain a place in a prestigious institution or having been pushed over with the assistance of a highly-placed parent or relative.

But if these shortcomings in a report like Cameroon Tribune's can be understood and even if no one openly averred cases of corruption, the sheer mention of the ill as presented in that report is just a visible portion of a huge iceberg of corrupt practices that bedevil the sector of competitive examinations into first-rate institutes of learning and more particularly those that train the cream of the nation's administrative and technical elite.

Granted, several initiatives are on to rid the country of corruption and it is becoming increasingly difficult to lay the blame on any particular doorsteps. But all eyes are set on government for turnaround strategies. The buck stops here! Without undermining the effects of corruption in other areas of national life and, even less, making an apology for such practices, the fact that the ill is finding a safe haven in the educational sector ought to stir the hornet's nest. And, this, for many reasons least of which is not the fact that we are virtually sacrificing the nation's best on the altar of self-interest and sheer greed.

Is it not paradoxical that at the time the nation is in search of its best brains in order to prepare for the challenges imposed by Vision 2035, same are shelved aside in favour of mediocres? Without any disdain for any other corps of the State, it is simply distressing to observe that many outstanding students are refused places in elite institutions and many make do with teaching positions in outstretched secondary schools in rural Cameroon whereas they would have been those manning elite laboratories in search of the necessary knowledge and inputs to take our nation ahead in its quest for economic, social and technological advancement. If the ruling class and moneybags must use their influence to place their siblings, they must also have in mind the necessity for our nation to endow itself with the best in all areas of national endeavour.

The situation is far from being a fatality. There are numerous outlets that can enable us to avoid throwing out the baby of these averred and wasted intelligences with the bathwater of corruption. Our country can draw from experiences elsewhere by setting up institutes of excellence in which all these good brains can be garnered and followed up. If they cannot be used, as the case is today, in the civil service, they alternatively be used as consultants to government agencies where their high-level expertise can also be tapped for the development of the country.

Here, the advantage is that these brains are on standby and still remain available for the national development effort. If the whole sense in keeping them away from the civil service is to ensure life-long and secure jobs or lavish emoluments and advantages for siblings, they can therefore also earn their living decently by putting their knowledge and expertise at the disposal of government at a cost charged in parity with what government does for same-level experts it hires for its services. The other advantage for this class of citizens is that the nation can, at each time, have at its disposal a pool of knowledgeable experts in a wide spectrum of areas. There is a price tag on excellence, especially that which is needed for the economic and social uplifting of the nation.