How Yaounde killed standards in The University of Buea – John Fodje

John T. Fodje, had such a humble demeanor that all the students who passed through him chose to refer to him simply as “Pa".

“Pa Fodje,” wore such genuine personification of the good days of the Cameroon educational system when standards were the watch word.

Principled and yet approachable as he was, there is no doubt, he left ineffaceable inscriptions in the lives of students fortunate to have sat under him.

He remains an icon of a teacher, not just to students who knew him, his peers – teachers too. They esteemed him so much so that his opinion tantamount to angelic counsel – taken very seriously.

He taught Economics in CCAST Bambili, other schools too. He has since retired but still very much in the limelight as a statesman – he presides as chair of SDF’s Disciplinary Committee.

In this exclusive interview with The Cameroon Journal, focused on today’s sinking educational standards in Cameroon, John Fodje chronicles the beginning of the decline and points to Yaounde’s bureaucracy and the desire to ever tenuously control every facet of education as the reason behind the decline, especially in Anglophone Cameroon with emphasis on the University of Buea.

He also spoke extensively on SDF’s journey for the past 25 years, explaining why it isn’t yet time for SDF Chairman, John Fru Ndi, to step down. But that part of the interview will only come to you next week. He spoke to CHRIS ANU.

EXCERPTS:

One thing that has become very conspicuous in Cameroon education today is that our colleges and universities continue to graduate students who cannot write or speak English. It was never like this before. What is really happening with our educational system?

What you’ve said is very true. In the past, you had to be able to speak good English by your secondary school graduation. And you didn’t pass the GCE if you didn’t pass the English language, there was an emphasis on that.

Was it a policy decision?

Yes, that was an official decision. If you had nine papers and you didn’t have the English language then, you’ve not passed the GCE – that was the standard from the University of London. There was a very serious emphasizes on English. When we instituted the Cameroon GCE, we merely said to pass the GCE, you must have four papers.

In it, there was no longer any emphasis on English. From then, you could get admitted into the university without any English language, especially when there was only one university – the University of Yaounde.

Besides, in the university, one was hardly taught in English. The majority of lecturers were French speaking and so they conducted teaching in French.

As a result, you could go through the university without really mastering the English language. It wasn’t until the University of Buea came up, that it insisted that for you to get admitted you must have O Level English.

You mean it was actually a policy in UB that one must have O.Level English to obtain admission?

Yes. Even as of today, you have to have O.Level English before you can be admitted. The period between 1961 and 1993 when students went to Yaounde University and were never taught in English was even worse.

As far as that period was concerned, English was no longer emphasized. From that time up to the University of Buea, people could graduate with BA in this or that discipline without mastering the English language.

So if O-Level English was a prerequisite for admission in UB, how come Francophone students were getting admission without the English language?

There was a difference for entry qualifications for Anglophones and Francophones. The GCE is a per subject certificate, that is, you pass by the subjects.

Whereas in the Francophone system you pass by the general average and if you didn’t have any eliminatory mark in any of the subjects at the Brevet or Baccalaureate, they find the average mark so that if you scored say 10/20, you’ve passed. For them, they’re looking only for a pass – even if you fail in some of the subjects.

Getting into UB for Francophone students, there was no way of finding out whether you passed English because if you had passed your Baccalaureate, then you had passed.

English is just one of the subjects being studied for the bacoleria. What Buea required from Francophone students, therefore, was just a proficiency test in the English language. Which means a proficiency test, if you passed it, could give you a place in UB whereas you may not be able to write very good English.

So on that account, they Francophones could come in if the passed the proficiency test in English. But Anglophones could not come in if they didn’t show proof of having passed O Level English.

Talking about the transition from the University of Yaounde to Buea. It started so well and people appreciated the standards they came up with in Buea. But sad to say it appears not to be the same any more. Graduate degrees from UB are not being recognized abroad – especially here in the U.S as used to be. What do you think went wrong?

The problem is that when UB was created, it started as an Anglo-Saxon university. That’s what the presidential decree signed to create the university stated. It meant that the system had to follow that of universities in the Anglo-Saxon world like the US, England, Nigeria and so on. But as time went on, the Ministry of Higher Education started imposing its authority on all universities and asking the universities to toe the line of the ministry.

It subsequently started determining what had to go on in the universities. You see, initially, UB wanted to set a standard in the order of the Anglo-Saxon system. But when the ministry of Higher Education started imposing certain principles, restrictions and certain guidelines on what all universities should do, it meant to the University of Buea, a lowering of standards.

If you can recall, for instance, when the first badge of medical students were recruited when Prof. Lamdi was the Vice Chancellor, he had insisted that the medical school students come in purely on merit. Then they set an entrance exam. They wrote the exam in English and they lined up the successful candidates in order of merit and drew a line.

Unfortunately, not many Francophones made the list and so you had the minister step in and said as a national university the medical school is a school for all Cameroonians and that therefore they have to respect certain quotas, that a certain number of Francophones had to be taken.

That caused a major crisis in the University – while the university administration pined their foot down insisting on quality, the minister intercepted and then sent in a number of Francophones who did not even feature among those who measured close to anything.

That’s an example of how the ministry began imposing certain things on the University of Buea. For that reason, the University of Buea began declining in quality until what it is today. I’m surprised to hear that students from Buea come here and they are not admitted. Madam Njeuma was really setting standards there, but time came when the ministry started influencing decision making as the Minister is considered the Chancellor of all the state universities including Buea.

So what do you think it is going to take for those standards to be restored in Buea and the University of Bamenda as an extension?

Madam Njeuma was really setting standards there, but the time came when the ministry started influencing a decision.

Well, if a university is an Anglo-Saxon university, the university can shine in one area of its choice. This means that it has to have its own autonomy. In a matter of some broad principles, the university may conform to what the ministry wants, but in matters of academics and in matters of research, teaching quality and so on, I think each university should be allowed to develop in its own area because that is what makes them different from others.

If a university shines in one area and becomes specialized in one area, it must be allowed to go ahead of other universities in the country. If you put obstacles on the way of universities growing, then they will grow together. But growing together should not be for the universities, I just don’t think so.

I think they should be allowed to pick up their specific areas of interest and develop quality in that area and become famous in that area. But again, it will require that the ministry allows the universities to develop at their pace while keeping an override eye on standards.

You surely will be considered as an elite in the Northwest. There have been these talks about decentralizing the University of Bamenda. What are your thoughts about that?

When the university grows and it’s too big for a small area it can be decentralized. Many universities have decentralized. The University of Nigeria Nsuka, in Enegu now exists in other parts of Nigeria.

But for now, when there is still so much scarcity of professors and teachers, it will be better for the university to remain where it is to maximize the few teachers in the area.

For now there are surely some common courses, for example, in the faculty of health sciences (Medicine), the teachers who teach in the faculty of sciences also teach for the first few years in the faculty of medicine.

The students do the same subjects – Biology, Chemistry, physics and so on. If the university is dispersed to some parts of the northwest as some people would like to see at this beginning, at this time then the teachers won’t be able to move around to all those places.

As a matter of fact, the University of Bamenda does not even have enough staff as of now. So for the most efficient use of teachers and present facilities, the university should continue where it is. When it grows large it will certainly disperse.

If the faculty of Agriculture, for instance, cannot remain in Bambili for too long, it can go somewhere where there is enough land for its own development, same thing with other faculties.

But you should realize that those who are behind decentralization do surely have different motives for that. For me I think the decentralization is not a bad thing per say, it is a good thing if it arises out of real need.

You were one of the founders – if not the main founder of Star Light College Nkwen, Bamenda. How is the school doing many years after?

Star Light is doing very well. It was purely a boarding school because we realized that parents did not like their children coming to Bamenda to rent houses to go to gov’t schools and stay by themselves.

But now days, gov’t schools have been created in almost every quarter in most villages. Now, children can stay with their parents and go to school just next door and so the enrollment has dropped but because of the performance of the school, many parents still send their children there.

We still have a good number of children there and they’re continually doing very well.