The GCE Board subject registration saga

Adrenaline has surged on the issue of the sensitisation tour of CameroonGCE Board, which took off in Mamfe but was cancelled while crowds were gathering at the Mezam venue for the second stop.

From sensational press slants, it is clear that members of the fourth estate gave added piquancy to Teachers Association of Cameroon, TAC’s press release that saw the need for a tour supposedly sanctioned by the Minister, with clear instructions that only he would decide, whether or not there should be any increase after seeing the CGCE Board’s final report. The TAC release had cautioned that the Government should take its bounden duty of sponsoring education and had warned that there should be enough consultation and sensitisation especially among the parents.

TAC had opted to accompany the caravan in order to be able to give its own independent report of the proceedings at the end, not depend on hearsay. That the Minister stopped the tour in the end might or might not necessarily have been influenced by TAC’s last minute press outing, whose reverberations rose to a crescendo only after the ministerial order had been dished out.

After the storming and the raving, there is need for the veil to be lifted so that we all who cherish the GCE Board and pray for its continuous existence should look at one another in the eye and discuss everything related to its running and welfare. This is a reflectionbyTameh Valentine as a social critic, not so much as National President of TAC. Permit me to begin it with some two of the GCE Board’s most recurrent criticisms, the wages and perks of its workers and the tenure of the Registrar.

Wages & Perks

Many people cried foul when, some years ago, a document was circulated showing the stupendous wages and allowances of the GCE Board officials. Many thought and still think that these privileges should be cut down to a realistic low or high level. If the teachers and parents have all along borne and are willing to continue carrying the GCE Board as beasts of burden, then, the 72 workers of the institution should be seen to also be making sacrifices.

Nevertheless, having come to understand the working and processes of the GCE Board, it should be said here that even if the 72 were to give up all their advantages while the government did not give the expected subvention, the problems of that institution would verily be far from over.

Given the sensitive certification work that GCE Board workers do – which in my opinion is as sensitive as or more sensitive than that by bankers and customs officers with all sorts of emoluments because they handle money --it is my opinion that Board workers too should be considered deserving of lofty, enviable wages and perks. Imagine how vulnerable they would become, with disastrous consequences for certification, if they earn paltry wages and/or are subjected to a paucity or inexistence of the normal Cameroonian allowances!

Tenure Of The Registrar

Another contentious issue is the supposed illegal stay-on of the Registrar. Persons have excoriated the teachers’ unions for choosing to look elsewhere – for reasons anything but noble – when they should have cried foul and asked for his departure in/after 2012. However, suffice it to point out that Prime Ministerial Order No 112/CAB/PM of 12 October 1993 defining and determining the administrative and financial organisation of the General Certificate of Education Board, notes in Section III, Article 21, Sub 2: He (the Registrar) shall be appointed on the proposal of the council and shall hold office for a period of 3 (three) years renewable.

Note should be taken that “renewability” in the above clause of the CGCE Board Statutes is not limited and so the ranting that the tenure of the present Registrar should have expired in 2012 is driven only by suppositions and wishful thinking. I do not subscribe to sit-tightism (which unfortunately appears to be vogue in high public places in Cameroon) and would like to see “renewable once” or “renewable whatever”.

However, dogs of war should not cast unjustifiable aspersions on teachers and their associations and unions when the issue at stake is the statutes that need to be revised. Note should even be taken that what appears as the control mechanisms in these statutes – Section II, Article 7 (d) (The Council shall ensure that proper accounts of the Board are audited annually by an independent firm of auditors approved by the Minister in charge of Finance.

This report shall be published annually) and Section V Article 84 (The Council shall order a review of the activities of the Board every three years by experts, one of whom shall be a foreign Examination Board) leave control of the Board solely in the hands of the Council and Government officials.

Interestingly and ironically, those who initiated and oversaw the crafting of these statutes, who were tested and proven leaders in trade unionism, did not see the need for trade unions to be a controlling force. Today, insinuations are made here and there that teachers’ unions and associations have shirked what is considered a bounden watch-dog duty because their mouths have been oiled. I should deign to say that parents, as another important stakeholder, can constitute themselves via their representatives on the Board Council and lead the noble fight; the teachers would have no choice but to follow in tow.

I am convinced (I may be wrong) that the debate for the survival and sustainability of the GCE Board that should be sprightly and on-going, is being stifled by internecine bickering about who is in and who is out – the kind of rat-race that mars many a noble endeavour. This is not about saving or skinning Mr.Monono’s hide; this, in my opinion, is straight talk, not driven by spurious or partisan considerations.

How I Saw The Sensitisation Move

I was incensed when I first caught wind of the GCE Board tour to talk about possible increase in registration rates. However, when I heard that it was only a sensitisation campaign that the Minister had authorised, at the end of which a report was going to be forwarded to him, after which he would be the one to decide whether or not to endorse any possible increase, I calmed down. Board Council officials who invited the trade union leaders for a confab were very open and unequivocal: they wanted to go round and present their difficulties to the parents and teachers, in the hope that these latter would feel where the shoes pinched most and decide if there was need or not for the proposed increase, and they hoped we could come along.

Right from that moment, I saw the need to accompany the caravan as a detached observer who could, at the end, give an independent report of what had actually transpired. Refusing to take part would keep TAC in the weakened position of depending only on hear-say and on the usually doctored official reports. I made it clear that, since it was a GCE Board Council decision, teachers and parents representatives on the Council would be the main speakers, selling the cause to teachers and parents along the campaign trail.

At no point would I be seen as selling the cause for the council, thus making the exchange kind of more favourable for the campaigners, especially given my conviction that parents were already being over-stretched, sponsoring ALL about education from kindergarten to the university.

Nevertheless, I saw the campaign as propitious, since I guessed that allcontroversies surrounding the GCE Board and its running were invariably going to be broached and thrashed for a new take-off, given that pent-up emotions were surely going to explode in the various nooks and crannies, for a proper purgation and a new lease of life.

(To be continued)