Back-to-School: Major Catholic schools announce comeback in North-West

Most renowned Catholic schools in the North-West region like St Bede’s College Ashing Kom and St. Joseph Comprehensive College in Mbengwi and a host of others that were forced to shut down by the anglophone crisis for years now have all launched interviews into the schools.

Radio announcements and social media publicity ahead of the reopening of this new school year have intensified across the region.

In Belo like in Mbengwi, locals are having high expectations as this will give them a lifetime opportunity for their kids to get enrolled in prestigious schools.

A parent in Belo, called Matha says she can’t wait.” If St Bede’s reopens at last I know the fees will be cut down to the barest minimum to enable children of peasant farmers like us to get enrolled because I know the children of the rich people in Yaounde will not be coming since there is still a crisis in the region. I’m sure that it’s the time for the poor to enter St Bede’s,” she said.

To Pa Tebeck in Mbengwi, he will only be a living Thomas. “These are schools that used to operate as boarding schools with a majority of students coming from elsewhere. These same schools had to close because of the uncertainty in the region. How will they operate now when there are still gun battles and kidnappings?” he asked.

As the mobilization for the reopening of these popular Catholic schools gets higher, there are still fears it might still remain a dream as teachers, administrators, and students of these schools have been kidnapped before.

With the separatists fighting to cut away from the Yaounde regime, pedagogues have been asking what type of exams shall be administered and what syllabuses shall be taught, by whom, and with what security.

St Bede’s College alone used to have as school fees over four hundred thousand francs and many are asking what the fees will be when the school reopens.