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Three years of no effective school in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions as a result of the Anglophone crisis has been rated as a generational suicide mission – building a society of illiterates in the 21st century.
In a four-page document, leaders of the coffin revolution; an arm of Anglo-Saxon Youth Higher Council in and out of prisons have called for school resumption in the Anglophone regions for the 2019/2020 academic year.
The document signed by Mancho Bibixy Tse and Ngalim Felix at the Yaounde central prison draw a thin line between political demands made by the Anglophone community for government to resolve and demands made by teachers to improve anglo-saxon system of education.
According to the declaration, government has made considerable strives towards improving the system of education.
“We were asking for the improvement of the educational system, now it is collapsing and we are even loosing the little that we had. Some demands by teachers have been fulfilled but this cannot be fully experienced as schools are not going on”.
Coffin revolutionists have stated that continuous school boycott in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon are only detrimental to children of the poor in these regions. “Well to do parents in the Anglophone regions have sent their children to study in other regions of Cameroon while others have sent their children abroad. Those still in the regions are studying in well secured and protected dormitory schools. This means that it is the son or daughter of the common poor Anglophone that is suffering the effects.”
Mancho Bibixy Tse and Ngalim Felix Safeh, leaders of the coffin revolution regret that the intension of the revolution has never been to deprive children of their fundamental right to education, inflict pain and misery on people, make children illiterates or bring chaos, disorder, kidnapping and demand for ransom upon the people of the North West and South West.
To the leaders, the genuine fight to improve the educational system has been “hijacked and education of children have been taken away”.
How realistic is school resumption?
Education is a fundamental right of a child and educating a child through formal education means fighting injustice and inequality.
Leaders of the revolution have pointed that schools are going on unperturbed in Nkambe,Bamenda,Limbe and Buea with practically all the universities and higher institutions in the Anglophone regions functioning without issues.
Beside these, coffin revolutionists attest that all other informal trainings of children have been going on despite the crisis and thus see no need for a continuous school boycott.
Mancho Bibixy Tse and Ngalim Felix Safeh state that the level of security that permits other activities in the two Anglophone regions should equally extend to formal education.
They call on national and international organizations like UNICEF to play an active role in sensitizing parents to begin little savings now to ensure a hitch free back to school for the 2019/2020.
Barrister Ayah Paul Abine’s conditional endorsement of school resumption
The former Supreme Court Judge in Cameroon turned lawyer has saluted the move to campaign for school resumption in the two English regions of Cameroon.
He opines that no society can develop without formal education.
Despite this, Bar Ayah Paul Abine thinks some fundamental issues need to be addressed to avoid a scenario where “invitation to school can be akin to invitation to dare death”.
He quotes targeted killings of babies and school children by the military in the regions. The intentional burning down of schools by those called upon to protect such structures and the general atmosphere of insecurity caused by the military exposes more risks than favorable conditions for school.
By this, Bar Ayah Paul Abine says “Parents should evaluate safety and take necessary security measures before sending their children to school.
“We should not been seen to be luring people’s innocent children into a life threatening circumstances: killing for the fun of it.”
He ends by warning that soft targets of killings in the Anglophone regions should not be made softer by asking for school resumption.
Mimi Mefo Info.
