GCE Board in hot water over ‘insensitive’ post

The Cameroon General Certificate of Education GCE Board has come under intense criticism following a post made on its Facebook page last night.

The said post urged candidates to collect their results slips before confirming if they had made it or failed, and not do “anything stupid”.

“Before you think of suicide, kindly collect your slip before thinking of anything stupid. Your life is worth more than anything else,” the body of the post read.

This however did not go down well for many social media users who remarked that the post was insensitive.

Though it was later edited and an apology rendered by the platform, many maintain the opinion that the author of the post be sanctioned or even laid off.

The backlash over the GCE Board’s Facebook post comes after at least three students across the country are reported to have committed suicide after not making it in the 2020/2021 session of the end-of-course examination.

“Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better. Suicide was and is never an option,” read a portion of the platform’s now-edited post.

According to the GCE Board, this year’s examination recorded a 59.08% pass in the Ordinary Level and 61.94% at the Advanced Level.

The Technical and Vocational Education Intermediate Level recorded 58.81% and Technical and Vocational Education Advanced Level, 71.59%.