Actualités Régionales of Saturday, 1 November 2014

Source: The Post Newspaper

Keep managing these deplorable classrooms, delegate tells students

The Southwest Regional Delegate of Secondary Education, Francis Ngundu, has called on parents, students and teachers of Government Technical College, GTC, Bombe -Bakundu, to continue managing the deplorable state of their school structure, as Government grapples with finding a solution to the infrastructure problem plaguing the school.

Ngundu made the appeal on October 27, while addressing the students, staff and elite of Bombe-Bakundu, during a working visit to the institution.

The appeal came after the students, in their welcome song, urged the Delegate to provide the school with classrooms and other infrastructural facilities. In a rather sad tone, the students sang to the hearing of the Delegate that, since the school was created some eight years ago, nothing has been done to improve on the infrastructure of the school.

Ngundu told the students to remain focused and make good use of what Government has put at their disposal, while better things are underway. He disclosed that the school was created as a result of pressure from elite and the population of the community who wanted the school to go operational immediately it was created.

The Delegate admonished the children not to give up their dreams because of the nature of their school or background. Such reasons, the Delegate cited, have very little to add to the life of the students.

In a chat with the students, the Delegate called for sustained efforts towards improving the hygiene conditions of the students and their community. Ngundu advised them to regularly wash their hands to avoid the deadly Ebola virus and cholera which, he said, have remained a threat to human existence.

To the school administration, the Delegate requested that waste disposal baskets and buckets be put around campus to make the students lives safe on campus.

On the issue of inadequate teaching staff, the Secondary Education boss said such problems can only be solved progressively, given that, teachers graduate from school only once a year. The demand for teachers in Cameroon, he went on, is ever soaring.

Earlier, the Principal of the school, Aghim Abunaw Obase, said the college faces infrastructural, human and technical challenges.

Abunaw told his boss that the consequence of such challenges has been a constant drop in the performance of students in end-of-course examination. To him, such a situation, if not brought under control, will affect the future of Cameroon's development, given the important role technical education plays in every society.

The regional tour is expected to take the Delegate to all secondary schools in the Southwest Region. In Meme Division, the Delegate is expected to spend some two weeks updating his files on the challenges faced by students and teachers alike.