Bernard Okalia Bilai visited some schools in Buea on September 8, 2014, to assess school reopening.

The Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, has rated the resumption of classes in the South West as not being very effective in some schools while in some other schools it was ineffective.

The Governor said September 8 was the official date to resume classes throughout the national territory, so his visit was to find out if the schools had complied with the date. After his visits to some primary and secondary schools in Buea, he qualified resumption to have been 50 per cent effective.

Governor Okalia Bilai started his visit with the Government High School Buea Town where the students were in school and in their classrooms. While visiting Government Primary School Likoko Membea in the Bokwango neighbourhood, he rated effectiveness to have been 40 per cent. A teacher told CT that most parents had transferred their children to other private primary schools around Bokwango.

She added that the poor attendance was also due to the fact that some pupils were still on holidays while some parents said they were still doing preparations for their kids to return to school.

According to the Principal of GHS Buea, Mrs. Mbua Hannah Etonde, the 2014/2015 school year has started effectively with more than 800 students in attendance while both the administrative and teaching staff who had resumed a week earlier also answered present yesterday.

The Governor’s last stops were at Lycée Molyko where the Delegate of Secondary Education, Ngundu Francis, said the school is a pilot centre where they have instituted that each class will take only 60 students.

The Governor’s final stop was at the Government Technical High School Molyko. In his remarks, the Governor said he expects 100% effectiveness as of today, September 9. “Teachers were supposed to have resumed a week ago, so any teacher who is absent will be suspended,” he warned.