The Regions concerned are the Centre, Littoral, North-West, South-West and West. Incidentally, these are the Regions not only with the highest school attendance rates in the country, but those having the greatest concentration of schools.
The ministerial instruction is not a novelty. At the beginning of each school year, we are all too often used to this kind of decision which comes to confirm the convoluted nature of problems surrounding the back-to-school fever which is around the corner. For any school to function in Cameroon, there must be an order to open, issued by the Ministry of Basic Education.
For most of the schools ordered to close, there was no such order. Moreover, many of the schools operated in a clandestine manner, having little or no regard for basic facilities. This could be anything from befitting classrooms, limited classroom capacity, rickety furniture, absence of toilet facilities and potable water, to low school fees to lure parents, unqualified and inadequate staff, etc.
In as much as the government is in its oversight role by closing down unsuitable structures, it must be said that the situation calls for closer examination. So, because it translates a situation of real need for educational facilities which, apparently, the government cannot provide. Otherwise, parents will not go for establishments when they clearly see that such operate in blatant disregard - not only of the law, but of minimal or acceptable standards.
The fight against this veritable gangrene of the quality of education offered our children must continue if standards as well as concerns for children’s health, security and comfort are to be ensured. But the State must hit with cotton gloves because of the brazen shortage of available schools to which discomfited parents can turn to.
