Activities marking the 75th anniversary were launched over the weekend.
Government Bilingual High School New-Bell is one of the oldest secondary schools in the economic capital, Douala, which has produced intellectuals in all works of life. These include renowned professors, successful businessmen, hardworking administrators, among others.
The school’s diamond jubilee comes at a time its ageing infrastructure yearns for refurbishment. It is for this reason that the Principal, Thamar Eboa, made a distress call to former students of the institution to contribute in giving the school a facelift. “Celebrating 75 years is reason to call on ex-students to assist in rehabilitating the school that contributed to their success. We want students to study in good conditions.
This will only be possible by renovating buildings, stand pipes, the gymnasium, toilets, the Staff Room and sufficiently equipping the library and laboratory. The creation of gardens to beautify the school campus and the construction of new classrooms to accommodate the ever-growing student population will go a long way to uphold the school’s reputation,” she appealed.
After a testimony from 89-year-old Sarah Kala-Lobe, who was among the 15 students of the third batch, another former student, Mayor Denis Fampou, promised to construct stand pipes and rehabilitate toilets. The Secretary General in the Littoral Governor’s office, Ludovic Ngbwa, encouraged female students to try science fields by emulating their elders.
Created in 1940 as Ecole Supérieure des Jeunes Filles with less than 15 young girls, it later changed to Collège Moderne des Jeunes Filles in 1961; and then became Lycée de Jeunes filles from 1961 to 1975. From 1975, it was known as Lycée de New-Bell until 2009 when boys became part of the school. It was renamed Government Bilingual High School in 2009 with over 3,000 students.
