Both Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations organised by the Cameroon GCE Board will as from today, Monday, May 30, 2016, last about a month.

Some 182,416 candidates all over the country will as from today, May 30, 2016, begin writing various examinations organised by the Cameroon General Certificate of Education, GCE Board, up from 1680,000 in 2015. Out of the number, over 138,000 are for the GCE Ordinary Level, while about 46,000 candidates are sitting Advanced Level examinations. According to sources at the GCE Board headquarters in Buea, the examinations will take about a month to complete.

Speaking in recent interview with Cameroon Tribune, the Registrar of the GCE Board, Humphrey Ekema Monono, said there were more than 900 accommodation centres this year, with 20 GCE Ordinary Level and 20 GCE Advanced Level subjects to write. The new subjects this year are Logic and Citizenship, after Advanced Level English and Special Bilingual French were introduced last year. On the cost, the Registrar said not less than Four billion FCFA is needed to organise the examinations from question preparation to the written phase, marking and publication of results; excluding the allowances of workers. The estimate however includes the transport of material into the hinterlands. 

Meanwhile, GCE examination results will in future be published online. But for this year, a combination of publication through SMS text messages and in newspapers will be done, Humphrey Ekema Monono promised. The Registrar noted that complementing the publication of GCE results with SMS text messages was normal, unfortunately, candidates are not often patient enough, while the present suppliers of results do not have the technical know-how to provide them on time.

Humphrey Ekema Monono also expressed concern over the growing number of GCE subjects: “One question we keep asking ourselves is, in the face of this increasing number of subjects, how many subjects is a candidate allowed to sit? Schools are trying to include all subjects on their timetables, but we wonder if there is effective teaching. How much time is allotted for each subject? The subjects are getting too many. We will present this problem to the authorities for orientation and guidance,” he promised last April.