This article was broadcast over national Radio, on 5th September 1999, as a special focus on technical education, by Donatus Sinsai. In view of its pertinence to the reactions we have been receiving after our last edition, which carried a special focus on technical education, we are taking the liberty to reproduce it here.
The 21st century (the third millennium) will be the age of globalisation in which the losers will be those who ignore the importance of technology. Such people will be cut off from the rest of the world.
We further invite our listeners to consider the place of technicians in our lives: water and electricity reach us through the work of technicians; we listen to the news, watch television or read the newspaper through the work of technicians. We are transported from one place to another by technicians.
Our houses are built and roofed by technicians; our cars or radio and television sets are repaired by technicians. The clothes we wear are made by technicians. Even Catholic Echoes always acknowledges the contribution of the technicians on duty to the success of the broadcast. This list, which is far from exhaustive, goes to show that the contribution of technicians to the comforts of life is indispensable.
In the coming age of globalisation in which technology will be even more refined, it is foolhardy for any society to be contented with half-baked technicians or with no technicians at all.
A closer look at the Technical GCE results which have just been published shows that the English-speaking Cameroonian is lost in the wilderness of technological advancement.
The figures are alarming. GTHS Ombe, one-time Government Trade Centre Ombe, is now a shadow of itself. At the O/L; Ombe fielded two candidates for the Commercial section and 1 passed for a 50% score.
It also entered three candidates for the Industrial section and obtained a 0% score. At the A/L, Ombe entered no one for the Commercial section but entered 2 candidates for the Industrial section where the score was 0%.
Out of 58 centres for the O/L Commercial section, 18 centres scored 0%; of 41 centres for the Industrial section, 21 scored 0%.
For A/L, the Commercial section was encouraging. Out of 28 centres, only one scored 0%; and in the Industrial section, out of 17 centres, nine scored 0%. At both O and A levels, Buea External entered the highest number of candidates: 125 for the Commercial section only at O/L and 87 for the Commercial section at A/L.
Our listeners should not be deceived by certain scores. Some centres entered 1 candidate and scored either 0 or 100%.
The general assessment we can make from these results is that technical education in Anglophone Cameroon is dead. Most of the poor results were recorded in government colleges and external centres. Curiously enough, more emphasis was placed on commercial rather than industrial training, from where we should expect to draw our technicians.
Catholic Echoes has earlier observed that undue importance is given to the CAP, Probatoire and Bac Technique, all of them Francophone exams translated for Anglophone candidates. We noticed that government colleges entered very few candidates for the Technical GCE, meaning that their interests must be elsewhere.
A case has been recorded in the past where, in the CAP examination, candidates were asked the function of the candle in the engine of a car. This was a mistranslation of "bougie" which, in motor mechanics is the "spark plug". We believe that this careless approach is extended to Probatoire and BAC Technique, and also that the government education authorities do not send qualified English-speaking teachers to their technical schools.
In view of the globalisation earlier mentioned and the need for qualified technicians, we appeal to the education authorities to wake up, unless this is a deliberate attempt to keep a segment of the population in total darkness, and to reverse the current trend by injecting new blood into Anglophone technical education, so that we can face the forthcoming age of technology with confidence.
They can begin by supplying the appropriate pedagogic material, and the custodians of the said material should avoid the selfish habit of appropriating teaching equipment and leaving students with bare theory and no practice.
To crown it all, the GCE Board should publish a syllabus for the Technical GCE, just as they have for the other GCE exams.
Candidates and teachers very often do not know what is expected in the examination. In short, the syllabus accounts for 50% of the requirements for any examination.
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