Cameroon’s Education system, dangerous for Cameroonians

Courtesy - Hinsley Njila (a princereport contributor)

Of the millions of things wrong with a country like Cameroon, its education system and the monkeys in charge of it in my book have been the second most dangerous on that list since the country’s independence. Second in magnitude in terms of holding the society back and condemning millions to a life of hopelessness and eternal poverty as they die a slow and painful death, only to the leadership of the country. Please read on ONLY if you can handle the truth.

Fact: If you were convicted for committing violent murder in Chicago (USA) and went to prison for life, you’d be exposed to an astonishing wealth of knowledge in terms of library and access to information that Cameroon with six state Universities for 17 million people simply has failed to provide its students; and that’s just the prison system in Chicago being compared to a country.

Fact: North Korea, South Korea, Cameroon and a host of other countries all gained independence about the same time. South Korea built Human Capital through education, and now they are light years ahead of Cameroon and North Korea in terms of development and all other economic indicators.

Every developed country in this world or one aspiring to be, has to have a good education system that drives development. A good education system works hand-in-hand with business to provide labor that is best prepared to handle growth and economic changes. Because the relationship between education and human capital is so important and has been well researched, I’ll advice all those interested to read ‘Human Capital: A theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education’ by Gary Becker, and many other literature by Robert Barro, Milton Friedman and others.

On the front page of USATODAY newspaper for Feb 29-March 2, 2008 there is statistics listing the breakdown of foreign students in the United States by continent. While slightly more than one out of every two foreign students you see in American Universities is Asian, a mind numbing far less then one of every 11 or so is African. Why should this matter to you, you ask? Everything I’d say.

People like me have studied and see a direct correlation between education and development, law, freedom, human rights, reduced mortality, reduced incidents of disease and so on. China, in its five year development plan (available online) spends a great deal of time emphasizing the fact that not only will it make every effort toward building globally recognized, educationally renowned institutions and faculty within 10 years, but would also support its students by helping the brightest attend some of the best Universities in the most developed parts of the world. Its leaders recognize that unless you have this type of leadership, any talk of sustainable development is insanity at best. Of the less than 1 in 11 students from Africa studying in America, Cameroon might just be the least represented of all African countries.

In Cameroon you have Universities and professors that are actively standing in the way of students gaining the knowledge and exposure to make something out of such a failed society. Cameroon Universities have a grading system so bad that it should be criminal. A system with NO accountability designed to ensure the brightest Cameroonians are regarded as mediocre when compared to people from other parts of the world. The system is unfair, overly punitive, inadequate, incompetent, and criminal. How do I know this? Well, many people who couldn’t muster the bribes for grades in Cameroon do quite well at many GOOD Universities around the globe. Those that did pay the bribes and or slept with teachers for grades as well as unfairly get available scholarships, often perform quite poorly when trusted into more honest systems.

We should all be critically concerned about this unfairness, because not only do we discourage and potentially lose talent, but such practices all but guarantee that Cameroon remains a state that will always be quoted as an example for poverty and corruption by Transparency international, World Bank and others for centuries to come at best if she can survive for that long. Case in point, a good Education system would have produced professionals that would constantly look at inflation and make adjustments whether it be to commodity prices like food and fuel, trade agreements and others that protect economic activity and reduce poverty. Obviously, Cameroon’s education system is dangerously inadequate and thus incapable to offer opinions on such critical issues; one reason for the recent bloodshed and loss of lives, and lack of respect for the law by leadership who adjust prices without understanding the economic implications. Cameroonian youths are far smarter than the system is designed to show, and thus must be urgently adjusted to give them the opportunity to be GREAT.

So what needs to happen then? Well at this point I’m not even sure leadership (government and academic) understand the gravity and urgency of the situation. If they claim ( and they do) that they’re admitting the best students in their Universities, no one should then be failing without the institutions, Professors and other leadership being held accountable, and Cameroonian students should be given the tools to compete with anyone from around the world. Teachers SHOULD stop sleeping with students for grades, Universities need better libraries with modern books, and smart students who wish to study abroad should be supported throughout the process not just students who are related to people in power. Most importantly though, the education system in Cameroon needs to be completely overhauled almost IMMEDIATELY.

There are just too many unqualified professors not armed with what it takes to prepare students to tackle Cameroon’s problems. This is so important that if somehow I became president of Cameroon, I’ll make this happen in my first 50 days in office to save lives and build dreams among millions of young people. If you had the stomach to have gotten this far reading my piece, please tell me what you think by reacting to this post.