Humphrey Monono despite all odds at
the GCE Board may be heading for a crash this academic year. Information
reaching us from Yaounde
indicates that some teachers were spotted selling GCE papers. Yet it is not
clear whether it was a scam or the GCE had leaked. Newspaper reports have
already started raising the alarm and the credibility of this year’s GCE
examination. Notwithstanding, the state media on the other hand says all is set
to ensure a hitch-free GCE examination.
However, over 142,000 candidates are
expected to sit in for the 2012 Cameroon
General Certificate of Education Ordinary and Advanced levels.
With a new electronic system used
in registering candidates, the registrar of the Cameroon General Certificate of
Education Board, Humphrey Monono, accredits self that innovative electronic
method of registering candidates has helped in reducing errors linked to the
registration of candidates although some surprising loopholes were noticed. But
he failed woefully to indicate how leakage will be checked and the fact that he
has been mute on the Yaounde scandal continue to create sensation
around the country.
Good innovation but the doubts are many; what will candidates in Akwaya,
Furawa, parts of Lebialem, Nguti, Tombel etc who have never been exposed
to a basic hardware computer do? There are many other questions which I
can not ask now…..especially internet availability in Cameroon not to
talk of the band width strength.
Through the electronic
registration system (E-registration), various examination centres forwarded to
the Board Compact Discs (CDs) or Flash pens from which the latter downloaded
the list of registered candidates. Humphrey Monono however noted that at the
level of examination centres, they issued receipts of registration fees paid
and the timetables for the individual candidates.
In spite of the E-registration
system which was aimed to facilitate GCE registration, few hitches were still
witnessed. According to the Registrar of the GCE Board some of the CDs could
not be read, due to incompatibility with some machines. Another problem has to
deal with the spellings of names and dates of birth. Humphrey Monono lamented
“I do not know why at this point where the responsibility of candidates
registration is given to the centres, these errors still occur.
When we were filling forms and
scanning them, there were very many complaints. Now the complaints are still
there”.
Furthermore, the fact that some
schools mistakenly did not register some of their candidates also created
problems in the registration procedure. These shortcomings notwithstanding,
Humphrey Monono noted that they are not enough to stop the examination from
taking place for the board is dabbling with such problems before examination
kicks-off.
Besides E-registration the Board
has the ambition to move on to online registration and online communication
between candidates and the Board. Meanwhile within the Board itself many other
organisational innovations are taking place.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa
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