Back-to-School: Overcrowding in Anglo-Saxon Schools

The Anglophone crisis has resulted in mass exodus of children to Francophone regions.

Though schools are gradually going on in the Anglophone regions, the fear that they might be interrupted any time has pushed parents residing in Douala to retrieve their kids from schools in the Anglophone regions while some parents residing in the North West and South West  regions have sought refuge for their kids in relations in Francophone regions. The situation has made good business for schools in the Francophone regions while those in the Anglophone regions are left to the mercy of God.
In Douala, most primary and secondary schools in Bonaberi (neighbourhood where most Anglophones reside) are jammed to capacity. Private and mission schools have taken advantage of the situation to enrol more pupils and students leading to overcrowding in classrooms. While some schools used the opportunity to construct more classrooms and recruit additional teachers, others squeeze them in same classroom with no additional teacher. Schools that did not have enough students in classes have had more than enough this academic year. According to the Principal of CEGET Bonaberi, Nji Immaculate, just one week into the new school year, her school received over 500 applications for admission but they took just one hundred. “We don’t have enough infrastructure to accommodate more than 1,000 students, if we had, we would have admitted up to 1,500 students for this academic year since many came for admission,” she explained. Though there is a slight increase in the number of students in the institution than usual, she revealed that their teachers are up to the task since they carried capacity-building seminar before the beginning of school.
Since the start of classes on September 4th, some schools partially resumed like the Presbyterian Secondary School Bonaberi. According to a communiqué sent to parents by officials of the institution, only Forms One, Five and Upper Sixth resumed classes while Forms Two, Three, Four and Lower Sixth will resume on September 24th. As per the communiqué, the existing infrastructure could not harbour the multitude of students admitted for the school year. They are still constructing additional dormitories and classrooms to ease teaching and learning process. The situation is no different in public schools as some bilingual schools continue to admit students even two weeks after school resumption. No matter how or where they are admitted, the lone goal students should have is hard work, a parent chipped in while...