Cameroon government shuts down English-speaking schools

The Cameroon government has shut down over 260 english-speaking schools operating in the country’s francophone regions. 

The schools were set up illegally to accommodate students fleeing the separatist uprising in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

The closure comes as part of the three year long anglophone crisis between the nation’s french-speaking government and anglophone separatists to the northwest, known as South Cameroons. The conflict has killed approximately 3,000 people and forced a further half a million to leave their homes. 

A mother, Kerin Kongdem, told BBC News of the struggle to find a school.

“The first school was closed by the authorities because they said it wasn’t authorised. So we’ve had to find a new one this year - just to pay the registration fee was not easy for us," she says.

Many parents and critics feel the government is not offering any alternatives for children when they close the schools. But the official for secondary education in the Wouri district of Doula - the nation’s economic capital - disagrees.

"The Minister of Secondary Education gave Parent Teacher Associations the express authorisation to build more classrooms in various schools. These PTAs mobilised enormous resources to build new classrooms. As a result, the problem of the influx has been resolved. In the Wouri for instance, all the children have found a classroom,” says Sylvester Fils Moukalla. 

Despite this, some newly displaced parents are turning to home tutors to ensure their children don’t have to go back to school.

Father of seven, Claude Ngwa, told BBC News, “Even to feed the children isn’t easy so I decided to get a private teacher to see how we can manage to educate these children at home. I have just pleaded with this teacher. I don’t have money. I pleaded that whatever I have, I would give him. It’s too difficult for us. We are suffering.”