2024/2025 academic year: No child in NW, SW should stay at home!.

It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another”.

These quotes by the highly revered South African Statesman (now of blessed memory), emphasises the importance of education in the lives of persons. 

Education gives people who acquire it the opportunity to change their lives for the better. It gives them the chance to have good careers and opportunities of working at any workplace of their choice. By acquiring education, they become valuable sources of knowledge and development of the society.

Since 2017, fighting between separatist insurgents and the military has disrupted the education of over 700,000 children in the North West and South West Regions. 

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNCHR, as at 2023, there were some 84,000 Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, including children who are supposed to be in school, having fled the armed conflict in North West and South West Regions. 

Human Rights Watch reported in 2023 that the armed conflict in the two English-speaking Regions has displaced some 600,000 people.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, says as of September 2023, out of 6,970 schools in the North West and South West Regions, 2,875 (41%) are still non-functional, as against 54% recorded for the 2021/2022 school year. 

The approximate number of children affected by the closure of schools in the North West and South West Regions is now 246,354, OCHA disclosed.

A total of 25 incidents were recorded in 2023, with a peak in February, which coincided with the separatist fighters’ call for a two-day lockdown to boycott the National Youth Day celebrations in the crisis-hit Regions. There were seven incidents in September last year, during the two-week lockdown declared by the separatists at the start of last academic year.

Education in peril

Schools are scheduled to open over the national territory for the 2024/2025 academic year, on Monday September 9, 2024. 

But the education of pupils and students in the crisis-hit North West and South West Regions is in peril again, due to a supposed lockdown that has been called by separatists to frustrate schooling in the Regions.

The imposed lockdown by Anglophone liberators-turned oppressors will run from September 2, 2024, to October 2, 2024. They have taken to the social media to warn teachers, parents, pupils and students to stay away from school or risk being attacked. 

But while the separatists have been using the education of children in the North West and South West Regions as pawns in their clamour for independence, which many have described as far-fetched, the tactic by the separatists is highly condemnable. 

Many from across the board have denounced the call for school boycott, with some saying it smacks of cowardice on the part of separatists.   

The constant call by separatists for school boycott and attacks on schools has left a devastating effect on the education of children in the crisis-plagued Regions. 

School boycott is being counter-productive on the English-speaking population of the Anglophone Regions, as tens of thousands of children have been denied the chance to go to school for more than eight years.

The separatists have also been attacking schools, killing teachers and even students, which amount to “war crimes”. Because of this, thousands of schools in the crisis-hit Regions have shut down. 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, revealed recently that separatist fighters carried out some 48 attacks in schools across the restive North West and South West Regions in the first half of 2024. The figures were published in a statement on August 19, 2024. 

According to the statement, an estimated number of 48 attacks have been carried out in schools between January and June 2024 by armed groups. The situation, OCHA said, has created so much instability in the lives of the people, thus affecting children's right to education.

Also, the organisation said, separatist fighters on February 11, 2024 detonated an explosive device at the Nkambe field while children were marching. 

The incident led to the death of one student, injuring several others.

The UN agency, in the same report, equally indicated that some 18 attacks were also perpetrated on healthcare facilities at the same period. It should be said that before now, other attacks have been carried out in schools in the two Regions.

It should be recalled that in October 2020, armed separatists targeted and attacked the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba, Meme Division of the South West Region. The incident led to the death of eight students.

Similarly, in February 2022, suspected separatist fighters equally attacked a school in Molylo, Buea destroying properties. These are just a tip of the iceberg as far as attacks on schools, teachers and learners by Amba fighters are concerned. 

Education, major industry in NW, SW, eroded 

It should be noted that the main industry in the North West and South West Regions is education. 

Unfortunately, the industry has been eroded, and the consequences have been devastating. 

Prior to October 2016, more than 6,000 schools were operational in the North West and South West Regions. But today, not up to a third of these schools are functioning! 

Meanwhile, more and more pupils and students have migrated to the French-speaking Regions to pursue education. 

Paradoxically, as children massively migrate to French-speaking Regions, they are absorbed by the French system of education, which separatists claim to be fighting against.

The lack of foresightedness in school boycott has caused Anglophones to increase the marginalisation of their own economy, depriving their own children from acquiring education, which is a condition sine qua non for any meaningful development of a community or nation.

Worsening already dire socio-economic crisis

In the meantime, the lack of access to quality education, due to separatists-imposed school boycott, is worsening the already dire socio-economic condition in the two Regions. 

Overall, the conflict has severely harmed the education system. Schools that are still operational are often damaged or overcrowded. Teachers have fled to safer zones without being replaced. Parents who can afford to do so are now sending their children to schools in the Francophone Regions.

Girl children bearing more brunt 

The targeting of schools has had a particularly pernicious impact on girls. Parents who have seen their incomes dwindle prefer to send their boy children to school, keeping girls at home to help with chores or small trades. 

Yet, others who have fled to Francophone Regions have to fend for themselves, sometimes leaving their daughters out of school and vulnerable to recruitment into the sex industry.

Despite campaigns against school boycott and donations by individuals to boost schooling in the crisis-hit Regions, the recent call for lookdown and school boycott risks robbing thousands of children of the chance to learn, yet again.

No to school boycott

In the face of the foregoing, it is therefore expedient for the belligerents in the armed conflict in North West and South West Regions to strive to protect schools from being attacked and keep classrooms safe.

Instead of calling for a school boycott or threatening to close voluntary learning centres, separatist fighters should use the start of the school year as an opportunity to mitigate the suffering of children in the Anglophone Regions. 

Separatist leaders in Cameroon and abroad should unconditionally call off all school boycotts. 

Parents and guardians, for their part, should ensure that no child is left at home. They should all send their children to school for, as US civil rights activist, Malcolm X, said: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3218 of Tuesday September 03, 2024