GCE leakage: Stop the blame game!.

Technical and vocational education exams are not affected and will continue as originally scheduled. 

The decision followed the widespread circulation of confidential exam papers on various social media platforms. 

While students and parents are disappointed and debates questioning the long delay, some boarding schools have sent children out to prepare from home while others, like Christ the King College in Tiko, owned by the Buea Diocese of the Catholic Church, levied 15,000 FCFA for each student to take care of feeding for the two weeks of postponement.

In the hype of the controversial postponement, some hooligans forged a statement, purportedly from the Ministry of Secondary Education, cancelling the ministerial fiat.

In the cacophony, Minister Lyonga, at a press conference in Yaounde on Monday, played the blame game. 

Cameroon Tribune quoted Prof Nalova Lyonga as saying “internal GCE Board betrayal is to blame”.

Against online claims that the leakage was politically motivated by Francophones to undermine the Anglo-Saxon system, she “forcefully rejected any form of ‘warmongering’ [and] firmly put the blame on internal failure and corruption”.

She emphasised that the leaks were “an internal betrayal, noting that the GCE questions were leaked through institutions like Press Print and handled by individuals directly involved with the GCE Board, rather than external entities”.

The Guardian Post is not alien to problematic situations where government officials are noted for passing blame to manage public perception by deflecting responsibility and accountability.

To begin with, the role of the Board defined on its creation is to organise, regulate, and standardise official Anglo-Saxon-style examinations, ensuring the integrity and global recognition of Secondary Education certificates in Cameroon.

Its supreme authority is the Council of the Board, and the Ministry of Secondary Education has just supervisory powers; which in a normal situation, by the Anglo-Saxon tradition, should not under any imagination be the duty of a minister to suspend an examination.

Examination leakage is not restricted to the CGCE or was this year’s attempt to cheat the first. It occurs everywhere, including in the United Kingdom, UK, from where the CGCE Board looks up for mentorship.

The crux, rather than groping in the dark to attribute blame, which should be a matter of criminal investigation is:  what happens when there is such a leak?  

Does a supervisory authority come to give a prolonged two weeks of suspension, even without mentioning the subject that is involved? 

Does the suspension not disillusion students who had prepared to write on the initial date? Will it take up to two weeks to provide another question paper? Did the minister take into consideration the financial burden of boarding schools for two weeks?

At The Guardian Post, we stand firm that the government should take full responsibility for the scandal because it has not given the board its management and even financial autonomy the people of the North West and South West Regions demanded through nationwide demonstrations, before it was created in 1993.

In the UK, for instance, where the exam board is in charge, depending on the scope of the leak, it may replace the subject, void the compromised questions, or disqualify students involved in cheating, in a day but without compromising investigations to punish culprits.

In Nigeria, if a question paper is compromised, examination bodies like the West African Examinations Council, WAEC; National Examinations Council, NECO; or Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, immediately cancel the subject, adjust the time table to reprint and distribute new ones, secure questions and still maintain the original closing dates.

In the words of Azong Wara, pioneer Registrar of the GCE Board, in a complaint to then Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang, copying the Minister of Secondary Education: “It is now common knowledge that the GCE results for 2017/2018 and those of the previous years have been marred by unprecedented irregularities, stretching from leakages of questions; during writing to the issue of faulty results, which have left both candidates and parents disillusioned and bewildered”. 

Despite attempts to ensure the credibility of its exams, malpractice involved leaked questions in WhatsApp and Telegram groups, alongside the use of AI tools like ChatGPT and hidden cheat sheets continues.

In 2023, though the exam questions were not entirely leaked to the public, widespread malpractice escalated. 

The GCE Board sanctioned 1,891 candidates, with cases of pre-prepared material, collusion, script substitution, and cell phone use.

Such cases of questions circulation online have disrupted previous examination seasons, sometimes triggering mass rescheduling or official warnings from the Registrar regarding fake circulating questions.

To combat cheating, the GCE Board is said to rely heavily on disciplinary actions, like suspending candidates, nullifying results, and introducing digital security measures.

While the Minister of Secondary education attributes blame to Press Print, a company owned by the Presbyterian Church in Limbe, and unscrupulous staff of the Board, all boils down to management.

While Yaounde is in a hurry to give the dog a bad name in order to hang it, let Cameroonians be told why the former Registrar, Dang Akuh Dominic, who passed on to glory since September 2023, has still not been replaced!

While The Guardian Post does not question the competence of the Acting Registrar, Ndi Bernadette Frinwie Ntemna, there is no denial that in management, there is a difference between an interim and a substantive in performance, especially as she was not sworn in as demanded for the position.

Even in an active capacity, would it not have been the responsibility of the Board to take action and swiftly ensure the compromised subject was replaced within a day or at most three, giving modern printing technology?

Why does the Board not have reserved banks from which questions are selected at random to prevent cheating?

If the examination Board had its autonomy, would it not be the responsibility of the Board to have taken action on what to do after the current leakage, rather than a minister?

The government should take full responsibility for the scandal and appoint a Registrar recommended by the Board and give it the autonomy it deserves to organise and manage examinations whose certificates will be generally credible and widely accepted, both locally and internationally. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3813 of Wednesday June 10, 2026