By Francis Tim Mbom
The Principal of Presbyterian Girls' Secondary School, PGSS, Limbe, Wilson Epie, has said the decision by the Cameroon GCE Board to cancel O/L results of all 72 candidates, who wrote the June 2005 session of the examination was faulty and based on untrue findings. Epie was speaking to The Post on Monday, September 12, after the Registrar of the GCE Board, Dr. Omer Weyi Yembe, signed a release, and dated September 11,
annulling the O/L results of PGSS.
Epie said even if there was any iota of truth to the Board's release that the students cheated, it would be unimaginable that they cheated in every subject as held by the Board.
He faulted the approach used by the Board in carrying out the investigations upon which their decision to disqualify the 72 students is premised. According to Epie, the said investigation was carried out under duress and questionable circumstances. He said the suspected teachers were questioned for over 12 hours, non-stop; from 4:00 pm through the night to 5:00 am, and eight out of the 72 students, were questioned for six straight hours.
To him, such long and uninterrupted hours of questioning, were bound to result in some inconsistencies in the responses of the students. Reacting to claims that teachers ripped open the envelopes that bore the question papers, Epie took The Post to his
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office where he presented the said envelopes. Each had three red seals covering the three joints and one of the rectangular ends of each was open.
Epie said the investigating team of the Board failed to come down to his office to verify whether the envelopes were ever opened before each of the examination papers.
"All the envelopes are here. If they had come, they would have seen for themselves whether the envelopes were tampered with," said Epie.
Epie added that it is understood as per the rules of the Board that if cheating is discovered at any centre in two or more papers, the entire results of that centre will automatically be cancelled. He said the Board's claim that there was cheating in all the subjects was an unfair conclusion.
Yembe's Decision
In the release announcing the cancellation of the results, the GCE Board Registrar stated, "there had been premeditated, planned and systematically executed collusion between the teachers and the candidates." According to the release, this was based on "confessional statements and further admissions from long hours of questioning, sometimes lasting to the early hours of the morning."
The release stated that "the candidates themselves admitted that collusion (cheating) occurred in the two rooms where the 72 candidates wrote the examination and that all candidates benefited from the cheating."
It stated, "The Chief of Centre and the teaching and non-teaching members of staff were actively implicated in the systematic collusion."The Board suspects that the Superintendent "either willingly condoned this malpractice or she credulously submitted herself to distractions that facilitated copy work."
The Yembe-signed release stated that confessional statements from teaching and non-teaching staff as well as candidates, revealed that: "Prior to the examinations, there had been discussion amongst some teachers with a view to hatching a plan to assist candidates during the examination."
The investigations also revealed that the subject teachers had been instructed to be in school each day from 5:00 am and stay in school while their subjects were being written.
"Everyday, as soon as the question paper envelope for each paper was opened, questions were taken to the staff room where subject masters were waiting to answer them," the release stated.
The report stated that these activities took place while the Principal, who is Chief of Centre, was sitting in the refectory apparently supervising the conduct of the examination.
Last Year's Results
During the June 2004 session of the GCE Ordinary Level results, all 39 candidates who sat for the examination passed, scoring a pioneer record of 100 percent. This was the school's first-ever batch to sit for the GCE Ordinary Level examination, since its creation in 1999.
With this record, there was certainly that ambition both by the teachers and students to remake history, as they sat in for the 2005 session in June. The Principal told The Post that like last year, they had prepared the students well for the 2005 session of the GCE.
He said from the on set, the student population for this same beleaguered batch was about 200. "But they have, through their journey from Form One to Form Five, been academically screened for excellence and that is why only 72 of them were left for the GCE."
"We do not even allow students to repeat here in Form Four," he added. Still on their success strategies, the Form Five students before they sit for the Board Exams, go through a series of tests, set from past questions of the immediate three sessions of the GCE.
"This is done as a way to find out where the students are weak," the Principal explained. Where they find the students lagging, Epie said they invite some GCE examiners with tested experience from neighbouring schools like Saker Baptist College and GHS Limbe, who take them through some extra classes to perfect their knowledge in the lagging subjects.
"This is what we did this year. But this was only for subjects like Chemistry, Human Biology and some others, where we found there were some weaknesses."
What Next?
The Principal urged parents to take heart and let their children go back and repeat. He said since the Board had taken its decision, there was not much to do. He said the school would certainly give some consideration to the returning students in terms of reducing the fees.
PCC's Commission
As from Tuesday, September 13, the Principal told The Post that the Presbyterian Church authorities in Buea would be sending down a team to carry out a separate investigation to ascertain the veracity of Yembe's claims against the school.
A parent of one of the students, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they, under the banner of the school's PTA, would carry out their own investigation. To her, Yembe's pronouncements were a big and disreputable blow to the entire PCC family. "We cannot take this lying down. The information from the Board is full of distortions," she said. She noted that the Board's decision was very touching and painful.
"If you consider that each parent spends at least an average of FCFA 500,000 annually to sponsor a student in this school, then it would mean this amount multiplied by five that is gone down the drain."
At press time, The Post could see any of the students. However, PCC Education Secretary, Joseph Che Baboni, told The Post on phone that the PCC is yet to make an official statement in reaction to the cancellation.
Baboni said the proprietor of the college, Rt. Rev. Nyansako-Ni-Nku, PCC Moderator, is currently out of the country.
If the investigations of the GCE Board are true then, in my opinion, this was the right decision taken by Yembe. The teachers involved in such malpractices should be dealt with properly. This is why we are having so many dishonest citizens today coming up with briery and corruption to get what they never worked for.
Posted by: kebab | Friday, 16 September 2005 at 05:11 AM
Cheating as alleged at PGSS Limbe and elsewhere in the past, should merit severe punitive sanctions. The teachers concerned should be banned from ever getting involved with public examinations. The culprit students risk suspension.
This is a very serious matter. From a legal standpoint, the alleged activity affects the public interest dramatically because the conduct of all examiners (everyone involved in setting questions, printing, transporting, safe-keeping, supervising and grading students' scrips) is regulated.
Leaving unethical or illegal conduct unredressed essentially subverts further voluntary compliance with regulations and public confidence in the GCE Board. Corruption has become entrenched in all sectors because of laisser faire.
Martin
Posted by: Martin | Friday, 16 September 2005 at 10:36 AM
As a matter of fact,plagiarizing is against the law so if the results of the inverstigations carried out by the GCE board were right, then Yembe had the right to make the guilty students repeat the GCE. and for the teachers, who were suppose to be role models for their students, were to be executed from teaching for over 3 or more years and do community service for over 5 years. Then that would teach them a great lesson!
Posted by: Arnel Chinje | Tuesday, 09 May 2006 at 10:48 AM