Thus far, the examinations are unfolding hitchfree. Candidates who spoke under condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals, expressed satisfaction that the practical session was within their reach.
The practical session is scheduled to culminate on Saturday May 25, 2019, at both the General and Technical A/L with Information & Communication Technology III in the afternoon session on that day.
It will then open the way for the written phase on May 27, 2019. On our findings to ascertain the number of candidates, the conduct of the examination, number of practical centres, those recruited for secretariat duties among others, all officials beginning from the Chiefs of Centre maintained sealed lips while directing us to the Cameroon General Certificate of Education Board head office in Buea. When we caught up with the Register of CGCEB, Dang Akuh Dominic, he turned down our request for any comments pleading that the media should leave the Board allow to quietly run the examinations, Cameroon Tribune reports.
Meantime, Some 104,502 candidates have registered to sit this year's session of exams organised by the Cameroon General Certificate of Education (GCE) Board when the written phase begins on May 27.
Dominic Dang Akuh, Registrar of the Board told reporters in Yaounde that the figures for the 2019 session of the GCE exams witnessed a 17-percent drop in registration.
He was speaking April 23, 2019 a few weeks to the official start of the exams. Akuh used the opportunity to present a report on the state of preparedness of the Board. He said they are ready for the take off of the 2019 session.
In 2018 67.4% of candidates who sat the exams passed at the Advanced Level as against 35% in 2017. At the Ordinary Level, 50% passed compared to 25.29% in 2017.
The exams this year, like last year are taking place within a very peculiar context in the North West and South West regions. Most schools have remained shutdown and even those that are operational have a nose-diving enrolment.
Cameroon's security and defence forces have been battling armed men fighting for the independence of a country they call Ambazonia. This has kept many students at home.