‘Kalabot’ classrooms anger Bombe Bakundu community

The community of Bombe Bakundu along the Kumba- Buea stretch of road in Meme Division, Southwest Region has expressed anger as a result of the deplorable state of classrooms at Government Technical School, GTC, Bombe Bakundu.

The Post learnt that inhabitants of that locality use the infrastructure of Government Secondary Schools in the community as a bench mark for measuring poverty and riches. This is compounded by the fact that the grammar school in the same village has better classrooms compared to the dilapidated nature of the technical school.

Talking to The Post recently, the President of the Parent Teachers Association, PTA, of the school, Ebenezer Dibonge, disclosed that the dilapidated nature of the school has resulted in stigmatisation of parents, students and the community.

Dibonge said, since creation of the school in 2005, even a single classroom has not been erected by the Government.

Going by the PTA Chair, the school has been surviving on the meager PTA levy raised at the beginning of each year to construct make-shift structures and spend over FCFA 2.5million in paying PTA tutors.

In terms of enrolment, the PTA President said, even parents who know the importance of technical education fear sending their children to the school because, when it rains or shines at a higher degree, the students are exposed to all sorts of danger, including lightning.

He pleaded with the Government to construct classrooms and an administrative block “to spare the students and teachers from teaching and learning in the bush like apes.”

Reacting to the state of the school, the Principal of GTC Bombe Bakundu, Aghim Abunaw Obase, told The Post that the institution is in dire need. According to Abunaw, if Cameroon is serious about emerging in 2035, then, technical education needs to be given more attention.

He disclosed that even the workshop constructed with Government money for the school cannot be used because the contractor did a poor job.

“The roof is already sagging, and taking students into such a place is like putting them under a time bomb, which may collapse and cause havoc," Abunaw warned.

The Principal averred that there is no need graduating thousands of lawyers and people in other social sciences, when technical education is capable of training people who can champion the growth of the country’s economy.

Engineer Abunaw said he has written to the Divisional Officer for Mbonge, the Regional Delegate of Secondary Education and the Minister, but nothing has come out of it.

“There are possibilities for enrolment to increase beyond the present 300 students, if the school is given a structural and technical facelift.”

Bombe Bakundu Chief, Rudolf Itoe, lamented on the porous situation of the school, but expressed hope that the powers-that-be will look into the issue.