19/09/2025
Nadine Mbah👏👏👏
It’s World Peace Week
Nadine Mbah talks about how lack of peace and conflict resolution, has affected education in the Northwest region of Cameroon, with proposed solutions from across .
Conflict Hit North West Cameroon: Education in Trouble
More than 7 years of a protracted armed conflict, teachers and students kidnapped,
schools burnt and hope for normalcy remains farfetched.
By Nadine Mbah
The Education sector in the North West has witnessed a drastic downfall since the outbreak of the conflict in 2016 that eventually turned violent.
As a result of this, the Education sector has been negatively affected due to school boycotts
and insecurity surrounding education in the North West where schools have been burnt, teachers
and learners kidnapped, and some killed in extreme cases.
“By 2016, there was an enrolment of 220,000 students distributed in 477 schools and the North West was ranked 3rd in terms of enrolment in the entire nation says Nfor Richard Nformi, the Sub Director of General Affairs at the North West Delegation of Secondary Education.
Rising attacks on schools
However “the number of schools dropped from 477 to 75 schools due to numerous attacks
and increased rate of in security” the official laments.
One of such schools particularly affected is the Catholic owned St Augustine’s College
located in Nso, Bui Division which was temporarily closed in 2019.
Many media outlets including the BBC reported that in 2017, gunmen entered the campus of St. Augustine’s College Nso on a Saturday morning and kidnapped 170 Students, 2 security guards, a teacher and 3 of his children. The Diocesan Director of Communication specified in a statement that a total of 176 persons were kidnapped.
The incident at St. Augustine’s college is so far considered the largest school kidnapping
tragedy in Cameroon’s English speaking Regions since the unrest began in late 2016.
In a report by Human Rights Watch, it is stated that 268 students and education professionals were abducted by armed separatist between January 2017 and August 2021.
In two incidents, one in 2018 and another in 2019, fighters kidnapped 78 and 170 students, respectively, from schools in the North West Region. Most of the victims (255) were students, while nine were teachers and four principals. Victims said that the separatist fighters targeted them because they were going to school.
The North West has had the 3rd highest regional incidence of child mortality ( 64/100.000
births) and the 3rd least educated Population. The rate of success at the GCE Advanced Level
(AL) exams ( the second cycle of secondary school) was estimated at 64 percent for the North
West and the unavailability of state paid teachers led to a high reliance on parent –paid teachers,
even in state schools, a report by the World Bank in 2021 stated.
In the same report, it is made clear that the most violent events have been concentrated
around the areas of Bamenda, Ndop, Jakiri, Fungom and Batibo in the North West. The report
also reveals that more and more families are leaving the North West to take “ Educational” refuge
in other regions due to limited access to education for children back home. At the end of the
2018-2019 school year, a total of 46 schools in the North West had been burnt with a further 46
vandalized, this attack left 17,707 children in the North West dropped out of the education system
and 12 schools occupied by armed groups.
The education system witnessed a dramatic fall in enrolment in the North West. During the
2016 -17 and 2017-18, enrolment dropped from 238,826 children to 110, 256.
In 2018, Human Rights Watch also reported that on April 30th 2018,the Principal of St.
Bede’s College, in Ashing near Belo was reported to have been abducted while celebrating mass
with students. The school suspended classes on the day of the abduction.
Ahead of the resumption of the school year in September 2017, a media report stated that
following an arson attack on GHS Bafut on May 8, 2018 , a note was left calling for no schools
to operate.
In the Presbyterian Secondary School Bafut on November 1,2017, three female dormitories
for girls were set on fire and many students lost their belongings in the blaze.
In a separate case, a father dropping two of his children off at their kindergarten in Mezam
Division North West Region in February 2018, discovered that the schools Administrative block
had been burned down over the night, the Human Rights Watch.
The same media outlet also reported that the quality of education too is affected. “Going
to teach was like a nightmare for me” a teacher at a Government Secondary School told Human
Right Watch reported.
Cameron has ratified the convention of 1963, which under Article 28 places obligations on
states to protect education facilities from attack.
This has clearly not been so far the case due to the aforementioned numerous attacks on
schools like St. Bedes College Ashing, St. Augustine’s College and the Presbyterian Secondary
Bafut, all in the North West Region of Cameroon.
Government Response
In response to the concerns raised by the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union (CATTU), the
Government in April 2019 began a process of increasing teachers’ salaries over the next 3years.
In addition, the government has created a task force to address issues related to the quality
of education and the welfare of the teachers.
However, Human Rights Watch calls on the UN Security Council to request a briefing by
the UN Secretary General on the situation in Cameroon, demand an end to Human Rights
violations and make clear that further abuse may lead to targeted sanctions, including against
individuals credibly implicated in serious violations.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) suggests improving the safety of schools, increasing availability of educational materials, and addressing the needs of displaced students.
The UNICEF has also recommended strengthening the capacity of teachers and expanding access to early childhood education.
Other proposals include increasing access to online education and strengthening
cooperation between government and non-Government Organization
