Teachers, parents and learners have taken the commitment to work hard in a bid to ensure that the term runs through successfully
Schools have reopened for the second term of the 2024/2025 academic year for the secondary and primary school levels and the last phase of the first semester for higher institutions of learning. The institutions opened their doors for the resumption in the French speaking part of the country last Monday January 6 and on Tuesday January 7 in most parts of the crisis-troubled North West and South West regions, with focus on the need for learners to embrace the spirit of hard work and discipline.
Speaking in separate reactions on the opening day, teachers and learners said they will be fully focused on getting positive results at the end of the term for secondary and primary schools and the semester for university students. They said they will work hard to avoid falling into the temptations of the multiple extra-curricular activities that punctuates the term including celebrations marking the Youth Day on February 11 and that of the bilingualism week in the lead up to the national bilingualism day. Numfor Glory, a Vice Principal in a private secondary school in the capital Yaounde said her institution is conscious of the challenges and is putting things in place to ensure that the school term flows without any hitches. She said the school will fall back to its traditional system of working in full collaboration with parents to put learners in check.
We have approximately 10 weeks for learning this term. And coming back from the Christmas feast, some of the students absent from school on the first day. A quarter of the students are not there. So usually, we communicate to the parents through social media forums, urging them to take their students to school immediately on the first day,” Numfor stated. “But as we know, not everybody will respect that role. But we keep advising. It is indeed pregnant with a lot of activities,” she added.
She said the school will also be working on the psychology of the learners to prevent them from getting excessively relaxed as a result of the multiple activities within and out of school and in return losing interest on studies. “It is the most-charged term with extra-curricular activities. That affects the students psychologically. Once they feel relaxed a little bit, nothing enters their break. We have to keep motivating them to ensure that they learn. We also make it in such a way that even if such activities are there, we cannot completely keep them away. We also make sure we respect our calendar,” she detailed.