Lycee Bilingue

The Bilingual Grammar School,located in Molyko,Buea used to be known just as "lycée Bilingue" while I attended it in the 70s.At the time it was one of only two Government Bilingual Grammar schools that existed in the country.The other one was located in the nation's capital in Yaoundé.
I knew a number of students that attended the famous school before I got there.The list included Kum Joseph Marine who I had met in Ndongo.As a matter of fact he gave me some to his text books from form one as soon he heard that I had passed my interview. When our family left Ndongo and relocated to Clerk’s Quarters in Tiko I met Embola Michael who was our next door neighbour.Embola was going to form three at the time.
The first day of school I accompanied him. There is something called maltreatment of new students and it is always a good idea to have someone from a higher class accompany you to school. This would at least buy you some time on your first day at school. All newly admitted students got admission into the dormitory also. Day students were rare at the time. A few girls that were present in the school at the time were day student. We had about three to four girls in our class.
I remember Akonobo Emilia, She was the Vice Principle's daughter. There was also a girl called Mafany.There was also Stella Mbonteh and Ful Magdeline.The first day I that I got to lycée, I ran into Weledji Conrad. He was a class mate of Michael Embola at the time and the guy could not stop pestering me.”Sixieme, Sixieme”, that is how they call freshmen in the school.
There was no physical contact though but he made sure that I knew he was a presence in the school. The first day in school is usually a Sunday. So you get your belongings and they show you your dormitory. You are given a bed and a mattress. Freshmen get a grass mattress. It is only when you get into form two that you get a mattress made of foam material. Our mattresses were a little bit rusty, staining the white bed sheets that I had brought from home.
The dormitory for freshmen was located close to the home of the Vice Principle and the Disciplinary Master. We occupied the ground and first floor of the building. There was an additional floor up stairs for the “Cinquieme”students.You do not want to ever make a mistake and find youself in this floor. The form two students there will throw their weight around, having just graduated from the bottom of the student chain. In Lycee Molyko, once you get into form two you are home free. Nobody messes with you anymore. All the maltreatment is for the freshmen. There was somebody called a “maitre”, we called them metro, who was incharged of each dormitory. Ours was a guy from the French speaking part of Cameroon.
The dormitories at Lycee were really impressive. Tiles covered the rest room areas of the dormitory. This included the toilet and shower areas. There were sinks in the bedroom area, with wall mirrors in front of each sink. The toilets were state of the act with flushing capabilities. On a few of the dormitories you could get both cold and hot water(Buea is located at the foot of mount Cameroon and it can get real cold in the morning).
Most dormitories only had cold water though.Lycee was an institution with modern infrastructures and we were all happy to be there. I started to make some friends right away.Musonge Gabriel,Njukwe Charles,Tamen Fred,Ekiti Ernest,Ngatchu Theodore,Ewusi Bruno and Ebai Samuel were all friends and classmates.
Sunny Aiyuk came in to lycee from Government technical school Ombe during the third term in Lycee and he blended in immediately. The guy came in and did not behave like a new comer at all. He was totally fearless and we all took to him. He was from Kumba and he and Ebai Samuel will be close friends for some time.
From form two Forcha Beltus,Anjey Victor,Emile Fonderson became friends as soon as the initial harassment period was over. We started classes on Monday and the most challenging of the classes will be French that was taught by a guy from Belgium named VanDorpe.Married to an African Lady, the guy wore a wig(that is what the form two students told us)I could not tell at the time.
The very idea of going into a Bilingual Grammar School is to come out a Bilingual Student. It is a brilliant concept, though I think it is started a little bit late. Presently in Cameroon, they have gotten it right because from nursery school, kids are introduced to the French language, so that by the time they get into Secondary school they can read and write both French and English.
Anyway, what happened in Lycee is that there are two freshmen classes, one for the English speaking students and another for the French speaking students. The idea is that in form three we will combine and take courses in both languages. So an Anglophone student will be able to study “histoire et géographie”, that is History and Geography in French, while a francophone student will be able to study history and Geography.
What we the Anglophones found out the hard way is that two years of “intensive» French still does not prepare you to be able to function very well in these French courses. As a matter of fact at this point of time you still had problems in your own main language which was the English language. Part of the problem with the English language is that there is a third spoken language in Cameroon called “Pidgin” English. You grow up speaking this until age six,when you go to primary school.Pidgin english is a broken language that totally screws up your ability to learn the English Language correctly.
What we the Anglophones found out was that the only students who were completely bilingual were a few students that were born of Anglophone parents but had pursued the French system of education while in Primary School. You had students like Manyitabot, Mbulle Pierre, Ayukache and Ebekwe Godwin who were Anglophones but had attended their primary school in the French system of education.
I believed all of them passed the "BEPC"(French equivalent of the GCE ordinary levels) but opted to continue their education in the Anglophone system. They came into Lycee Molyko already Bilingual. I cannot think of any Francophone student who mastered enough of the English language to be able to sit for the GCE Ordinary levels.
By mingling with students from the French part of the country, you do pick up the French language much faster that somebody who is studying French in a traditional Anglophone school. You get to know the terminology much faster. I remember people that made friends easily with francophones started speaking French much earlier.
Writing French though is another issue.Up till today I can speak French fluently but writing it is still challenging. These were the students who would pass with ease the “BEPC”; this is the French equivalent of the GCE ordinary levels that we all are suppose to take in form four.
It is an examination design for students that have gone through the French system of education, but we all are suppose to sit for it at the end of our fourth year. Very few Anglophones pass the exam and it did not bother us at the time because our main aim was the GCE.The few Anglophones students that passed the BEPC were people like Njukwe Charles,Tabi Makia,Ngatchu Theodore, students who were exceptionally brilliant and very good in mathematics.
In my first year of studies in Lycee, apart from the French language the only other course that was challenging was mathematics. We had a guy called Nkwenti who taught us mathematics. Very dark in complexion man who wore glasses. I wasn't at the top of my class in Lycee.I was somewhere in the top twenty to thirty percent. I believe my average position was usually 17 out of about 50 students. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. My parents were happy with my results as long as I kept passing from one class to the order.
I passed from form one to form two and at the end of the third term we were given a letter stating that henceforth to stay in the dormitory there will be a fee of twenty seven thousand francs for the whole year, making it nine thousand francs per term. I showed my parents the letter and everything was okay. In form two we were now out of the freshman doldrums.
Nobody messes with you anymore. It was now all based on your personal strength. We saw the freshmen come in. I never did take part in any maltreatment of new students. First of all as a freshman I knew so many upper schools students, and nobody really tried to mess me up. Some of the freshmen we made friends with immediately.Ngone Henry, Peter Asanga, Ndumbe Edney were some of the popular students coming in.
Form two at Lycee went just as smoothly as form one. I passed to form three. In form three you had to make a decision on whether you are going to continue your education as an "Art" or as a "Science" student. You begin narrowing down the courses that you take inorder to prepare for the GCE ordinary levels. I therefore stopped taking courses in Physics and Chemistry.
Generally students that choose the sciences option are suppose to be better students. In the Arts section there will be me,Mokoro Michael,Chibili Michael,Ekiti Ernest,Ebekwe Godwin,Mbule Pierre,Tamen Fred,Ayukache,just to name a few.
Form three was also the school year in which were start taking course in the French language in preparation for the BEPC.So it was welcome to the world of “Histoire,Geographie,Mathematique,Biologie,etc”.The BEPC was to take place in form four. We struggled mightily in the French courses. We knew a lot of the material but the language was an issue.
There were some interesting francophone that that we made friends with. People like Ebelle,Mbiang came in by the time we were in form three.Francophones have a habit of skipping from one school to another. During my stay in Lycee there will be a lot of students that you would see for one year and you would never see them again. Most Anglophones choose a school and stay there for the duration of their studies. I passed to form four and that was the year that we sat for the BEPC.I did not care much about the exam. I studied the best that I could but did not make it in the exam. My dad was not too happy with my results, but it did not bother me too much. Few Anglophones were passing the examination anyway and I did not particularly see where the BEPC was going to take me in the future.
Form four was over and I passed the examination into form five. A funny thing happened though at the end of the fourth year in Lycee, some students were thrown out of the dormitories. I was one of them.Uptil today I cannot think of any reason that would have gotten me thrown out of the dormitory. My grades were good; I did not get into trouble at all. I was shocked and very disturbed by the news. How could I be a day student(the term for students who lived out of the dormitory).I was so young, had no relatives that lived close to the institution,had no idea how to cook and my parents are not rich people.
Form five, the year that I sat for the GCE was a very tough year for me. When I reported to start the term, I had no idea where I was going to be living. I left home and just came to Molyko the Sunday before school was to resume. Luckily two of my friends,Ebai Samuel and Aiyuk Sunny had also been thrown out of the dormitory. They found a place in Molyko that they rented and I shared the place with them.Ngatchu Theodore joined us later to make it four of us in the place when he found out that he too had been thrown out of the dormitory.
The person responsible for all of this mess is a guy called Thamfack Thomas. He camed to Lycee as the new principle replacing Meva who had been there for quite some time. The guy, tall and built physically like a military commander gave the impression that he was there to clean up the image of the school. He had been send to change things. He came in while I was at form four and the guy totally changed the image of the school for the worse I would say. When I got into four five, Mr Thamfack had admitted so many students we ended up with a form five A and a form five B.
The first time in the history of the school that the fifth year got so full so much so that the class had to be split into two.The trend will trickle down to the rest of classes as this guy continued his term at the head of Lycee Molyko.I believe the guy started to take bribes to get students into the school, for all of a sudden you started seeing a lot of unqualified students in the school. If you go to Lycee today, there are no dormitories anymore.
The dormitories have been turned into classes. So has every other available hall in the campus. The restaurant has long gone; the halls that we used to have recreational activities are also gone. They have all been transformed into classes. The arrival of Thamfack started Lycee on a path that will see its total decline.
Today I hear parents prefer taking their children into mission schools.We had some very interesting lecturers at lycee.Starting from form one I remember a lady from the north west Province called Wilmum Claire. She taught us Biology.Single at the time she made her weight felt in a school that was dominated by males.I remember Mrs Darney(Oh! Doctor what a wonderful thermometer).She taught us English language and her husband was incharge of the provincial radio station of the South West Province located in Buea.
Mr Babila is another character that was suppose to be teaching us Mathematics while we were in form four. You wouldn't believe this but I can count with my five figures the number of times that this guy showed up to give us lectures.The man was involved in a lot of activities out of his regular teaching.He was a businessman,he drove a cab,he played soccer for a Division one side.He would at times show up to give lectures to our brothers who were in form five,their classroom located just above ours.As soon as he is done with them he would be gone.We would at times see him sneaking out of the school campus and it was so funny we will all be laughing.Good thing we had a different math tutor by the time we got into form five and starting serious preparations towards GCE ordinary levels.
Miss(at the time) Ebob Mbiwan(chocolate colour with a gap tooth up front) was popular.She taught us English Literature in Form five."To kill a Mockingbird"was one of the novels that we dealt with.Good looking lady,she landed in lycee fresh out of a University in Nigeria and all the male lecturers were drooling.
Some of the french speaking lectures were just awesome characters.We had this guy straight out of the University and recruited to teach in Lycee. He comes in the class with all the confidence in the world and says"mes amis m'appelle Yuk".So we all jumped up and starting calling him Yuk and he comes right back with "Vous n'etes pas mes amis"shaking and nodding his head.
Some of the characters were administrators.We had the discipline master at the time."Monsieur Gwaté".He used to scare the hell out of all of us.Each time we see the guy we would be saying to each other"Gwate de came,Gwaté de came".The guy picked on it and came to one of your night study sections and was yelling "chaque fois vous dites Gwaté de came,Gwaté da came, je ne veut plus entendre ça"He use to say "ça ne se fera jamais ici au lycéé".
Gwaté would go after Weledji who gave him a lot of trouble and he would yell "Weledji viens ici".
Our first Principle was the coolest principle of all time.A lot of us got an education at the time thanks to him.Everybody during his tenure got to lycee on merit.He was very open with the students and would play soccer with the school team when he was invited.He started all his speeches with "Je suis très très content".Even at a time when there was a student strike in the school, he called everbody together and started with "Je suis trés trés content".The strike happened while I was in form two and it was caused by the fact that the school administration went silent after Lycee won a 1 million franc CFA price for agricultural performance.At the time the Cameroon government ran a program called green revolution.The school with the best performance for agricultural output was to get the first price of 1 million CFA franc.
There was also complain about the poor quality of food.I was only in form two and did not know who were the ring leaders of the strike.The school made amends though.A "Grand Répare" was organised and everybody enjoyed the feast.The quality of food in the restaurant was also upgraded.The sad part was some of the ring leaders of the strike got expelled from school.Getting expelled from school was a big deal then.
There was Mr Esai, a friend of my Dad.Mr Esai taught us English language in form three.The guy had a handicap left hand(we did not make fun of that).He was noted though for protecting his daughter who was one class ahead of us.Word got around very fast that you don't mess around with Mr Esai's daughter.There was a guy in form five though that tried.
Ojong was his name.Small guy with a big heart. I do not know how far he went.Lucky for him I was not aware of Mr Esai's daughter being pregnant at any time.
The reason you get into a secondary school is to get some education and also to get the qualification to show that you did not just throw away five years of your life.Passing the GCE ordinary levels was the goal after five years of studies and I registered for 9 subjects in total.It was originally just eight but somebody within our cycle of friends came out with a brilliant idea that we could all pick up an easy A grade in the GCE by adding Commerce to our list of selected subjects.
At the time it was explained that having the A grade would be like a walk in the park.Quite a few of us jumped into the bang wagon and starting studying Commerce in Form five.No prior classes on it.It was suppose to be a junior brother to Economics.If you can pass Economics, read the Commerce test book and you would be Okay.
We all ended up failing the subject.I did not find out though until much later.Okay,being in form five means that you have been preparing for the GCE ordinary levels for two years now.Some subjects such as Biology,we started the syllabus in form three.The examination itself was never going to be a problem.If you spent five years in lycee you are suppose to pass the GCE ordinary levels,no excuse for failing.I hated the fact thought that a lot of us were taking the examinations as day students.Come to think of it,I will try to go through the list of those that were living off campus.Njukwe Charles,Musonge Gabriel,Mbulle Pierre,Sunny Aiyuk,Ebai Samuel,Eric Tambe,Munu Christian,Ngatchu Theodore to name just of few.
Tamfack had just gone mad and kick a lot of decent students out of the dormitory.We eat some real strange meals.There is a saying that no matter what you cook you yourself can always eat it.GCE ordinary levels ran for a period of about a month and the morning after the examination ended I was headed home.After living as a day student for a year you get to appreciate what students that are day students all their lives go through.