CAMEROON-CULTURE: New Cause for Bad School Grades

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, Nov 6 1995 (IPS) - Philippe Amougou, like any other proud father, rejoiced at the scholastic progress of his 12-year-old son Philippe Jnr.

The boy always brought home excellent test scores and so Philippe Snr. was more than stunned when authorities at his son’s school said young Philippe had been dismissed for poor academic standards. Worse still, he was told the earlier good test marks had been forged!

Then he learned the truth from his 10-year-old daughter. After being dropped off at school, Junior would immediately slip off to the video clubs round the corner to watch movies after swearing his sister to secrecy with the threat of a beating if she told.

He would sit in a dingy room with friends all day until his lunch money ran out, and would then scoot over to the last few classes. He made sure that he got home at the end of the school day so as not to arouse his parents’ suspicions.

The boom in video clubs in the last few years, without age restrictions on the audience, has sparked the concern of many parents besides Philippe Amougou. The affect of crude low-budget sex and violence themes on impressionable minds, and the encouragement of truancy, is a great worry.

“These clubs show violent and immoral films that are not good for children,” says Lysette Atangana who dragged her 11-year-old daughter out of one club after a tip-off from a friend in the neighbourhood.

“From then on I made sure I would always see her right into class and pleaded with teachers to keep an eye on her,” she added.

Following persistent complaints from parents, culture minister Esaie Toko Mangan at the end of October signed an order suspending the operation of video clubs until further notice.

“As a father, I could not remain indifferent to the cries of the parents. I received telephone calls from parents across the country, the National Assembly, the Presidency etc urging me to take urgent measures to put an end to the growing moral decadence in society.

“These clubs show pornographic and very violent films that would otherwise not be shown by licensed cinema halls,” explained the minister. Licensed cinemas, complaining of unfair competition, joined in the attack on the video clubs.

“We could not understand why government could let these things go on for all this time when they were illegal and pay no taxes like us,” groused Jacques de Dieu, co-manager of Cinema Le Fobe in Yaounde. (MORE)

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CAMEROON-CULTURE: New Cause for Bad School Grades

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, Nov 6 1995 (IPS) - Philippe Amougou, like any other proud father, rejoiced at the scholastic progress of his 12-year-old son Philippe Jnr.
(more…)