Pastoral Letter on the situation of the Catholic School in the Diocese of Kumbo at the Beginning of the 2011/2012 Academic Year
+ George NKUO

Bishop of Kumbo

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Introduction: What have we done over the last three years?

Since March 2008 we have had occasion very often to reflect as the Family of the Diocese of Kumbo on the school situation, especially the enrolment situation of our schools and the many financial hardships plaguing our teachers and their families. In March 2008 we consulted our deanery communities through a questionnaire that was drawn up with a view to getting a lasting solution to the problems of the schools in our diocese. According to the suggestions from the six deaneries of our diocese we came up with a number of strategies, which we have all judiciously tried to apply in our respective corners of the diocese.

The strategies included the following: In the first place we increased fees in all our nursery and primary schools and introduced the Bishop’s Education Fund with a view to seeing how far we could attempt a solution to our schools financial problems.
In the second place we set out to build the pedagogic capacity of our teachers through the December 2008 Pedagogic and Pastoral Seminar and the In-service Training Programme whose second batch has just graduated from the training ground in St. Augustine’s College Nso.

In the third place we identified and recommended ways by which we could step up the Catholic character of our schools – teaching Catholic doctrine to our pupils and students, making them recite traditional Catholic prayers at school on a daily basis and at the appropriate times, and getting them involved in the liturgical life of the Church through the daily celebration of the Eucharist and the reception of other Sacraments of the Church. This way our schools would become true and vibrant faith communities.
In the fourth place we pledged to combine capacity building with the provision of didactic materials for our schools and the improvement of our school infrastructure, so as to improve the standards of education in all our schools.

Last year we sent out another pastoral letter in which we recognised the specific contribution of the different categories of people who make up our diocesan school community and congratulated them on their brilliant performance.
For a way forward we identified and proposed to you three main strategies. First, the Parish Pastoral Councils were called upon to foster among the parishioners the understanding that schools in a given parish depend on the parishioners of that parish for enrolment and survival. As such the Parish Pastoral Council, through its appropriate Pastoral Commissions, was to see to it that the welfare and survival of the schools are taken up for discussion and implementation at all its meetings.

Second, the good impression of present pupils/students of their respective schools serves as a great tool of advertisement. In this light, school administrators and ex-pupils/ex-students were called upon to establish alumni associations for all our schools, so that the alumni associations would take up progressive and fruitful roles in the lives of their respective former schools.
Third, we recognised and appreciated the efforts of some illustrious sons and daughters of the Diocese of Kumbo who have begun to bond together for the purpose of supporting their home communities and enlightening them on how to make progress as a community.
In addition to these strategies we specially identified the Catholic Women’s Association and Catholic Men’s Association as the backbone of our diocesan community and called on the leadership and members of these associations to realise that the schools in the Diocese of Kumbo will stand or fall, depending on the kind of support they give to the schools.

Progress recorded thanks to the collaboration of all of us
It is necessary for us to recognise the progress that we have made in the past three years and to be proud of it. We are indeed most grateful to all who have spent sleepless nights working to improve the school situation in the Diocese of Kumbo. We think of the Education Secretary and his entire team, the Parish Priests, the Principals and Managers of Schools, the Religious Men and Women who have very much stood by us in the fight for the survival of our schools, the Parish Pastoral Councils, the Parents’ and Teachers’ Associations (beginning with the Kumbo Diocesan PTA), the Education Commission at all levels, the sons and daughters of the Diocese of Kumbo in the Diaspora, and all men and women of goodwill. However, we also need to recognise and claim ownership of the fact that not all of us have worked as hard as we should for the survival of the schools in Kumbo.

Enrolment in our schools
Prior to the increase in fees all nursery and primary schools paid a tuition fee of FCFA 5,000. As far as the nursery schools and primary schools were concerned fees increased by an average of 25 percent in Category ‘C’ Schools, by an average of 65 percent in Category ‘B’ Schools, and by an average of 165 percent in Category ‘A’ Schools. In the first year, that is, 2008/2009 School Year, enrolment in the nursery and primary schools dropped by 20.6 percent. In 2009/2010 there was a timid increase of 3.6 percent in the enrolment and in 2010/2011 another timid increase of 3.9 percent.
It is important to note that seeming increase in enrolment between 2009 and 2011 has been largely due to the fact that in the meantime the number of nursery schools rose from 55 to 70 and the number of primary schools from 114 to 120. It is also necessary for us to take note of the fact that whereas some schools recorded a remarkable increase in enrolment, other schools recorded a disastrous drop and that is why the overall enrolment situation does not seem to reveal the efforts of the schools whose enrolment improved greatly over the last three years.

Catholic schools: Centres of academic excellence
Our efforts at the building of the pedagogic capacity of our teachers are definitely paying off in nursery and primary schools. At the level of the colleges, a number of schools have distinguished themselves, but others still have a lot of work to do to catch up. In 2011 our primary schools have put up a brilliant performance in the Government Common Entrance and in the First School Leaving Certificate Examinations. Of the 3,974 candidates who sat for the Government Common Entrance throughout the Diocese of Kumbo 3,774 passed, scoring 94.97 percent up from 79.43 percent in 2010. It is worth noting that the majority of our children passed the Common Entrance in List ‘A’! Of the 5,104 candidates who sat for the First School Leaving Certificate Examination this year 4,768 passed, scoring 93.42 percent up from 82.87 percent last year.

We congratulate our teachers on their hard work, and we know that these wonderful results are the fruit of hard work. Whereas the performance in public examinations is improving in the primary schools, the performance in the First School Leaving Religious Certificate Examination is declining. This situation calls for self-evaluation and for an intensification of the attention paid to the teaching of Religious Knowledge in our schools.

The financial situation of our schools
Over the past three years we have experienced a very positive change in the income of the schools from fees, even though this income is still grossly insufficient and cannot adequately cater for the financial needs of the schools. The paradox is that as income from school fees increased, Government Subvention drastically dropped. In the 2011 Financial Year the drop is very drastic and is as high as 41.6 percent compared to the 2010 Financial Year. Faced with the fact of declining subvention, the Diocese of Kumbo has had to spend and is still obliged to spend a lot more money on the schools than she is able to get from the very schools. If we receive the subvention allocated for the Diocese of Kumbo for the 2011 Financial Year, our up-to-date deficit for the nursery and primary schools would be FCFA 165,023,105. Some people have strongly suggested that the turnover from the colleges should be used for the benefit of the nursery and primary school teachers. It will be interesting to note that the situation of the colleges is not better. At the end of the 2010/2011 School Year the situation of the colleges stands at a deficit of FCFA 11.9 million. The main reason for this deficit is the poor enrolment also in our Catholic colleges.

Strategies for a way forward
Given all our numerous and heavy financial obligations that arise from the running of schools, we have once more had to consult our deanery communities in view of establishing a way forward with regard to the survival of our schools, our teachers and our diocese. In the consultation meetings which took place in all our deaneries on Friday, August 5, 2011, many wonderful proposals were put forth.
We deeply appreciate the work of all those who stand for and actively support Catholic Education in season and out of season. On the other hand, we decry the hypocritical attitude of some of our Christians who hold key leadership positions at different levels of our pastoral structure but work for the establishment of non-Catholic schools in their neighbourhoods. We also frown at some Parish Priests and Managers of Schools who establish schools indiscriminately without due consultation with and approval of the Competent Ecclesiastical Authority.

From a number of deaneries it was proposed that we increase fees to solve our financial problems. We will not increase school fees this time for various reasons. In consultation with the Diocesan Education Council we have decided to maintain the fees as they have been for the past three years – FCFA 8,000 for Category ‘C’ Schools, 10,000 Francs for Category ‘B’ Schools, and FCFA 15,000 for Category ‘A’ Schools. Since we are not increasing fees so what is the way toward? How do we intend to survive? What then is the way forward?
It is necessary for us to come up with the kind of concrete proposals that will invite each Christian in our Diocese to renew your commitment to the Catholic school. The first thing that we all need to do is to sit down, under the leadership of the PTA and the Education Commission, calculate the expenses of the school in our neighbourhood (teachers’ salaries, contributions to Social Insurance, the moratorium share for the parish), and then look for immediate and concrete strategies that we can use to raise for our school the kind of enrolment that will generate sufficient fees to cover all our school expenses from September to August, without looking up to the parish or to the diocese for any form of financial support. Once we get our figures right, we shall promptly go out to sensitise all our Christians to send not only their children but also less privileged children to Catholic Schools for the 2011/2012 School Year.
Very often when we talk about the difficulties of Catholic Schools, many Christians feel that the matter does not concern them because, due to no fault of theirs, they have no child in the Catholic School. The problems of our Catholic schools concern each and every one of us, whether we are parents or teachers, Priests or Religious Men and Women, pupils and students or ex-pupils and ex-students.

In accordance with the proposals from the deaneries, we have decided to institute an Education Rate, which will be paid by all Catholic Christians. The Education Rate shall be a minimum of FCFA 500 per year for women and a minimum of FCFA 1,000 per year for men. However, each individual Christian reserves the right and freedom to give more, depending on how he/she appreciates the blessings God has bestowed on him/her. It will be a great idea to organise all our pupils and students, together with their teachers and auxiliary staff to raise their own contributions in the school setup. For the collection of the Education Rate to be successful, we crave the indulgence of every Parish Priest together with his Parish Pastoral Council to work in very close collaboration with the PTA, Education Commission and Finance Commission and School Administrators to set up teams to collect the Education Rate in the Small Christian Communities and in the Schools.

In the Parish Budgets for the 2012 Financial Year all the parishes will obligatorily include ‘Education Rate’ as income and a corresponding amount as expenditure under ‘Schools’. Each parish is expected to design Registers and Receipt Booklets for the collection of the Education Rate in the Small Christian Communities and Schools and then a Cash Book and Receipt Booklets at the level of the Parish Office for the collection of the money collected from the Small Christian Communities and the Schools.
The Parish Pastoral Council, under the leadership of the Parish Priest, is hereby obliged to set up an Audit Team which will see to the proper collection and submission of school fees by the Bursars and to the proper use of school fees by the Manager of Schools. The Audit Team will also see to the prompt and proper collection of the Education Rate, to its submission to the Parish Priest, and to its proper use by the Parish Priest and Manager of Schools for the payment of teachers’ salaries, taxes and contributions to Social Insurance.

The Bishop’s Education Fund which was introduced in July 2008 has so far been very timidly supported by our diocesan community. The highest we have raised so far in one year is FCFA 2 million. We would like to use the Fund in support of teachers’ salaries, but how many teachers can we pay with FCFA 2,000,000? It is necessary for each parish under the leadership of the Parish Priest to properly organise the celebration of the Education Week so as to raise sufficient money for the Bishop’s Education Fund. With more funds we will conveniently go beyond sponsoring children who would otherwise not go to school, sponsoring the training of teachers for areas where teachers are hardly available, sponsoring infrastructural projects to paying the salaries of teachers in difficult managerial areas for one or two months.
Parish communities in collaboration with their alumni associations and with their illustrious sons and daughters need to look for means to improve on their school infrastructure, provide didactic materials for the schools and also put in place toys and games for nursery kids, so as to make the schools attractive.
While looking for immediate ways of rescuing our schools from imminent collapse we need to look for long-term solutions as well. That is why we have decided that each parish should look for land, if it does not have it yet, and develop income generating activities on it for the good of the schools. Such income generating activities could include a palm plantation, a fuel plantation, grain cultivation, animal husbandry, and bee farming, for example. It will be necessary once more for the Parish Priest, together with his Parish Pastoral Council, to determine what income generating activities are suitable for their parishes or for the different parts of their parishes and then liaise with the Bishop for approval and proper implementation of the project.

Conclusion: An earnest appeal
I once more appeal to each and every Catholic Christian of the Diocese of Kumbo, whether at home or in the Diaspora, to show love for the land of their birth by sending all their children to Catholic Schools within the Diocese of Kumbo and also by offering to sponsor less privileged children in the same schools. We renew our gratitude to SHUMAS – Strategic Humanitarian Services, Amom Charity, Food for Education, and Knowledge for Children for the wonderful work they are doing in a number of our schools. We continue to render immense gratitude to the Samba of Simbock – Yaoundé for taking the initiative to come back home on the last Sunday of August every year to give their own support to the Bishop’s Education Fund. It is my ardent hope that the candle of generosity which they have lit will shine and show the way to all the sons and daughters of Kumbo so that they can all join us to build our schools and make them true places of learning and vibrant communities of faith.
Through the intercession and maternal care of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the Diocese of Kumbo, may God bless us all in our endeavour to keep our schools afloat!

Given at Kumbo,
Monday, August 15, 2011,
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary