Some blind and Visually impaired Cameroonians have criticized the administration of Higher Technical Teachers Training College, HTTTC Kumba for preventing their participation in competitive entrance exam into the said institution.
HTTTC Kumba is a government teacher’s training institution located in Kumba, a city in Cameroon’s Anglophone Southwest Region
The echoes come at a time when a group of blind and Visually impaired graduates are protesting against discrimination and stigmatisation in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital City.
HTTTC Kumba went operational 7 years ago and has since then trained thousands of secondary and high technical school teachers in different disciplines.
Many a person with Visual and hearing Impairments had high hopes of exploring the new opportunity, but have for the past 7 years been excluded From the said institution.
This is outright discrimination and stigmatisation against this group of young people
The decision to exclude them, TWIF NEWS understands did not go well with some blind and deaf candidates who consider it a violation to their inalienable right to education.
Francis Tanifum, a young graduate with visual impairment from the university of Buea was prepared to take in the competitive entrance exam into HTTTC Kumba in 2018 but would be denied access because he is blind.
“After I just finished with my undergraduate studies in educational psychology, I had high hopes of sitting in for the HTTTC entrance exam but my spirit was killed when I discovered on the communique that blind and deaf were restricted from participating in the session,” he sorrowfully intimated to TWIF NEWS.
Frustrated, disappointed, but not defeated, the young education enthusiast decided to let-go and continue with his Master’s studies.
One year later, another candidate with visual impairment chose to violate the rule and register for the entrance exam into HTTTC Kumba despite clear instructions on the call for application communique that blind and deaf students were ineligible for the 2019-2020 session.
On the day of writing, he went to his center determined but left even more frustrated.
Not only did Zachariah Egbe find out that he had not been provided Brielle questions, but more painful was the fact that no one was willing to dictate out the questions for him.
“I was not going to leave on till I had taken part in the exam like any other candidate because blindness is not a crime,” he sadly told TWIF NEWS.
After much pressure from the young blind student, one of the exam staff opted to assist in dictating but remaindered him that he was only wasting his prescious time.
This message meant that, the candidate had failed even before writing the exam.
Indeed, the young man would not make it when blind and deaf students have been deemed unqualified for the exam.
The situation of Francis and Zachariah are just 2 out of a myriad where because of one’s impairment they are excluded from participating in the competitive entrance exam into HTTTC Kumba.
Most students with visual and hearing impairment have had difficulties understanding why the country’s government is preaching inclusive education and yet denying them access to the Kumba based learning institution.
As the 2022-2023 academic year draws near, blind and deaf students want the situation reversed because they to are Cameroonians and should participate in all nation building activities.
“The government most stop the administration of HTTTC Kumba from rejecting visual and hearing impaired students because everyone is equal, and being blind or deaf, does not make one incompetent,” Zachariah Egbe revealed, adding that disability is not inability.
Efforts to contact the administration of HTTTC Kumba on the subject have not yielded any fruits.