2024-06-09 04:40:28
The Mbongo bilingual highschool is in shock: a 16-year-old scholar, Moulel Marcel, has been languishing in jail since yesterday for merely writing his title on a wall of the institution. A disproportionate sanction which arouses indignation in Cameroon and questions the authoritarian excesses of sure principals.
10 buckets of paint or jail: the inconceivable selection
Moulel Marcel, an uneventful scholar, went to the Mbongo bilingual highschool yesterday to gather his report card. There, the younger man indulges in a innocent gesture: writing his title on a wall. One graffiti too many for the principal Mrs. Bakop Cécile, who instantly referred to as the police to arrest {the teenager}.
Since then, Moulel Marcel, 16, has been behind bars. The explanation ? Having refused the odious blackmail of administration: paying 10 buckets of paint in alternate for his freedom. A totally disproportionate punishment which offends dad and mom and defenders of kids’s rights.
A medieval inner regulation
For some, the principal Ms. Bakop would solely apply absurd and liberticidal inner laws. As a result of on the Mbongo bilingual highschool, the “ crimes » and punishments have a style of the Center Ages:
- Climb the wall: 10 luggage of cement
- Writing on a desk: 10 table-benches to purchase
- Write on a wall: 10 buckets of paint
« With such a regulation, we’re strolling on our heads,” takes offense at Me Kamdem, a lawyer contacted by 237online.com. “ Since when does harmless graffiti value 16 years in jail? What’s the Ministry of Schooling doing about these abuses? »
A case that claims lots concerning the Cameroonian training system
For a lot of observers, the Moulel Marcel affair illustrates the failings of a Cameroonian training system affected by authoritarianism. “Some college leaders consider they’re vested with exorbitant powers and fortunately flout the rights of scholars”analyzes a commerce unionist who requested anonymity.
An opinion shared by Dr. Fokam, adolescent psychologist: “Jailing a minor for graffiti sends a disastrous message. That is excessively criminalizing our younger individuals, on the threat of turning them towards the academic establishment.”
All eyes are actually on the academic authorities. Will they lastly take up the matter in order that Moulel Marcel regains his freedom? And above all, will they put an finish to authoritarian abuses in sure excessive colleges? Cameroonian college students are ready for concrete solutions. And fast.