Eight interesting developments on the GCE this year

By Stephen Tadaha and Hans Ngala

This year’s GCE results have been released amid a ruthless war that continues more than 6 years since it started in the Anglophone regions of the country.
The GCE is written primarily by English-speaking Cameroonians who until around 2017, mainly resided in the NW and SW regions of the country, but have since moved in droves to the Francophone areas of the country for security reasons.
That said, here are some of the interesting facts that stand out in the 2023 GCE exams and results:

1- Some schools recorded 100% pass grades and some recorded 0%. Our findings reveal that this was mostly in schools with very few candidates. For example, Government Bilingual High School Jakiri in the NW with just one A’ Level candidate saw the candidate recording a pass that registered as 100% while Christ the King College, Tiko in the SW saw 18 candidates registering for the A’ Levels and all of them failing, giving a 0% score. This performance was simply because the institution had all its candidates for technical and vocational training suspended due to reasons we do not know at this point. Eighteen of them sat for the exams and all were sanctioned.

2- Christ the King College, Tiko in the SW, the same institution that recorded 0% at the A’ Levels however recorded a 100% pass at the Ordinary Level as all 34 candidates who took the exam, made it. It was the same for the Technical and Vocational sections which scored a 100% pass.

3- According to official statistics, more than 182,000 candidates sat for the exam

4- Out of the above figure, some 170,160 candidates sat for the exams

5- Another 10,503 candidates were absent

6- Of the total number who sat for the exams, 54,644 failed

7- At the Ordinary Level, 93,787 registered and 83,498 took the exams

8- The overall performance of the exam dropped to 3.37%