I want to go to school to buy a car, wear high heels, be a journalist, be a soldier.... But if I can't, at least I can watch the television all day!
on Mischa in Cameroon (Cameroon), 26/Mar/2011 16:46, 34 days ago
We've just run a competition for the students from our schools, asking them to design posters on the importance of education. We really wanted the students and their teachers to think about why they were at school and how it could help them; there is a misconception that school is only useful if you want to be a civil servant, but civil servant jobs are really hard to get in Cameroon, particularly if you don't have the money to pay a bribe with your application.When we launched the competition we therefore accompanied it with a lesson plan with a strong focus on how education can help housewives, rice growers and shopkeepers, as well as teachers and nurses and policemen. Of course, the reasons why the kids thought education could help them weren't always those we would have chosen. I lost count of the number who wrote "I go to school so I can have a big car." Several girls wanted to have an education so they could wear high heels and have big handbags. And a large number also wanted to be police men so they could stop cars by the side of the road and check their papers (a thinly disguised euphemism for taking a bribe). Below are a few of my favourites from the primary school at Maga. Some of them, as you can see, promote education more than others!Going fishing instead of going to schoolThe little boy says: "My father doesn't want me to go to school so I have to spend the day fishing." His father says: "Now he's doing good work, but he's always bothering me about going to school."I want to be a business woman so I can wear a short skirt  "I am a business woman. I make clothes and I'm presenting an example of my work." Here the successful woman isn't wearing the traditional village woman's outfit of a sarong and headscarf- she's wearing a short skirt, hair extensions (forbidden to Muslim girls in Maga), and fancy shoes. Normally if you see a woman dressed like this in Maga, you know she's come from the South of Cameroon. I want to stand up straight and sing the national anthemThe soldier says: "We're singing the national anthem. Where are you going, you country bumpkin? Halt!"The villager says: "Allaw da! A hiyaguin handa barraganla bini ma? mo finiya sen kay." [He doesn't even speak french.]I want to be a soldier and buy a carThe boy on his way to school says: "Come on, let's go to school. When you go to school you can become a solidier." His friend replies (as his father looks on), "My dad says I have to go and look after the goats. If I go to school he'll chase me out of the house."The first boy says: "Soldiers have cars because they've been to school." I want to go to school and become a journalist The girl says: "Father, I want to go to school to become like the journalist who presents the news on the television." Her father replies: "My daughter, I'm going to find you a husband." And (my favourite): If I don't go to school I can stay at home all day and watch the television"I have stopped going to school, because there wasn't enough money to buy my school books and stationary. Therefore I spend all my time in front of the television watching 'El Diablo' [a Hispanic soap opera adored by Cameroonians] every day."