Changing the Educational Orientation of the Oroko People

 

                                              

by Jackson W. Nanje

     After a long period of observing the trend of how Cameroonians in Atlanta and in the United States make donations and contributions to annual fundraising events, a friend of mine came to the conclusion that, in general, the people of the Northwest Region of Cameroon make more donations in every fund raiser event than those of the Southwest Region. She also found out that there was a vast contrast in the professional composition of each of the donors from the two regions. She concluded that most of the donors from the Northwest Region were professionals with careers in Pharmacy, Nursing, law, Medicine, engineering etc, while their Southwest professional counterparts were basically in the teaching profession, hoteliers, unskilled labor managers and a few of them are having high-end professional jobs. With this difference in their professional orientation comes the disparity in their income as well. Because the North Westerners earned more, so is their contributions more in most fundraising events and, it explains a partial reason why their regions are more advanced as they themselves are, when compared to their counterparts from the Southwest Region. The orientations of the peoples of these two regions have been very different. While the North westerners are resolute in introducing their new arrivals to high-income-earning careers, the South westerners insist on having their new arrivals fulfill parental wishes of completing a degree course without any sense of appropriation for the future.

     One would ask the writer why he prefers using the people of the Northwest region as oppose to other natives from the other regions of Cameroon who are also present in the United States. Simply, the natives of the Southwest region and their counterparts from the Northwest region both arrived in the United States about the same time and their educational orientations as well as their contributions in fundraising events have been monitored for as long as these two groups have settled in the United States hence the comparison. In addition, the natives of these two regions of Cameroon share similar cultural values and have received same educational orientation while in Cameroon. Therefore, comparing the two brings out that which is lacking in one, and, correcting behavior or deeds will not only create the awareness that has been lacking in the other but will help in bridging the income disparity gap.    

     The Oroko ethnic tribe is one of the many tribes in the Southwest Region of Cameroon that is lumped up in this debilitating trend. The Oroko elements in the United States are no different from their Southwest counterparts because they too are victims of these unpleasant career orientations. The poor advise or the lack thereof of proper orientation given to the new arrivals is reflected in the jobs that they do as it is reflected in their meager salaries, which determines their meager contributions in Cameroonian fundraising events hence, validating the writer’s observation. This, to me, is one of the reasons why we must take the need for a change seriously. The writer believes that the Oroko Cultural Associations should lead the way in designing programs that would advise Oroko elements, especially those still in Cameroon, to pursue the career path that would change their fortunes. Perhaps, to enable the Oroko elements to compete or change the fortunes of their people and lead the region to an improved lifestyle, extensive career orientation and sensitization programs have to be carried out throughout the Oroko land. In addressing this problem, we suggest the following:

 
a.    Designing a career friendly program;

b.   Design methods of sensitization of the people; and,

c.    Set goals and measure output of program by setting timelines.

     We cannot only blame the Oroko new-arrivals’ problems on the lack of proper orientation by their peers. The root of the problem dates as far back as Cameroon. The orientation of many of our brothers and sisters have rested squarely on the shoulders of our parents whose major objectives is to send their children to Teachers’ Training Colleges and other quick unsubstantiated careers so that they could start working in order to supplement the often meager family income. This quick-fix measure of graduating mostly teachers has not worked favorably for the Oroko people who are always at the bottom of the income  ladder in Cameroon.

     We'd to also examine the results of exit examinations of secondary and high schools in Orokoland and it cemented our findings. A majority of the students graduating from colleges in our divisions, over the years, did so by graduating in mostly liberal arts courses, trending to low-income dead-end jobs. Our students till date continue to pursue liberal arts degrees rather than science degrees that generate better jobs and high income. If we insist on orientating our students on better ways to improve their capacity, we must have therefore addressed the often meager contributions they often give in Cameroonian or in the Oroko fundraising events.  

     Many of the Oroko sons and daughters who are in overseas, and who have had the benefit of encountering other civilizations away from Cameroon---who know the demands of a global economy today---should be in a better position to advise members of our community on the best way forward in addressing these problems but because the Oroko Cultural Association in the United States is the only credible organization in the Orokoland, it must take the lead.

     There is great optimism for the Oroko people; an emerging tribe not only in the Southwest Region. In as much as the government of Cameroon is delaying economic and social development in the area, a massive campaign to adequately orientate the people, molded towards a sound professional orientation, championed by the Oroko Cultural Associations, would result in a change in lifestyle of the people and as a result, the often meager donations to fund projects during fundraising events, which has been an evocative characteristic of our people, would become a story of the past. How can we therefore orientate the Oroko people to turn these misfortunes into fortunes?

                                  A). Designing a Career-Friendly Program

     Since the purpose of this study is to address the income disparity between the peoples of the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon with a particular focus on the Oroko people---in creating professionally-oriented study awareness programs, which will result in the Oroko people earning high incomes like their northwest counterparts, we are therefore going to be relying on the expertise of the Oroko Cultural Associations to bridge this gap.  The Oroko Cultural Associations, which has championed other projects in the Orokoland in the past, is viewed as the only reliable agency to spearhead any such organized development programs in the area, and deservingly so. In doing so, she must create a brochure with all the different professional careers in the world stating how profitable those professional careers are compared to the ones they have been used to. These careers should be formatted to guide and prepare students from the elementary level (with emphasis on courses which will pave way towards high-earning careers) to terminal degree programs. For instance, we can instruct our pupils and students earlier on, on having good fundamentals in mathematics, chemistry and biology etc, etc. There ought to be more emphasis placed by Oroko students because, these courses are prerequisites to becoming a chemical engineer, a pharmacist, a medical doctor, computer software and hardware engineer, or a nurse etc. Furthermore, with mathematics, biology and physics they could become bio-medical engineers or electrical engineers too. It will even get better if we could put the incomes that obtain in each of these professions so that our students will have to shape their career around these courses with the intention of becoming economically viable in the future. Such is what will propel and inspire the Oroko pupils and students from inception to perform extra-ordinarily and in achieving set goals that would bring desired income or economic benefits to them and our community.

 

     In addition to the above, the school administrators, who shall be made the primary agents to implement these desired changes, should be made aware of the objectives of the association vis-à-vis the needs of the students. Perhaps, with additional incentives to teachers, who are primary agents to enable the objectives of the organization, our fortunes could be quickly realized than we had anticipated.

Graphs as the one below prepares students for future desired expectations

To become a Medical Doctor you need to study	To become a Teacher with a PhD degree in liberal arts	To become a Nurse with a Bs.N degree
Biology & chemistry especially and the income level estimated in dollars is	History, Geography, literature economics, biology, chemistry etc	Biology,Maths, chemistry orientation is needed
Salary range $90,000.00 (45,000,000frs) per year and above	Salary range $32,000(16,000,000frs and up to $60,000(30,000,000frs per year	Salary range $60,000(30,000,000frs) per year and up.
10hrsworkload& up	8hrs workload & up	8hrs workload and up.

     When things are done in this manner, students are inspired to adequately prepare to deal with courses they will ordinarily neglect earlier on during their adaptive ages, like some of us did during our informative school days. Perhaps, all their efforts now should focus on excelling in sciences, which they never paid attention to in the past. Also, videos of Cameroonian professionals in their different professional occupations can serve as role models and could ultimately bring the best in our students, whose goals would be to aspire to be like them. A little effort as this one can easily change the misfortunes of a community overnight.

                             B).Design Methods of Sensitization of the People

      In any normal circumstance, designing a program that would turn the misfortunes of a people into fortunes can be an arduous task; but it is one which is attainable. However, implementing these programs will be grueling task because of the difficulties of the topography in the Oroko area.  Even as we are made aware that implementing these sensitization programs could be an onerous task to carry out but one which educational professionals, working under the guidance of the Oroko Cultural Associations should be able to do. As an organization, we must rigorously pursue the initiative because the output will uplift our people to desired acme. This is what is ordinarily referred to as capacity building of a people. The lack of in these fundamentals has had detrimental effect on how the Oroko people adjust to changing times and how other tribes perceive us as lacking in purpose. Nonetheless, the goal of the association is to vigorously sensitize its people in obtaining desired result---that which will strengthen the Oroko people economically, socially and politically.  The suggestive ways to enable the awareness program to continue are:

a.       To engage the school authorities to devote time and resources to enable success of the program;

b.      To engage Oroko students attending universities to be agents in propagating the objectives of the association in schools in the Oroko land;

c.       The Oroko Cultural Association shall develop a program guide which will design the ways and means of achieving the sensitization programs;

d.      The Oroko Cultural Association should invest a considerable amount of its resources to enable this long term program to work. Its fruits shall be seen in the people who shall later invest their resources in their area and their people. Patience is needed in our people because we are often satisfied with quick-fixes.
e.       The Oroko Cultural Association should be in the position to invest some of their resources so as to enable these goals and objectives; and,
f.        The strengths and weaknesses of the project shall be communicated to the Oroko people world-wide and monitoring mechanisms shall be put in place as well as evaluation methods to determine the program’s impact.

                    C.    Set Goals and Measure Output of Program

     The goal of this effort is to educate our Oroko brothers and sisters on the right and profitable career paths which will enable them to be self-sustaining; and career paths that would create better avenues and enable them to give more, if not in fundraising events but to the Oroko associations and to the Oroko people than their forebears ever gave.

     Our goal therefore, is to ensure that instituted programs achieve desired results. Most of what we are advocating here could be easily achieved. However, we have to work diligently with all parties every step of the way to enable us achieve set goals and also, to imbibe the culture of giving, which is noticeably absent in our people and our heritage.

his paper may not be the solution to the problem the writer is attempting to address; but it can serve as the first in an attempt to start looking closely at solutions. Obviously, there are greater minds that will not only seek solutions such as this but shall improve on this one.