Since January 10, loitering of students outside of schools has been prohibited in the Djerem Division, in the Adamaoua region.
The decision was taken by the Divisioner Officer, Roger Saffo, in a decree signed that day. “Is strictly prohibited, from the date of signing of this decree, any loitering of students outside the premises of educational establishments, in the streets and other places of leisure, during the regular course of lessons”, writes the authority administrative.
He threatens to arrest students in his administrative district who decide to go against this ban. “Any student who is found in one of the positions of irregularity such as mentioned in article 1 of this decree will be arrested by the law enforcement forces and taken to the local police or gendarmerie station for be kept in custody until the intervention of a parent or a person in charge of their school,” he warns. The Divisioner Officer justifies this measure by “necessities of security and public order”.
This is not the first time that such a measure has been taken by local authorities. In February 2023, Richard Marcel Tam Likeng, the sub-Divisioner Officer of Penka Michel in the Western region, mobilized the police to track down and arrest loitering students. He justified this measure by the “resurgence of indiscipline characterized by learners, ranging from excessive lateness to their presence outside school campuses during class hours”. In October 2022, the main police commissioner Germain Djakedi, public security commissioner of Yagoua (Far North), decided to reactivate the fight against truancy to limit “massive failures in end-of-year exams” . These measures are part of the fight against school absenteeism, often linked to academic failure, dropping out of school and dropping out of school.
SBBC