A scholarship is usually a monetary award based on criteria given by the awarding party. It can be given on basis of academic
merit, athletic ability, financial needs or other criteria specific to the group giving the award. For example, there are many
scholarships available for only a specific minority including African Americans minority groups and women. Sometimes college
scholarships are given in a contest manner.
6 steps to success

2011 GCE ORDINARY AND ADVANCED LEVELS' RESULTS SOON

The Cameroon GCE Board is striving to improve its performance in handling the official end of year examinations. This apparent change in character from an organization once marred by laxity and inertia to one that is efficient and can be reckoned with is observed in the early publication of its results in recent years.

The Cameroon General Certificate of Education Board was created to carter for secondary education evaluation for the mainly English speaking Cameroonians from the North West and South West regions as well as other Cameroonians interested in such Examinations. The GCE Board organizes, corrects and publishes two main end of courses examinations; the GCE Ordinary Level (GCE O/L) which is taken on the fifth year of secondary education and the GCE Advanced Level taken on the seventh and final year of secondary education and recently the Baccalaureate . Since its creation in the early 90s, it is only in recent years that the GCE Board is showing signs to justify its raison d'etre as conceived by the Government.
The recent progress registered by the Board, however, is seen by critics as being only a step in a journey of a thousand miles awaiting it. Some critics challenge the Board to introduce Scholarship schemes to encourage brilliant students to further their education at higher levels.
In a developing country like Cameroon where income levels are extremely low, most students either end up as dropouts or face financial setbacks in furthering their education beyond the secondary school level. Some years back, the Government of Cameroon used to award scholarships to students who performed brilliantly in the GCE examinations.
This suspension of award of scholarships to bright students came at a time when unemployment was reaching its peaks amongst the youths of the country. Bad governance and the economic crises that swept across most African countries were the main causes of this situation. As a result, youths resorted to all sorts of malpractices. The idea of odd jobs suddenly disappeared in the society as the job hungry youths spared no income generating opportunity.
Recently, the country began experiencing some economic revival with the attainment of the completion point of the HIPC initiative. A series of massive recruitments into the public service were recently carried out by the government. The massive recruitments were meant for priority sectors such as health, education and agriculture. Teachers, doctors and nurses were recruited in their thousands. The government has reportedly adopted a long-term development plan but this without loosing sight of the millennium development goals which developing countries have committed themselves to achieve by 2015.
The President of the Republic of Cameroon, HE Paul Biya has also instituted sweeping reforms to improve upon the country's governance system. Various anti-corruption watchdogs have been put in place and the results of their actions so far is appalling. A series of arrests of high ranking state officials have been registered and procedures are ongoing (though slow due to the international protocols involved) to recover the funds they embezzled.

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