The 2014-2015 academic year began in Cameroon with thousands of students and teachers deserting schools in towns along the border with Borno State, which is home to the Boko Haram sect.
With some schools either destroyed or occupied by the militants, Cameroon officials said they will relocate populations to more secure areas.
In Kolofata this week, 1,000 children were expected to start in government schools, but only a few students showed up.
Foncha Rene, 17, who was one of the few who arrived, said Boko Haram attacks in the area have scared his fellow students away.
“There is no way we can go to school. Some time ago the Boko Haram kidnapped some students in Nigeria and they have been attacking schools in the border zone of Cameroon,” he said.
Foncha’s school was attacked two weeks ago. Walls were knocked down in an armed confrontation between the Nigerian insurgents and Cameroon soldiers.
English teacher Pamela Singeh, who works at the government school in Kolofata, spoke to VOA while taking refuge in a military camp.
“I cannot advise any child to go to school in the border zone because it is dangerous,” Singeh said. “Look at some classrooms, they have been destroyed by Boko Haram. They even come here to pray, so I would not advise or allow any child to go to school in this area.”
In Mora, 100 of the 700 expected students showed up only to find more than 2,000 Nigerian refugees in their school building.
The area’s senior administrative official, Babila Akao, said he has asked the Ministry of Education to postpone the beginning of the school year.
“So what we are expected to do is to make proposals to the ministers of basic and secondary education to postpone the date of the school year here. People are suffering; the situation is a bad situation,” Akao said.
Kolofata and Mora are just two of the 25 localities on the border with Borno State.
