WEARING OF T.SHIRTS IN SCHOOLS IN CAMEROON WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO DENIS COMPREHENSIVE COLLEGE IN KUMBA.

Generally in the country, the wearing of T.shirts in school is not compulsory as this does not necessarily constitute part of the school uniform. However, it is becoming increasingly fashionable for students to wear T.shirts to school. For some students the T.shirt serves as singlet or an inner top-wear .For some others they use it for other extra-curricular activities like sports, manual labour etc. in school. In a vas majority of schools in the country T.shirt is prescribed by the school authorities and there must be uniform in pattern and other deocrations thereof. Most often, the T.shirts bear the school’s emblem motto, year of founding and some other little details about the school.. This is the case with Denis Comprehensive College , Kumba and a good number of schools in the country.

No offensive (immoral, provocative or suggestive) labels or inscriptions are allowed on Tshirts in schools. Like we earlier hinted somewhere in this contribution, the school is perceived by our educational planners, to be a place to inculcate moral, ethical and other positive values to the child for the good of the larger society.

Following the rules and regulations regarding corporate appearance in school in general and in the classroom in particular in Denis Comprehensive College, students are expected to dress up in the normal, approved school uniform of an upper pink-coloured short-sleeves jacket shirt (both for boys and girls), and a pair of light-blue trousers (boys) and skirt (girls) to match. In addition, students are allowed to wear inside the jacket a T.shirt that conforms with the school’s regulations. However, there are occasions whereby a student can be allowed to put on any other kind of T.shirt especially where the official one is not readily available because of one inconvenience or the other to the child.

As a rule, immoral, indecent and any provocative kind of T.shirts or dressing is disallowed in the school. Meanwhile, despite all efforts to discourage students from wearing wrong clothes to school, some still discreetly wear unapproved T.shirts inside the jacket shirt. If however, by any misfortune such an offending student is found he/she is either sent home by the Discipline Master to go and change the odd dress, or is given some non corporal punishment to serve as a deterrent to others. Sometimes all together, a student wearing a wrong T.shirt may be allowed to stay in school, but with the warning not to bring such to school subsequently.

The dual colonial experiences of the country has often compelled political and other commentators to refer to Cameroon as "Africa in miniature". This is because of its colonial inheritance from both Britain and France. At the end of the first world in 1919, the former German colony of Cameroon was shared between Britain and France as trust territories , with France given about three quarters of the whole territory, while Britain had just about one quarter. With a UN conducted plebiscite in 1961, the Southern part of British Cameroon decided to join the already independent French Cameroon to form one federated country. Since that 1961, the country has evolved as one, making use of English and French as the two official languages, though we do have about 250 indigenous languages spoken across the country as well. Because of the dual colonial heritage of the country, it is very easy today to find a citizen of Cameroon switching from English to French, or French to English in common day conversation just like we have in Canada. No wonder, some people even refer to Cameroon also as the laboratory for a veritable and result-oriented African Union.

Before 1990, there was really no acceptable practice of democracy in its strict sense in Cameroon. The country was before now a one party state which hardly gave room for contrary views. Before then, the president bestrode the country’s political landscape like a veritable colossus. His powers resonated through the National Assembly and echoed with full force in the judiciary as well.

However, at the close of the eighties when the soviet Gorberchev came with his new doctrine of ‘glasnots and perestrioka’ a wind of change started blowing through Africa. The president of the country, Paul Biya did not wait for long to follow the direction of the "perestrioka" wind. Acting swiftly, in 1990 the president, through the National Assembly had new bills adopted, passed and signed into law to give greater freedoms to the citizens of the country. These laws, known as the 1990 liberty laws, provided a broad-spectrum of laws that gave the people unfettered freedom of speech, association and assembly.

The high point was the expurgation of the law of exception which hitherto allowed persons to be detained indefinitely in custody. With the new liberty laws new political parties began to sprout up, people moved more freely without hinderance, the electronic and print media space was widened and levelled up with a plethora of newspapers hitting the news stands. Indeed, with the liberty laws, citizens who had never known real political, social and economic freedoms since after independence, came to savour a new era of boundless and limitless frontiers of freedom. Though with new freedoms since the 1990 liberal laws, the people of this country no doubt must continue to respect and act within the confines of their rights, freedoms, obligations and duties to the state