Anglophone trade union leaders have rejected an invitation to attend a meeting scheduled for today Friday December 30, 2016 by 3pm, from Higher Education Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo in his capacity as chairperson of a committee put in place to look at general problems faced by teachers in both Francophone and Anglophone schools.

The decision not to attend the meeting whose invitation came late Thursday was taken after a late night meeting with the trade Unionists in Bamenda, North West region. The President of Teachers Association of Cameroon, TAC, TAME Valentine said, “He invited us but we are not going, we cannot be going to such statutory issues when there is a crisis situation at hand. They will be discussing general issues; we want to handle identity issues first. It’s a semester kind of thing.”

The meeting comes on the heels of another in Bamenda where the teachers backed out as government envoys failed to grant their request. Among others the teachers are asking for the youths arrested in Bamenda and Kumba released without conditions, the redeployment of Anglophone teachers teaching in French sub system of education to that of English and vice versa.

Culled from CIN

The Minister for Secondary Education has signed an order pretending to cooperate with the striking Anglophone teachers. The ministerial order appears to be a contingency plan by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to reopen the schools. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the decision made public by the Secondary Education minister offered a provocative concession to the teachers and also on job security for the 1000 young teachers to be recruited under a bogus scheme announced by the head of state.

The Anglophone teachers have dismissed the move saying it was like “flying a kite” by making the suggestion to remove all French speaking teachers from Anglophone schools and all English speaking teachers from Francophone schools in a process described by the minister as redeployment.

The leaders of the Anglophone teachers’ trade unions have opined that if no progress was made in talks by the end of next week, the Yaoundé government should be ready for more violent strike actions. The ministerial order addressed only one of the 11 points advanced by the striking teachers. As if to say the Anglophone teachers could do nothing, the minister yet again published his press release only in the French language.

What the Francophone government had thought was a temporary solution to deal with the poor contingency plan would definitely not resolve the dispute which has closed nearly all schools in British Southern Cameroons.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Part of a French primary school known as Dominique Savio in Douala in the economic metropolis has been consumed by fire. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that fire broke out in the campus on Wednesday night.

Police sources say no loss of life has been recorded so far but reported significant material damage that involved the main office and classrooms.

The fire also affected the Roman Catholic Church building next to the school. An inquiry has been opened to determine whether it was an accident or arson.

By Sonne Peter in Douala

Do you as a Southern Cameroonian even know the 11 reasons for the Teachers’ strike? Take a look at them again as provided to Cameroon Intelligence Report by the Anglophone teachers trade unions

1. Our children who pass the GCE with quality grades cannot enter professional schools of their choice, while those who perform poorly fill all the spaces.
2. Francophones outnumber Anglophones in the professional schools in Anglophone Universities of Buea and Bamenda by a ratio of up to 90:10% in HTTTC Kumba, 90:10% in Medical School in Buea, 80:20% in HTTTC Bamenda whereas there are no Anglophones in these schools in Francophone Universities.
3. Anglophones who apply to read medicine are usually sent to Francophone universities, where operating becomes a serious challenge, and since they cannot cope, they give up.
4. As a result of this policy of discrimination and marginalization, government does train Anglophone technical teachers, and even the few Anglophones who are trained are sent to work in Francophone areas.
5. Government continues to send Francophones who do not master English to teach in Anglophone schools. The teachers teach in broken English, thereby confusing the students. As a result, many do not perform well in their final examinations.
6. The Universities of Buea and Bamenda have been francophonized and admissions into key faculties have been taken to Yaounde so that admission lists can be doctored.
7. Our children are compelled to write CAP, Probatoire and Baccalaureate in technical schools, with a tradition of poorly translated questions and massive failures on their part. Qualifications into professional schools and the universities, what a mockery to our certificates!
8. Our children who graduate from the university cannot get jobs; they have become bike riders and call-box operators and sim card vendors.
9. Lay private and confessional schools are doing so much to educative our children, but receive little or no subvention from Government. Even Religious Studies is mocked as a requirement for admission.
10. That the election and appointment of authorities of the Anglo-Saxon Universities of Bamenda and Buea should be in strict compliance of Anglo-Saxon norms.
11. The 1998 Law on the Orientation of education in Cameroon provides for the creation of an Education Board, but we are asking for separate boards which can address the needs of each subsystem.