Response to Anglophone grievances:

Striking teachers reject Biya’s ‘painkillers’

-Say the want appropriate, long lasting cures

-Vow to continue strike for so long as gov’t fails to act correctly

By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda

PM Yang, contemplating real solutions for the Anglophone problem

Leaders of the various Anglophone teachers’ trade unions comprising of CATTU, BATTUC, SYNES UB and UBa, PEATTU, TAC and CEWOTU in a meeting have decided continue with their sit down strike which has been running since November 21, 2016 “until satisfactory answers are given to all the issues raised or identified so far”.

                This was the outcome of a meeting of leaders of teachers’ trade unions in Bamenda on Friday, 2 December 2016. The meeting was informed by a Prime Ministerial Order No 125 CAB/PM of November 29 and a press release issued by the PM dated November 30th creating an Ad hoc committee to find a solution to the problems raised in Bamenda on November 25 and 26.

                The release announced a decision by the Head of State allocating the sum of 2 billion FCFA as state subvention to lay private and denominational schools in the country and ordering the recruitment of 1000 young bilingual teachers in the field of sciences and technical studies to meet up with the teaching gap that is decried by the striking teachers.

                “We are grateful for your response in the aforementioned documents following the discussions we had on the 25 and 26 of November, 2016 in Bamenda on the plethora of issues which have plagued the Anglophone education in Cameroon for the last five decades,” reads a scripted reply to PM Yang a copy of which The Median procured. But the teachers’ reply at once regretted that the government measures still have “very important issues that need to be clarified”.

                It notes for instance that: “The Prime Ministerial Order does not specify the time frame within which the Ad Hoc committee is expected to run as we agreed in Bamenda; it does not make allowance for representation of the unions in the secretariat of the ad hoc committee who will ensure that what is agreed on is actually what is transcribed; the press release is not legally binding on the government and may constitute another promise with no mechanism of enforcement” among other things.

                The teachers also berate the lack of a legal framework to justify the allocation of the FCFA 2 billion state subvention to private secondary institutions and what Anglophone schools stand to benefit and the recruitment of bilingual science and technical teachers which they say could prove problematic in the future and further marginalize Anglophones because as they put it, “no such thing exist as bilingual teachers of science and technology subjects in Cameroon”

 The teachers in their press release also condemned the actions of Southwest Governor Bernard OkaliaBilai and the VC of the University of Buea, Dr. NalovaLyonga for using brute force to quell a peaceful student demonstration. It calls for the VC’s role and tenure of office to be terminated; for the release of students detained during the protest; the opening of an investigation into the brutal military crackdown on students and the immediate demilitarization the campus of the University of Buea.

                Commentators say the decision by the teachers to extend the strike violates the gentleman’s agreement they took with Prime Minister Philemon Yang on 26 November in Bamenda, where they were unambiguous that if one of the conditions raised by the teachers (amongst them the creation of an ad hoc committee) was met, the strike will be suspended.

                At press time, some transporters syndicates and traders that sat in the meeting of teachers have supported the stance of the teachers and have announced a solidarity strike beginning Monday, 5 December 2016.