8 months after end of training:

HTTTC Kumba students still waiting for graduation, integration

-Say their counterparts of ENS Yaounde, maroua, douala and Bambili have since been graduated and integrated into the public service. But HTTTC Kumba students must wait.

-Accuse the school’s Director of supporting evil schemes of Yaounde regime

By DohBertarndNua in Kumba

Students of the first batch of trainees of the Higher Technical Teacher’s Training College, HTTTC Kumba, are spoiling for a strike to protest what they term as the discriminatory treatment they are getting from the authorities in Yaounde. The anxious and irate supposed first batch graduates of the school say they are yet to be told their fate since eight months after they finished their training course.

                “We were admitted in 2014/2015 academic year as the first batch of 2nd cycle students of HTTTC Kumba. We finished our course work and teaching practice in July 2016 and defended our end-of-course dissertations in November 2016. But since then nothing has been said about our graduation and posting,” complained one of the anxious students whose identity we cannot reveal for obvious reasons.

“In March 2017 some officials from the ministry of secondary education, MINESEC, came to our school and held a meeting with us and promised that we would be posted immediately. They asked us to compile and submit our integration files, which we did. But until today nothing more has been said,” regretted the student, who continued that “this phony silence of the authorities is a real source of frustration to us; it may even lead to a strike if something is not done soon.”

                We gathered from our interlocutor that recently, when some students threatened to stage a strike they were intimidated by the school’s authorities who also threatened to expell any students suspected of instigating or staging a strike on or around the school campus.

                “Recently we were forced to cancel a planned strike because the Director of the school instructed the students’ leader (a francophone) to forward to him the names of the leaders of the strike. The names had to be sent to Yaounde so that the students should not be integrated and/or posted, we learned,” recounted another prospective graduate, who wondered aloud why their counterparts of other training schools should be graduated and posted while they of HTTTC Kumba should wait sine die. He suspected the authorities are hiding something from them.

                “The authorities of our school seem to be playing delay tactics: recently they called us to come and verify if information on our attestations were correct. They said they were doing this to avoid errors on our diplomas. They also charged us to pay 30.000 frs each for our graduation robes. Yet the date of the graduation has never been fixed or communicated to us,” complained the student, who said they ought to have been posted like their counterparts of other schools so that they can start preparing for the next academic year.

                “Students of ENS and ENSET Douala were posted since December 2016. They took service in January 2017. This means we already have 8 months less salary than them. And we shall all go on retirement at the same age,” our interlocutor complained the more.

                It should be recalled that 430 students were admitted in the 1st batch of 2nd cycle students of HTTTC Kumba. It is not however immediately known how many of these students have satisfied the conditions for graduation and posting. For one thing, some of the students repeated year one, while others abandoned the course for various reasons.

                Another student we talked to complained about the quality of education they acquire from the school.

                “Because of the strike in NW and SW, some of us were sent to do teaching practice in Francophone schools. Those who have no notion of French were forced to teach their classmates in school. This made the exercise uninteresting and it also raised questions about the quality of teachers HTTTC Kumba is training.”

                All our efforts to reach the Director of the school and the dean of studies were futile. But we hope to get to them subsequently.