Ministry of Secondary Education:

1000 over-aged teachers sent packing
By Kelvin Nembo Njuhsop in Yaounde

Ngalle Bibehe

There will be no extra time for some 1000 teachers of the Ministry of Secondary Education born in or before 1956. These teachers who attained the statutory retirement age of 60 years as of January 2016 but were still in active service have been urged to go home and take a well-deserved rest.
    Aware that they had reached the retirement age, some of these teachers thought they could bribe their way and continue working, as has been the case before now.  Unfortunately for them, their plans were ruined when a list of some 1000 teachers was published on the website of the Ministry of Secondary Education, www.minesec.gov.cm last weekend.

    Accompanying this list, was a statement from the MINEDUC boss, Ngalle Bibehe calling on all those due retirement to regularise their situation and leave the public service with immediate effect. What a big blow to fraudsters!
    This timely decision taken last weekend by the newly appointed Minister of Secondary Education, has been saluted by many Yaounde city dwellers who only wish other ministers and stakeholders could emulate the good example.
    It is the first time we have seen a Minister taking swift action to implement a decision of the Prime Minister.
    The retirement of over-aged teachers comes on the heels of efforts by the government to cleanse its list of bona fide workers of fraudsters. Last year a cleansing exercise on the register of government workers unmasked over 2,000 ghost workers illegally collecting salaries and allowances.
    Earlier in late August 2015, the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms published over 10,000 names of suspected ghost workers who could not be identified as belonging to any ministry.
    That said the story of the bloated Cameroon Civil Service and the financial incidence to the State purse is not new. The government must therefore take proper measures to stop this cankerworm. This will go a long way to help curb the unemployment rate in the country, observers believe.