By DOH JAMES SONKEY IN YAOUNDE
Members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee charged with examining and proposing solutions to the grievances raised by the Teachers Trade Unions in Cameroon have declared that the groundwork for the holding of the first ever national forum on education has been laid. They made the declaration last March 16, 2017 during the 5th session of their committee presided at in Yaoundé by its Chair, Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo of Higher Education.
Attending for the very first time since the creation of the inter-ministerial committee, were representatives of Anglophone Teachers Trade Unions who had hitherto been boycotting previous sessions such as Emmanuel Ayeah of the Baptist Teachers Trade Union of Cameroon (BATTUC), Semma Valentine of Teachers Association of Cameroon (TAC), a representative of the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union (CATTU), Afu Stephens Kwah of the Presbyterian Education Authority Teachers Trade Union (PEATTU), Michael Kimjon of the Catholic Education Workers Trade Union (CEWOTU).
Welcoming the Anglophone Teachers Trade Unionists at the meeting, Higher Education Minister and Chancellor of Academic Orders, Jacques Fame Ndongo described their decision to join as a “patriotic fervor” exhorting them to be part of current dynamism generated by government towards the entire educational community and to all “men of good faith” with a view to finally come out of the crisis.
Before the start of the close working session with members, Minister Fame Ndongo briefly reviewed the preoccupying situation in the North West and South West Regions.
In a chat with The SUN, the National President of the Syndicate of Contract Teachers in Cameroon (SYNAEEPCAM), Etchu Daniel Ojong explained that “our closed door discussion focused mainly on finalizing preparations towards the National Forum on Education which will hold this year. We examined and adopted different working documents pending amendments to be taken into account such as terms of reference of the forum, its budget, mission statements/guides lines of the technical committee, terms of reference and the arête bearing the creation and organization of the 2017 national forum on education.”