By Noela Ebob Bisong
As teachers continue to be targeted in restive North West and South West regions of Cameroon, with the most recent case being that of one Mr Wountai, a teacher of Histoire/Geographie of Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) Nitob, who was beheaded, their colleagues elsewhere continue to empathise with them. As such the Cameroon Teachers Indignant Trade Union had programmed a peaceful sitting scheduled for Monday May 27, 2019, as a way of identifying with the shock, trauma, pain and misery most teachers are going through in the conflict-plagued regions of Cameroon.
However, after a meeting with the Ministers of Secondary Education, Prof Pauline Nalova Lyonga and Public Service and Administrative Reforms, Joseph Le, on May 24 in Yaounde, the President of the Cameroon Teachers Indignant Trade Union, Jacques Bessalla said the peaceful sitting initiated to support their colleagues in conflict zones around the country had been cancelled.
According to the president, the peaceful sitting was cancelled because the government through the Ministers of Secondary Education and Public Service and Administrative Reforms gave a listening ear to their plea, and also because the timing for the sitting is not right, as end-of-year examinations are just around the corner.
Speaking shortly after the meeting, Jacques Bessalla acknowledged the inappropriateness of the timing with regards to the said sitting, and called on his colleagues to therefore go about their normal businesses. “We have had very fruitful discussions and things are under control, so there is no need for us to come out, they should go about their businesses”, he said.
The president also revealed that “We have had discussions on cases of teachers working in the North West and South West who are running for their lives every day because bullets are reigning. We’ve also had discussions concerning the special measures put in place by the state to make sure that teachers are protected while at work”, Bessalla said shortly after meeting with the two ministers.
According to him, the Ministers expressed their willingness and readiness to dialogue, adding that they are conscious of all the risks faced by teachers in conflict areas and that the government is leaving no stone unturned to guarantee their security as they serve the nation.
He furthered that “We have received guarantees that those measures are being improved every day, so on the basis of those discussions, we have decided to cancel our call for a peaceful sitting. We are leaving fully satisfied, so much as the doors remain open”.
Nonetheless, while government continues to take time to bring the conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions to an end, teachers continue to pay the ultimate price, for serving the state.