Higher Education Minister, Jacques Fame Ndongo, on December 13, scolded a delegation from the Cameroon Teachers’ Trade Union, CATTU, and the Teachers Association of Cameroon, TAC, for crying out against the “systematic genocide on Anglo-Saxon education”.

Fame Ndongo wondered, at Ayaba Hotel in Bamenda, whether the secondary school teachers’ union wanted to change the Constitution of Cameroon which states that the nation is bilingual.

According to the Minister, any Cameroonian can teach anywhere in any language. To him, a system of education is not about languages.

CATTU Executive Secretary General, Wilfred Tassang, said after what he described as acrimonious exchanges, Fame Ndongo concluded that the problem did not concern his Ministry alone and suggested that an inter-ministerial commission be created to examine the matters raised.

In the presence of Northwest Governor, Lele L’Afrique, the out-going and incoming Vice Chancellors of the University of Bamenda and some senior officials from the Ministry of Higher Education, the teachers’ trade unions treated the Minister to the “marginalisation and deliberate destruction of a people’s heritage; the much-cherished Anglo-Saxon educational system.”

In a press release jointly issued by CATTU and TAC on December 13, 2015, the teachers wonder whether; “Anglophones had become so dull and foolish that Yaounde has to resort to recruiting and training Francophones in English Modern Letters in the Higher Teachers’ Training College Bambili to teach them (Anglophones) English language.”

Among the grievances tabled by the trade unions were disturbing statistics of permanent lecturers for the 2014/2015 academic year at the Higher Teachers Training College (ENS) Bambili.

According to the statistics, the Department of Bilingual Letters has no Anglophone lecturer, whereas there are seven Francophone lecturers.

Another subject with no Anglophone lecturer is Physics, with four Francophones; Biology and Chemistry has two Anglophones each, with five and four Francophone teachers, respectively and many more.

Where Anglophones are favoured is in Science of Education with three Anglophones lecturers and one Francophone.

The trade unions say the provocative Francophonisation of the training schools in the Anglo-Saxon University of Bamenda, UBa, must stop. They say the negative backlash effect which this Francophonisation has on the teaching practising schools, as well as the posting of Francophone teachers who teach in Pidgin and in French to English sub-systems must equally stop.

The leaders of CATTU and TAC, Valentine Tameh Nfon and Wilfred Tassang, respectively, stated, unequivocally, in their declaration that if Anglophones do not rise up as one man now, the English-speaking sub-system of education is on the brink of extinction in Cameroon, despite the existence of laws designed to protect and preserve it.

“The same covert and overt moves which destroyed Anglophone technical education in Ombe in the Southwest Region have now shamelessly and overtly begun with general education. God forbid,” the trade unions’ release concludes.

The trade unions resolved that, henceforth, they will no longer stand back and idly watch this heinous destruction of a cultural heritage held by their people as sacrosanct.

Dissatisfied with the “provocative” declarations by the Minister of Higher Education, the teachers’ trade unions issued a release calling on schools to boycott next term.

The release reads; “Unconvinced by the Minister and the Government’s lack of commitment to solve these problems for five years running, CATTU and TAC have written to the Government through the Governor of the Northwest Region that teachers and students in Mezam Division and subsequently the entire Anglophone Cameroon will observe a boycott of classes next term, beginning January 2016. In this regard, the unions have signed a declaration addressed to parents, teachers and students asking them to join the struggle, each in their domain”.