Teachers of the Anglo-Saxon system of education grouped under the canopy of the All Anglophone Teachers’ Trade Union have fired another missive to the Prime Minister on what they termed “the destruction of the Cameroon General Certificate of Education (GCE) Board.”

The two-page memo signed by officials of the various teachers associations viz: CATTU, PEATTU, CEWOTU, BATTUC and TAC, was sent to Philemon Yang, barely four months after the teachers first raised an alarm on the issue.

The teachers in the memo said the appointments of officials at the Board are carried out in violation of statutes of the Board.

The teachers expressed disappointment that their first memo to the PM on the issue was snubbed.

As if that was not enough, the trade unionists said the appointment and the commissioning of a Deputy Registrar of Technical Affairs at the Board, shortly after their last complaint was the height of insults.
“We heard about the appointment and installation of a Deputy Registrar of Technical Affairs-still without bother about the Board Council meeting to decide as proper procedure dictates. We were shocked that a circular signed by the erstwhile Minister of Secondary Education No. 346/18/MINESEC/SG on February 9, 2018, instructed Regional Delegates in the North West and South West Regions to designate teacher and parent representatives to the Cameroon GCE Board Council. Despite our recent warning against administrative influence peddling, another move from all indication, ultra vires and a display of defiant administrative high handedness, was taken. The fact that this administrative note studiously avoids the word “elect” is particularly noxiously ominous; this probably explains why the designation, especially in the Northwest, took the form of hurried, stealthy, exclusive business, with a tailored electoral college. These trade Unions and the Union of Parents and Teachers Association UPTA, clearly constitute very important teacher and parent representatives, were studiously sidelined,” the teachers stated.

The teachers frowned at the organisation of the 2018 GCE examinations; which they said, is a breakaway from the traditional pre-examination processes in which the whole country partake and warned about the possibility of calamitous failure.

The Teachers beseeched the Prime Minister to, as a matter of urgency, halt what they termed “these unwelcome happenings at the GCE Board and redress the haemorrhage before it is too late.”