As the stalemate in the Anglophone crisis continues, the Paul Biya government has pre-emptively taken another move aimed at wooing Anglophones dissenters to compromise by launching the recruitment of some “1000 young bilingual Teachers” into the Technical and Scientific field of studies – (whatever that means).
According to a decision signed Thursday, June 22, by the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, Michel Ange Angouing, a copy of which the Cameroon Journal procured, the decision was taken following instructions from the Head of State, Paul Biya, to reduce the deficit in Technical and Scientific Teachers education. Even though the Minister failed to point out that the decision is to appease Anglophones, English-Technical and scientific subjects have been accorded the lion’s share in the allocation of places.In the Technical field, there are 12 English subjects as well as 12 French subjects with a whopping 423 places for English subjects as against 107 for French subjects. In the scientific field, there are 5 English subjects and the same number for French subjects, with 372 places for English subjects and 205 for French subjects. In all, English subjects carry the lion’s share with 795 places against only 205 for French subjects.
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| Anglophone Crisis -- President Paul Biya Woos Anglophones -- Launches Recruitment Of 1000 “Special Bilingual Teachers” |
However juicy it sounds, this may instead aggravate the prevailing situation and give a better case for Southern Cameroons nationalists who have challenged the government to site any school in Cameroon where “bilingual technical and scientific teachers” are trained following a previous statement by the regime that it was posting bilingual teachers to schools across the nation. Moreover, this may just be another political smoke—screen measure meant to appease aggrieved Anglophones. In fact, the move may at the end turn out to favour Francophones more than Anglophones.
It is important for example, to note that when HTTTC Bambili and Kumba were created, they were hailed as messianic decisions to fill the void in Anglo-Saxon Technical education in Cameroon. But it turned out that more and more Francophones are being recruited into the schools in a proportion greater than that of Anglophone students.
It is also worth noting here that if the government is today recruiting more Anglophones than Francophones, it means they have known all along that there was/is an Anglophone problem which they deliberately out of a feeling of superiority complex, failed to acknowledge and apologize to Anglophones for decades.
Only time will tell how this new decision will be implemented as it was already out rightly rejected last year by Teachers’ Trade Unions when it was first brought up.
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