Teachers’ Complaints: The Virtues Of Dialogue

There is visible mutual understanding between teachers and government, igniting hopes of better days ahead for the entire education family in the country. After years of complaints, accusations and counter-accusations, the two parties appear to be looking at the same direction. Current is seemingly flowing, mutual respect is observable and there is every reason to think that all and sundry have understood that one needs the other in the much-needed partnership in bringing up well equipped and responsible youngsters for today and tomorrow.
After complaints and strikes over what teachers, through their respective trade unions, qualified as shabby treatment from government; ranging from unclear career profile, unpaid advancements and salary arrears among others, the latter swung into action bridging gaps immediately where she could and making promises for actions in the months and years ahead. 
On March 26, 2025, government and teachers’ trade unions held broad-based discussions in Yaounde on how to iron out differences and make their working conditions better; more so, for teaching and learning to be hitch-free.  Nine hours of non-stop discussions involving 27 of the 41 teachers’ trade unions and not fewer than six government Ministers in attendance with others represented, speaks volumes of the intensity of the dialogue. Obviously so as people who are called upon to live and work for common good must have points of divergence. Disagreeing is normal and agreeing, after dialogue, tells of their maturity and desire to evolve.  
There is every reason therefore to think that all the parties had good faith in the discussions as some of the recommendations and their timeframes are already being implemented. For, five days after the Yaounde conclave, the teachers’ trade unionists handed to the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform a draft of their proposals on the much talked about Teachers’ Status. The document, as was reported, contains all that the teachers desire for themselves and the entire education family. Minister Joseph LE of the Public Service and Administrative Reform to whom the document was handed, in the presence of the Dialogue Committee Chairperson, Minister of State Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo, is quoted to have qualified it as positive development in the dialogue. His declaration that, “The document we have just received will enable us to enrich and amplify the Special Status of teachers by incorporating their main concerns. We are therefore going to work quickly so that I can in turn pass on the conclusions to the Commission and to the hierarchy. This is to ensure that things move quickly in the right direction and that everything that happened in the past becomes bad memories and that we all look in the same direction together,” rekindles hope.  For that reason, it is hoped that the mutual goodwill shown thus far will continue with polishing up, signing and rendering operational the Special Status so that the present and future generations of teachers feel fulfilled in their challenging, but noble profession of painstaking bringing up qualified young Cameroonians on the way they should go, so that the country’s development and sustenance can rely on them without any fear. For this, time should not be wasted. In fact, inasmuch as a Status of that nature needs to be meticulously drafted and articulated, wasting so much time might re-ignite impatience in the beneficiaries with all that it entails. Celerity should be carefully employed so that the evolving teachers’-government dialogue should be seen or made to be seen to be making a steading progress.
At least, the promise government made and has kept with the payment of advancement arrears is a pointer that better things can always be achieved when dialogue is frank with both parties showing proof of good faith. In effect, after complaints and strike over unpaid arrears and other emoluments owed teachers by government a couple of years back, discussions were carried out and timelines proposed for the different payments. According to a recent press release by the Minister of Finance, the last contingent of primary and secondary schools teachers who were supposed to be paid advancement arrears for t...