Commission assesses lay private basic education

The South West Regional Commission for Private Basic Education sat on June 30, 2016, in Regional Delegation for Basic Education.

The objective was to assess private schools' respect of ministerial decisions, syllabuses and if subventions distributed to them reached the right quarters.

The Regional Delegate for Basic Education, Motaze Telelen Dorothy, said the challenges for the 2015/2016 academic year included unqualified teachers, payment of staff salaries and functioning of unauthorised schools.

She praised the performance of private schools in examinations, saying they did better than public schools. The Delegate stressed the need for teachers to be paid regularly and teaching material provided on time.

Motaze Telelen Dorothy said since she took office, she noticed that the level of collaboration between her and private schools needed to be worked on in the area of FENASCO games, strict respect of official school calendar and the recruitment of qualified teachers.

She outlined some problems to be trashed out such as inadequate school facilities, the absence of Education Secretaries, seminars, meetings and the non-respect of official closing dates.

She said they had carried out a census of illegal schools that will be forwarded to Yaounde.

She added that the Minister of Basic Education was expected to publish the list of schools authorised to operate in the 2016/2017 by this August.

Most Education Secretaries were absent and sent only representatives. The Secretary for Islamic Education, Matanga Hamza, said they had four schools in Meme and Fako Divisions.

He said their education was trilingual - in English, French and Arabic. Matanga Hamza said they still had problems with parents who shy away from sending their children to school, especially girl children.

He said he had done all and was still trying to encourage Moslem men on the importance of Western education.