Lucrative for School Proprietors, Teachers

Holidays offer opportunities for brisk business through extra classes.Proprietors of mostly private secondary and primary schools make brisk business during holidays. For many, school breaks bring in money through the organisation of extra classes not only for their regular students and pupils in examination classes but also for students from other schools.

According to Muriel Tchuente, administrative staff of the Frazati Educational Complex in the Ahala neighbourhood in Yaounde, told CT on Saturday, April 5, 2014 that while first cycle college students will enjoy their Easter Break unperturbed, paid-holiday classes have been organised throughout the two-week Easter Break period for primary school pupils. During summer holidays, she admitted, holiday classes are also organised for nursery and primary school pupils. Primary pupils pay FCFA 5,000 each while nursery school pupils pay FCFA 7,000 for the classes. Beyond the improved performance impacted by holiday classes, Muriel says her school also has financial objectives. "Of course, we must make money in order to finance the development of the school," she said emphatically.

Not far away in the Damase neighbourhood, some students were seen last Saturday morning working in groups and under the supervision of some teachers. According to Celestin Mbotchak, a Life and Earth Science teacher at the Institut Polyvalent Bilingue des Nations, holiday classes are organised by the school following requests by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). He disclosed that teachers make some money because the PTA pays.

Holiday classes that usually take place in the day do not stop most teachers from setting strategies to earn more money from home classes during normal school days, breaks and holidays. Marbel N. a Mathematics teacher in a government college in Yaounde says she is using the Easter Break to make more money through home teaching. During the school period, she teaches Mathematics to a child in a well-to-do family in the Odza neighbourhood. Teaching six hours a week at FCFA 2500 per hour, she makes a total of FCFA 60,000 a month. However, during this Easter Break, she teaches 12 hours a week and will earn FCFA 120,000 after just two weeks! "During summer holidays, I make even more money from home teaching," she admitted. Other teachers turn their homes into classrooms to teach as many children in the neighbourhood and make money.