Teachers reject Governments demand to end strike before negotiation

The Executive Secretary of Cameroon Teachers Trade Union, Wilfred TASSANG says the government is trying all it can do frustrate a dialogue process which she instituted, to him the government has no legitimate power to ask them to call off the strike action, “The government did not ask us to call for the strike and so the government cannot ask us to call off the strike.”

To the teachers syndicate, the strike action will only be called off if at least one of the points presented to the Head of Government is fulfilled.

The strike action Mr Tassang said will continue and can even enter another phase if the government fails to act.

The Prime Minister's representative and president of the Ad Hoc committee, Paul Ghogomu who was in Bamenda last week for dialogue urged the teachers to first call off the strike and allow children go to school before dialogue.

But the teachers have expressed fears over the respect of the agreement by government. They suspect the regime might be pushing them to an extreme where they will lose the confidence of the people and the course.

Activities in Schools have been paralyzed since the strike action launched late October. If some primary and secondary schools especially those in interior have ample time to teach, the two state Universities have been shut down with the postponement of their Convocation ceremonies to an unknown date.