Textbook unavailability affects school year in Littoral

The 2015-2016 school year in the Littoral Region has been going on without any major hitches since reopening last September. However, the continuous unavailability of certain textbooks could end up having a devastating impact on school work if measures are not immediately taken to resolve the problem.

With seven weeks already gone into the First Term of the new school year, some textbooks are still unavailable in many bookshops in Douala. These include «Tam Tam Français,» «Science de la Vie et Terre,» (Planète Vivante), «La Philosophie Ngoa Mebara, Ihr und Wir 4+ (Livre d’Allemand),» «Stay Tuned,» «Grammaire du France,» «Nouvelle Géographie,» and «Ordinary Level Mathematics.» Others are «Apostrophe» and «La Grammaire de Français.»

Monkam Rodrigue, manager of a bookshop in Akwa, Douala, explained that local publishers had promised that some of the books were being printed and would be available soon. But seven weeks into the academic year, they are still not available.

“Most parents accuse us of hoarding the books and creating artificial scarcity in order to sell at high prices. Even though we try to make them understand that we are not hoarding textbooks, some still blame us for not having secured them early enough. They do not know that the books are not just available,” he explained.

Ngobe Marie Thérèse, a parent, told Cameroon Tribune in one of the bookshops near Douala Bar that she cannot understand the situation. She questioned the sense in replacing textbooks whereas the availability of new ones in sufficient quantities is not guaranteed.