The OTS and OTA movements and the Cameroon Teachers’ Union for Africa (SECA) are planning to step up their demands at the start of the new school year.

The reason, they say, is that they have given the government enough time to implement the presidential directives of  March 9, 2022. These directives require an effective response to the demands of the teachers. However, more than a year later, the teachers are still finding that the members of the government concerned have “flouted” these instructions from the Head of State, and as the start of the new school year upcoming September 4 for the 2023-2024, they are preparing to go on strike.

Behind the scenes, we learn that they have once again sent their new demands to authorities, based on the limits of implementing the presidential instructions observed in the government’s response. These demands relate to the processing of teachers’ integration files, teachers’ careers, the assumption of financial responsibility for the payment of salary components, the reform of the Cameroonian education system, and so on.

According to the teachers, the measures announced by the ministries involved in implementing the instructions of President Paul Biya have not fulfilled their promises, despite the announcements and explanations made to the public through the media. On the whole, threats of strike action by teachers have become a regular feature, occurring at the start of the school year as well as at the start of the 2022-2023 academic year, when classes resume after the holidays, and in the lead-up to official examinations. But more often than not they remain threats, calls for strikes that are not carried out.