Teachers in Cameroon have gone on a strike in northwest Cameroon, Bamenda. Residents clashed with the police after the teachers’ strike to protest the dominance of Francophone teachers in English schools region reports rfi.
Bamenda is one of the two English speaking regions in the West African country and an opposition strong hold
The teachers have been on strike since Monday joined by thousands of people calling for linguistic specificity in the area
“For years, we try to get the government to respond to our concerns , but without success so far ,” says Wilfred Tassang, the union’s general secretary English-speaking teachers, the Cameroon Teachers’ Trade Union.
“The bottom line is the deployment of French teachers in English schools. The government, because of tribalism and nepotism, has even begun recruiting francophones to teach English in English-speaking children. It’s scandalous, “protests the activist.
According to the activists the 1998 law on education provides for “the two subsystems, English and French, are independent and autonomous”
Witnesses told rfi that there has been heavy deployment of police and military in the area to repress the demonstration that led to the death of two.
According to the Cameroon concord, the Bamenda strike is far beyond teachers strike. It has taken another dimension and other social setbacks are brought forward.
