Clandestine Schools Considered Serious Threat to Education

James Achanyi Fontem
Poverty or the desire for quick gain has led to the propagation of several clandestine institutions throughout the national territory. However, the prevailing situation in Yaounde and Douala  remains alarming as many schools are poorly located and their  campuses  get  flooded  whenever  it rains  heavily.

The Minister of Basic Education, Haman Adama has said her ministry is working hard towards putting an end to the creation of clandestine institutions. Speaking during the Second National Commission on Private Basic Education which held in Yaounde last August 22, she added  that together with her close collaborators, she was digging into the problem with the view of better tackling it eventually.

The theme chosen for the deliberations was ‘Overhauling Private Basic Education and Improving the Teachers’ Working Conditions.” The meeting provided an opportunity for participants to identify the different types of clandestine schools and elaborate strategies to put an end to the wanton creation of clandestine schools in the country.

According to the head of the Judicial Affairs Division at the Ministry of Basic Education, Voundi Voundi, the 2004 Law tends to liberalize the creation of private schools by virtue of a provision that facilitates the process through a simple declaration. The aim of the law was to eliminate several administrative bottlenecks, but even with the process made simple, it is still not being respected by many proprietors of clandestine schools.

Since the law came into force, the government has been slow in establishment an instrument for its implementation and some recalcitrant proprietors have taken advantage to implant their institutions at random, with limited or no authorisation from officials of the Ministry of Basic Education.  Today, the authorities are calling these proprietors to order by instructing them to respect the road map for creating private nursery and primary schools, or be sanctioned.

During the meeting, participants examined various ways of improving on the application of the 2004 Law on the creation of private schools. Emphasis was laid on pedagogy, administrative procedures and measures towards improving the working conditions of teachers of private schools.

The land criterion for establishing a private basic educational institution has been redefined and a proposal for the minimum space required for the creation of an educational institution has been proposed. It takes into consideration parameters such as the type of buildings to be constructed, the geographical location and environmental protection possibilities.

The proprietors and managers of some private basic educational institutions used the opportunity to highlight some of the difficulties related to infrastructural funding limitations.

This is made worse, they say, by the fact that most teachers start their careers in the private schools and are finally recruited by the government, attracted to the public sector as it were, by better working conditions. While government subventions to the lay private schools are too small, parents are becoming handicapped by poverty and are finding it increasingly difficult to pay for their children’s education.

These problems have hindered the effective take off of most private schools in

Cameroon

. Most proprietors and managers, however, lauded the initiative of the government to dialogue with them saying the meeting gave them an opportunity to improve on their pedagogic in puts and administrative procedures.

Evaluating the preparation done before the re-opening of the 2007/2008 academic year, Mrs. Haman Adama said the calendar of activities during the school year was published alongside the approved book lists and training modules for recycling newly employed teachers. Preparatory meetings were held at the central and decentralized levels with the aim of passing on instructions to all head teachers and proprietors of schools.

With this, the minister added that the new school year started against a backdrop of government’s determination to improve the quality of education offered in the country. The minister also announced that about 5.000 teachers will be recruited, amongst them 2000 PTA teachers who will be absorbed by the ministry, while 3500 teachers from training colleges will be integrated into the teaching corps.

Measures were taken to ensure that teachers started work on the 3^rd of September, 2007. The minister warned that teachers or headmasters caught taking money from parents for registration in primary schools,  will be sanctioned in line with the laws enforce.

Within the context of the second objective of the Millennium Development Goals, Minister Adama observed that the government is doing everything to ensure universal access to elementary education by 2015. About 3.435.000 pupils are officially enrolled in different schools this academic year, amongst who are 250.000 pupils of pre-schooling age who are enrolled in the public sector.  This represents a 2.5 percent increase when compared to the over all enrolment during the 2006/2007 Academic year. A total of 85.176 teachers would be responsible for the education of these children.  Amongst this number are 56.332 teachers for government primary schools. Presently, 71.312 classrooms are available in Cameroon and  47.234 of these  classrooms  belong to  government schools.