Syndicate Wars with Clandestine Schools

In a press conference held on August 15,141 primary and nursery schools and 36 colleges were said to be operating illegally in Littoral.

The President of the Syndicate in charge of privately owned schools and colleges in Douala, André Tchoualeu, has called on the government to close down schools which have been operating illegally or regulate their documents. He said if Government does not do it the syndicates will mobilise and ensure that it is done. The president said the law gives the syndicate the right to take any owner of an establishment operating illegally to court and such a person can spend up to five years of imprisonment. “If the government takes no action the syndicate will protest and go to court.” said Tchoualeu.
The president stated that in the whole of littoral there are about 177 institutions which are operating illegally. This he explained is in three categories. There are some schools which do not have documents registered with the government, there are some which have registered but have not yet been given the authorisation to begin, while there are others with fake documents. Giving the statistics, he said as a whole, Douala has 158 schools out of which 128 are under basic education and 30 under secondary education which are illegal. In the Mungo they are 17, seven of which are primary and nursery schools while six are secondary schools and in Sanaga Maritime, there are six. He further differentiated them in terms of categories, stating that there are 85 primary and nursery schools in Douala III, IV, V and five in Sanaga Maritime and four in the Mungo which are operating without documents. For Secondary schools he said there are 18 in Douala I, III, IV, and V, and in the Mungo there are four. For those operating with papers but without a go ahead, there are 39 in Douala III,IV,V, one in Sanaga Maritime and three in the Mungo while for secondary schools there are 12 in Douala III, IV, V and two in the Mungo.
According to the President it is not only the documents which matter but also the school infrastructure. He gave an example of a primary school somewhere in Madagascar in Douala where he said the “pupils were stocked in class, as if in a tin of sardine”. He said there are some where the children will have to cross funny hanging bridges where they can easily fall and harm themselves, before getting to their classrooms. He also condemns schools situated in swampy areas All these must be looked into and corrected, said he. In other to remedy the situation, Tchoualeu said from this week they are going to paste a list of all authorised schools in every authorised school so that parents will verify when they go to register their children to make sure that school is on the list. “We want to limit registration in these clandestine schools, so that parents do not get embarrassed in the mid school year when the school is shut down.
Finally he called on Government to ensure that schools which were shut down but forcefully re-opened without meeting the conditions on the grounds that they wanted students to write public exams should not be allowed to register students for public exams.

EFFA TAMBENKONGHO