George Esunge Fominyen
Today 5th October is World Teachers' Day. In Cameroon, it is a day of celebration. Usually there is a special loin for teachers, there are parades all around the country, teachers' unions make statements, government officials make promises and the media buzzes with stories about teachers'. I am currently in Bamako the capital of Mali. This morning I walked the streets to see if the atmosphere would be same. Not quite - is the least I could say. Consequently, I spent the rest of the time reminiscing the struggles in the daily lives of teachers (in Cameroon) that I witnessed in my years of covering education news. Some of them could be seen in the comment I wrote for the radio news magazine - Cameroon Calling on the occasion of World Teachers' Day in 2003. The theme that year was: "Teachers and the Fight Against Poverty". I wonder whether the situation of teachers in Cameroon has improved since then...
Transcript of a news comment on Cameroon Calling of 5 October 2003:
Marie Correlli in her novel:The Sorrows of Satan writes: "Do you know what it is to be poor? Downright hideously poor with a poverty that is graceless, sordid and miserable? A poverty that compels you to dress in your one suit of clothes till it is worn threadbare. Poverty that robs you of your own self respect, and causes the oral cancer that eats into the heart of an otherwse well-intentioned human creature and makes him envious and malignant..."
The bulk of Cameroonians have been living in such a bitter condition for close to two decades now.
But teachers' who (alongside clerks) were revered as the elite of the ebbing colonial period and the dawn of post-independent Cameroon,seem to think they are the professional corps that fits into Marie Correlli's description of the poor.
Young teachers who go without their salaries for nearly three years after posting and recruitment in the public service particularly identify with the image of threadbare clothing. They argue that their self-respect is watered down in classrooms where students dress and look ten times richer.
Teachers believe that instead of walking erect among their fellow men in independent ease, they have to slink along the streets vaguely regretting their career choice and hoping for greener pasture because of the sluggishness by goverment to improve their menial salaries or regularly pay those of them who are probationary (contract) workers.
When this situation is added to the absence of didactic material, poor school infrastructure many ask if the theme "Teachers and the Fight Against Poverty" is not a provocative play of words.
However, it is clear that one of the initial steps to eradicating poverty is the provision of quality education. For educated young minds can always seek ways to break the barrier of poverty.
But without teachers who can groom and nurture the minds of future leaders, there can't be an effective fight against poverty. The teacher remains the man who taught the pilot, the agriculture engineer, and the private secretary to the Minister who now live above the poverty line.
It is probably to ensure that this image of the of the teacher remains in the minds of the boys who attend St. Joseph's College Sasse, that they are taught to call their teachers "master". Whatever they become:President of the Republic, Prime Minister, General Manager, book-seller, doctor or even journalist ( as this commentator) they would always show respect to the teacher because he can only be called Master.
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