By Tata Mbunwe
Some secondary school teachers in the South West region have petitioned the South west Regional Delegate for Secondary Education, Dr Hannah Etonde Mbua, claiming their transport allowances have not been paid for the past four years .
The petitioners say they graduated from ENS Maroua in 2018 and since they started teaching, their transport allowances have never been paid.
In a letter dated March 31 and reportedly done in Buea, the teachers claim they are yet to be granted transport allowances that are usually granted newly posted government teachers. Meanwhile, they said, their colleagues who graduated in the same year from other training schools like ENS Bambili, HTTTC Kumba and ENSET Yaounde have been granted these allowances.
“Since that date, we the graduates of ENS Maroua have never received that money, which is an absolute right for all newly assigned teachers,” wrote the teachers in the petition.
“We state here as fact that you have chosen to pay the other schools while forgetting the winners of ENS Maroua. We thereby come by this open letter to ask for the payment of our relief allowance; which is pending for four years now,” they added.
The teachers further wrote that they are “tired of the many failed appointments” the delegation has given them in the past and, if the current appeal fails to fulfill their desires, they will write to the Minister of Secondary Education, Prof Nalova Lyonga.
“If ever after receiving this letter nothing is done, we will simply and purely complain to the Ministry through a letter of denunciation which will be deposited at the mail service,” the teachers wrote.
The teachers are raising this concern barely one week after some teachers in parts of the French-speaking regions suspended a month-long strike action meant to demand the payment of their dues and bonuses.