OTS’s one-week strike boycotted by some teachers and schools.

On October 4, 2023, a conglomerate of teachers’ trade unions in Cameroon announced a five-day strike starting on October 9 to protest the poor working conditions and the government’s failure to meet their demands.

According to the communiqué signed by these teachers, the strike was to affect all government schools, and parents were called to keep their children home for nursery, primary, and secondary schools.

Since the majority of the government schools in Douala were open and students were present in classes, MMI was able to conclude from close observation that some schools had decided to boycott the previously announced strike.

After speaking with a number of teachers from various government schools in Douala, it became clear that they believed the one-week strike’s motivation was solely political and personal.

“The OTS movement still stands and our demands are still pressing. Concerning the one-week announced strike, we will not take part in because the motive behind it is purely personal. Mr. Foka is calling on the strike with the intention that the government will call him behind and give him money in order to persuade him to convince teachers to abandon the strike” Julius Ngwa from a government school in Douala told us.

“We know what we are demanding. The movement is not over, though we go to school daily together with students; we are not teaching. We will not touch the chalk until our demands are met,” he added.

“We do not need anyone to come direct us on how to table our demands. The communique calling for a one-week strike will not be respected by my teachers. Only those who signed it know the reasons behind it. As for us, we will keep coming to school but no teaching will be done,” said a government secondary school principal who chose to go anonymous.

Worthy of note is that the OTS movement started last year (2022) and became more intense this 2023 academic year, which has so far disrupted school programs with many students left on their own.

For weeks now, government teachers belonging to the OTS pressure group have been making demands from the government.

Among these demands are the implementation of a new salary scale for teachers, the payment of arrears in salaries and allowances, the improvement of working conditions in schools, and the recruitment of more teachers.

They claim that the government has failed to attend to their grievances, despite several rounds of negotiations with the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union (CATTU).

The strike has been more effective in regions not affected by the crisis because many schools in the South West and North West regions are not functioning and few who function continue to observe the traditional ghost Monday.