Pedagogy: State Plans to Pay Part of FCFA 181 Billion Debt Owed Teachers

According to reports, the sum of FCFA 31 Billion has been provided by the 2022 finance bill to be released to the Ministry of Finance for part of the settlement owed to Secondary School teachers.

This information was disclosed during an inter-ministerial ad hoc committee meeting in Yaoundé set up to discuss the problems faced by teachers in their careers and salary procedure.

Some teachers’ trade unions like the CEIC (Collectif des enseignants indignés du Cameroun) have come out to criticize the move, arguing that the sum reserved to settle part of the debt is however very insignificant compared to the debt owed, FCFA 181 Billion.

Nevertheless, there still appears to be a disparity between the teachers and the Finance ministry. Some sources believe the debt stands at not more than FCFA 121 Billion.

These disparities are believed to have stemmed from the number of pending career-related files before the competent authorities.

According to CEIC, 21,000 integration, 98,000 promotions, and 39,000 miscellaneous career-related files were pending and awaiting processing, summing up to 158,000 files to be processed.

However, according to a letter sent by the Secretary-General to the Prime Minister’s office at the ad hoc committee, just over 148,000 files were awaiting processing.

The Ministry of Secondary Education however reveals that over 43,000 promotion files have already been processed.