The Right To Education

The last two months have seen some of the most grave concerns and distortion of values and complaints generated by the problems raised by Anglophone Teachers’ Trade Unions and Common Law lawyers. Technical claims which professionals from both key sectors in the country presented to public authorities have suddenly degenerated into political demands that today appear to have as sole trump card the education of young Cameroonians.
Keeping children at home for weeks and months, as the case has been, remains so disturbing that President Paul Biya could not be indifferent as he addressed the country’s youth on 10 February ahead of the 51st Youth Day in Cameroon. The conclusion was clear and simple – “It is also unacceptable to hold the education and future of our children hostage, in the vain hope of pushing through political demands.” For those who may want to know more, the word ‘vain hope’ in the presidential declaration ought to ring a bell because the eventual outcome of having to make children pay the price of any political request can never be good for anyone.  
Given the current dilemma for parents and school children, those who hardly understood what the teachers and lawyers posed as problems have taken the struggle to all directions. An obvious consequence of the derailment could only make a bad situation worse with the long term ‘under-scholarised’ North West and South West Regions and the radicalisation of a youthful population that simply want descent jobs and better living conditions in Cameroon. Parents who only struggled to have their kids educated are today being pushed into a dead end whereby they must think that there is no future for their kids going to school.
Fewer people today, including some being pulled into the fray to defend their Anglophone identity in Cameroon can hardly say at what level the movement got transformed into something else. In addition, those attempting to buy radical positions do not seem to measure the forces that stand in the way of any calls that go beyond the claims by teachers and Common Law lawyers.
Some have gone the extra mile of basing their argument on an eventual blank academic year or more of such calls with the incessant claims that the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, has already declared the school year as null in the country.  Proponents of such theories seem to erroneously think that the government no longer has a say in the functioning of the school system in the country. Yet, they fail to highlight the inherent contra...