Story, Louvier Kindo Tombe
The objective of the General Assembly of the National Trade union of Founders of Lay Private and Professional Training Schools (SYNAFESPLA) was to evaluate the part covered so far in the sector of lay private education in Cameroon, and map out the way forward.
“It is about the common interest of lay private school institutions in Cameroon that we are gathered here today,” says Ngwa Divine Fuhnui, Vice President of SYNAFESPLA.
During the General Assembly, members of the association brainstormed and identified the different obstacles faced by lay private schools and their proprietors in Cameroon viz-a-viz the judiciary and other aspects.
Matters of subvention, taxation, labour, trade and many other cultural activities around the education sector in Cameroon were duly examined especially those that targets private schools.
“We have discovered that there is some discrimination of some stakeholders of education in the country. The way private schools are treated is not the same way mission and public schools are treated,” Ngwa Divine told News Upfront.
“We are doing the same function.”
The National Trade union of Founders of Lay Private and Professional Training Schools (SYNAFESPLA) noted the government which is their principal partner has changed the way they used to consider lay private schools.
“We are on the line of social life in Cameroon but we have discovered that the government now considers us as commercial entities,” says the VP of the association.
“It is different from carrying out a social duty to the state.”
By this analysis, the proprietors are sending a string message to the state of Cameroon that they are partners of the state. “We want to accompany the state to achieve its goals in the education sector for its children”, Ngwa Divine added.
SYNAFESPLA in figures
The General Assembly that came in at the start of the new school year also served as an avenue to better prepare lay private schools to face the academic year positively.
A balance sheet of the National Trade union of Founders of Lay Private and Professional Training Schools (SYNAFESPLA) indicates that there are about 650 lay private schools across the national territory amounting to about 20% of schools in the country.
“The lay private education sector has become one through which we will achieve nationwide prosperity,” says François WAGUE, National President of SYNAFESPLA.
“We want to position ourselves as a motor of economic development in the country.”
The lay private schools employ about 75,000 persons in the different schools with a student population of one million five hundred thousand.
The General Assembly has come and gone, SYNAFESPLA is now planning to multiply correspondences to the government and the powers that be for a fruitful collaboration and dialogue to see how to collectively address the situation.
“One of the correspondence will be a Memorandum of Understanding to be forwarded to the Prime Minister in the days ahead,” François WAGUE said.
