Secondary Education: No-nonsense Minister Nalova goes tough again on absentee teachers.

This follows a release issued Monday October 23 by the member of government, summoning over 1,500 teachers said to have abandoned their various duty posts.

In the release, Minister Nalova Lyonga, instructed the concerned teachers to report to her ministry within a deadline of two weeks to justify their effective presence at work.

“…the Minister of Secondary Education hereby invites the following personnel who have abandoned their various duty posts and are reported to be out of the country, to come to Room 507 bis, within two weeks after the publication of this press release,” partly reads the announcement. 

The summoned teachers going by the release are expected to “come along with their job position mapping forms, duly signed by their respective hierarchy and any other supporting documents to justify their current administrative position”.  

Concerned teachers who fail to respect the instructions, the no-nonsense minister warned, will face “disciplinary measures” that will be “taken against them”. 

Laudable move bearing fruits 

The digital platform which Minister Nalova Lyonga launched, had received across the board applause from Cameroonians.

Many had described the move as the magic wand to end the chronic absenteeism practice that has bedeviled the Secondary Education sector for years. 

Many had said behind-the-scene games hitherto played by administrators and absentee teachers would be a thing of the past with the new system.

The platform, it should be said, was launched amidst repeated complaints of teachers abandoning their duty posts and leaving learners stranded. 

Most teachers who have abandoned their duty posts are reportedly to regularly be seen loitering in towns and cities. Some are said to often be involved in other activities yet are always the first to show up at the banks for their salaries.

Others are known to be living abroad, yet, earning salaries back home for no work done.

Move in right direction

It is not the first time the Minister of Secondary Education is going tough on absentee teachers. In July 2021, Minister Nalova Lyonga published a list of some 600 teachers who had abandoned teaching for greener pastures in Europe, America and other destinations abroad but continued receiving salaries. 

The absentee Secondary School teachers were summoned then to show up at the ministry to justify themselves. 

Among those summoned were over 300 absentee teachers from the crisis-hit North West and South West Regions.

The teachers, it was gathered, had abandoned their duty posts in search of greener pastures abroad. The release had indicated the names, grades, matricule numbers and schools where the concerned were assigned to as well as countries where they could possibly be residing after absconding from their posts.

It was gathered that the runaway teachers who were still receiving their salaries, were fished out during the several headcounts of staff of the Ministry of Secondary Education.

Sweeping reforms by Minister Nalova 

It makes meaning to recall that since her appointment as Minister of Secondary Education in 2018, Prof Nalova Lyonga, has taken a number of sweeping reforms that have put the country’s Secondary Education sector on world stage.

Among other reforms, she is on record to have fought corruption in the Secondary Education milieu through the introduction of digital payment of tuition fees in government schools.

Her Green and Clean School Concept has also been paying off, especially given that most schools are aligning with the initiative. Campuses have since been transformed into clean environments, conducive for learning.

She has equally instilled order in the sector through the prohibition of corporal punishment on campuses. Her decision to abolish the dismissal of students under the excuse that they are pregnant, has also received applause from across the board.