CI-NEWS

Education sector: Workers suffer temporary unemployment.

2020-06-23

No: 506

Education sector: Workers suffer temporary unemployment.

Recently collated data from the National Institute of Statistics say higher job losses in the last two months have been recorded in the education sector.

The report explains that the shutting down of schools on March 17, as part of the measures unveiled to fight the current Covid-19 pandemic are to blame for the unpleasant statistics. Vincent Mbah, a tutor at a professional school in Yaoundé, said he had been temporarily unemployed for as long as the students stayed home. “When the Prime Minister announced that schools would be shut down, our proprietor took advantage and didn’t even pay us for the month of March. Then the whole of April and May. 1 idled around in the quarters. In fact, I was temporally unemployed at that time,” Vincent Mbah explained. He was one of the happiest persons when the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Joseph Dion Ngute, announced the resumption of schools for June 1, 2020. “Though things are not as buoyant now, but it is better,” he added. Vincent now teachers fewer hours that he normally did before the coronavirus pandemic crept in. He said this is also translated into the amount of money he makes at the end of each day.

The National Institute of Statistics further reports that between April and May 2020, 55 per cent companies operating in Cameroon reduced their staff. The revelation is among the findings made in the first phase of a study to evaluate the economic impact of the pandemic on the local population.

59 per cent of SMEs in the modern sector reduced their staff, some by half. The changes are more evident in some sectors. “It is more pronounced in the education (92%), accommodation (hostels) and catering (71%), mining (76%) and forestry (73%)” domains, the Statistics Institute reported.

The report further adds that some firms rather reduced working hours while others simply postponed their planned activities. According to the data, up to 62 per cent of the firms contacted cut down on working hours.

Salary reductions also featured in some of the measures taken by some firms. “My boss proposed to reduce my salary by half. I evaluated and saw that I would not even be able to get transport money to come to the offices throughout a month, so I opted to be put on a technical leave,” said an anonymous temporarily unemployed worker.

The Statistics Institution reports that 52 per cent of company leaders prefer the lifting of restrictions imposed on economic activities.

Culled from Cameroon Insider

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Education sector: Workers suffer temporary unemployment.