These teachers have been serving as state agents for years now and they expressed regret that their names were exempted in the current process, just because they are considered "state agents".

In a letter addressed to the Secretary General of the Prime Minister's office, who is in charge of coordinating the recruitment exercise, the teachers said they noticed with dismay that instructions were given to different Vice-Chancellors, to give priority to PhD and Doctorate holders who are not state agents and to candidates from the Diaspora.

" This information is further corroborated by the memorandum of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea, signed on June 25th,2019 which at point 5, states: Preference should be made for unemployed applicants", the petition read.

The group said although they were left out of the 25000 recruitment exercise, they were told government would launch another for them, until the 2000 jobs were announced, only for them to be discriminated upon again.

Stating that they took same concerns severally to the Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo, who has only been comforting them prior to the launching of the current recruitment exercise, which he said was based on merit.

"... We hereby come respectfully to express our astonishment and all our distress because having served the State, cannot be a criterion for our exclusion in this recruitment. On the contrary, this status of State Agents should instead be, in our humble opinion, a proof of our commitment to serve our nation, therefore an added advantage, to be used in our favour", it said.