A round up of media reports on some of the industrial action during the months of July, August and September.
Tag: strikes
Students and teachers alike skip first day of school
From the Daily News Egypt:
The new academic year got off on the wrong foot on Saturday as teachers and students decided to take the day off.
A shortage of school books and lack of preparation at the schools completed the picture, though on the bright side smoothly-flowing traffic put Cairenes relatively at ease.
This is arguably the result of a call by the Kefaya movement to boycott the first day of school, to “make Sept. 20 a day for peaceful protest against policies of humiliation and degradation.”
George Ishaq, founder and former coordinator of the Kefaya movement, considers the strike a success. He sees it as “a response to the worsening situation of the education scene by the failed government policies.”
“The peaceful strike was successful and its effect was notable in the relatively smooth traffic yesterday [Saturday],” Ishaq told Daily News Egypt.
“Elementary students went to school but middle and high school students didn’t go. In addition many teachers didn’t attend the first day of classes in protest at the implementation of the new teachers’ law,” added Ishaq, referring only to public schools.
In related news, the Dessouq teachers’ sit-in was aborted by police intervention, according to Kareem el-Beheiry, while protests and sit-ins were reported in Cairo, Alexandria and the Nile Delta.
University profs say no practical steps taken towards pay-scheme
Sarah Carr reports:
A university professor has said that he has seen “no clear indication” that funds are being allocated to a performance-related pay scheme introduced in June.
“So far there is no clear indication that any money is being given to professors,” Amr El-Darrag, vice-chairman of the Egyptian University Faculty Club — which represents the interests of teaching staff in the absence of a union — told Daily News Egypt.
“The scheme is meant to begin in October but no practical steps have been taken towards this,” El-Darrag continued.
Laila Soueif, a professor of mathematics confirmed this.
“Within my department at Cairo University we haven’t even received the papers concerning the scheme,” she said.
“Even assistants — who were promised pay increases in the form of a sort of research grant — haven’t been paid these raises, which they were meant to receive in July and August,” Soueif continued.
In June the Supreme Council of Universities (SCU), a governmental body made up of university presidents and the Minister of Higher Education presented a draft of an elective scheme under which teaching staff who satisfy certain conditions receive increases in pay.
The scheme was heavily criticized by the club, which is calling for across the board improvements in pay and conditions.
On March 23, professors launched a historic one-day strike with members of the University Autonomy Group, reporting high turnout throughout Egyptian universities.
Popularly known as the March 9 Movement, the group of Cairo University professors presses for university autonomy and academic freedom.
The strike came just days after Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif rejected teaching staff’s demands for across-the-board pay rises. He instead offered them wage increases in the form of allowances, and encouraged them to apply for the performance-related pay scheme.