Tunisian secondary education union threatens national strike

Lasâad Yacoubi wants a reduction in working hours and retirement age to be 55 instead of 60 Tunis – Azhar Jarboui Tunisia's General Syndicate for Secondary Education will go on strike on February 19 unless their demands are met, syndicate chief Lasâad Yacoubi has told Arabstoday. Yacoubi said the strike will be a result of Education Minister Abdellatif Abid's "failure to control problems, such as the proliferation of alcohol and drugs in schools." The labour leader also criticised the minister for his failure to provide educational establishments with the necessary protection from the rising violence.
"The government has not told the Tunisian public the truth about threats facing educational establishments which have become an arena of violence, crime, drugs, alcohol and smoking addiction," Yacoubi said.
"Educational establishments are facing their destiny alone in the face of the absence of security and the lack of a clear strategy for their protection and development," he said, warning that such establishments may "fall prey to extreme ideological and political polarisation now that leaflets on Jihad and takfir are being distributed on school premises, infiltrating children's fragile mental and psychological make-up."
Yacoubi also slammed the "absence" of the government and the Ministry of Education as "the Tunisian flag is subjected to repeated assault after extremist Salafist groups have taken to breaking into schools and taking it down, raising the black banner of Jihad in its place." He added: "Education syndicates alone are fighting to protect the national colours and to stop this dangerous haemorrhaging."
Yacoubi said that the rise in drugs and violence is partly down to the absence of "alternative cultural," sporting and entertainment spaces aimed at young people, where they can release their energy and creativity. "This causes them to head to the street instead, falling victim to delinquency, crime and extremist groups."
He proposed that security patrol be launched to monitor educational facilities, sending a warning message to "anyone who is thinking of targeting the future of Tunisia's children."
Criticising Abid's performance, Yacoubi said: "He has failed to implement all policies since he took over the brief, such as securing schools and colleges, protecting exams and adopting any strategy worth mentioning to reform educational curricula and programmes." He asked "How could a minister of education discharge his duties successfully when he has been in office for a year-and-a-half and has not bothered to visit one single school?"
The syndicate chief also said that the Syndicate for Secondary Education's administrative body operating under the Tunisian General Labour Union [UGTT, the country's largest workers' umbrella group] has decided to go on a "warning strike" in all Tunisian middle schools and institutions. They will also hold a protest vigil on February 7 at Government Square in the Kasbah district in Tunis.
Teachers will also run and correct the end-of-year exams but will abstain from handing the final results in to the administrative authorities "should the ministry continue to stall in response to the educators' demands."
Yacoubi said that "these decisions were made only after having exhausted all consensual resolutions with the ministry," stressing that teachers "are prepared for all forms of escalation should their demands not be met by the ministry."
Commenting on remarks by the Minister of Higher Education in which the latter said that the syndicate's demands were "extravagant" and "could finance jobs for 16,000 unemployed university graduates," Yacoubi said "the syndicate is willing to relinquish its demands if the minister vows to employ 16,000 teachers and professors."
Yacoubi reiterated his demands by saying, "Tunisian teachers are calling for a reduction in working hours and bringing the retirement age down to 55 instead of 60." These demands, he noted, would make 10,000 jobs available in 2013 and will also ensure employment for 25,000 university graduates over the next three years.
Yacoubi revealed that the government "refused to adopt a 150-dinar hardship allowance over three years" and this policy has "purposefully enabled other ministries to offer even larger allowances, such as in the case of the Ministry of Higher Education."
The labour activist added: "Improving the standard of education and combating private tutelage can only happen by improving the financial conditions of Tunisian educational cadre, which is now suffering from impoverishment and marginalisation in light of the extreme rise in prices and living expenses. This is why teachers resort to private tutelage, to augment their monthly incomes and cover their living expenses."