Government Responds to Questions on Civil Servants’ Status in National Education Department

Responding to questions from journalists during a joint press briefing with the Minister Delegate in charge of Relations with Parliament, government spokesperson, Mustapha Baitas, at the end of the weekly meeting of the Government Council, Mr. Benmoussa said affirmed that the status of civil servants of the Department of National Education determines the rights and obligations, meets the expectations of civil servants in the sector and settles a certain number of files.

This status opens the way to the evaluation and revision of certain essential points, through implementing texts, so as to remove any ambiguity and preserve the rights of teachers, he explained.

Denying any increase in working hours or workloads assigned to the teaching staff, the minister specified that the statute regulates, by decree, compensation for the correction of exam copies, considered as an additional burden, with the aim of devoting transparency and guarantee the rights of teachers, stressing that his department intends to increase the amount of this compensation. Regarding the strikes carried out in recent days within the sector, Mr. Benmoussa said that 96 thousand National Education civil servants participated in this Thursday’s strike, or 30% of the staff, affirming that his department takes into account consider these protests and work to increase communication actions aimed at employees in the sector. On the other hand, the government official wanted to clarify that the statute, which defines the rights and obligations of everyone with a view to serving the supreme interest of the student, represents a stage in the process of reform and to upgrade public schools, noting that this reform is part of the commitments made by the government in order to restore confidence in public schools.

These commitments concern, first and foremost, the student who is at the center of the education system, and the teacher who is a key actor, he argued, recalling that the status is the result of an approach participatory which gave rise to the agreement of January 14, 2023.