Teachers Unions in Senegal Denounce Delay in Agreement Implementation and Demand Liability Clearance

Teachers’ unions are returning to the charge, to denounce the delay in the materialization of the agreements signed with the government and to demand “the clearance of the liabilities of the agreements”. This is always the crux of the problem in the education sector.

In Senegal, the delay in materializing the agreements signed with the government is still a problem in several sectors. One or two months from the end of the school year, the education sector will experience disruption to classes in the coming days. Failure to respect the agreements signed between the government and the teachers’ unions is still a reason for disruption of classes.

The SAEMSS and the CUSEMS have, in fact, decreed a new action plan to denounce “a quasi immobility with regard to the implementation of the agreements, signed on April 30, 2018 and February 26, 2022”. They require “the settlement of the liabilities of the agreements”. Recently, also, other teachers’ unions had declared strikes to denounce the government’s immobility with regard to the materialization of the agreements relating to the career of teachers and to call on it to speed up the implementation of the protocol of February 26 agreement. In fact, last year, after nearly three months of disruption of classes, because of strikes for the respect of signed agreements and several weeks of tough negotiations, the teachers’ unions and the government of Senegal had reached a agreement for the appeasement of school space, February 26, 2022. This had made it possible to lift the various strike slogans in the national education sector.

As part of improving the level of remuneration of agents in the education and training sector, the government has taken several measures. We can cite, among others, the “revaluation of the school bonus for the benefit of teachers, assistant teachers and contractual teachers at 210% (from 25,000 to 80,000 CFA francs), the increase in the teaching allowance from 50% to 60% , the increase of the control and supervision allowance to 100%”. These measures took effect from May 2022.

“The agreement of Saturday February 26, 2022 has made it possible to make historic progress for teachers of all levels of education and electoral colleges (teachers, professors, inspectors) in terms of remuneration. It was also inclusive and integrated the different functions and positions in the education system, while permanently erasing the deep malaise that negatively impacts the performance of the sector,” the unionists said.