Walid Hussein wrote in Al-Modon:
Despite the attempts of the Minister of Education, Abbas al-Halabi, to open the doors of schools through pressure on their principals, in light of the teachers’ associations’ strike, the strike will continue next week. Accordingly, schools enter the seventh consecutive week in the closing phase. The emergency meetings that Al-Halabi asked the principals of secondary education, Khaled Al-Fayed, and the primary, George Daoud, to hold with the school principals, were not completed. Rather, it stopped and did not bring any significant results, despite the warnings that the two principals conveyed to the school principals. As for some school principals resorting to inviting teachers, especially contractors, to come to their schools next Monday to return to teaching students, they will not succeed in turn due to the regularity of the school year, in light of the declared strike by teachers’ associations, and the categorical refusal of teachers to return to education before improving conditions. their living.
Wishful language, not threatening
The Minister of Education, Abbas al-Halabi, attempted to re-launch the school year by force, instructing the directorates of secondary and primary education to inform the principals to open the doors of their schools, as they have moral authority over the teachers. But meetings with managers are not completed because they are useless. Even the director of secondary education, Khaled Al-Fayed (Future Movement), conveyed the minister’s threats to merge high schools next year, and to make the principals principals and teachers, in the form of wishing and not threatening, the sources say. She adds that Al-Fayed put the managers in charge of what is happening on the ground after the decline in the number of high school students from 80,000 students to 60,000. It is expected that the number will drop to forty thousand next year, which necessitates the merging of high schools. But as a director of education, he cannot use explicit threatening language in the current circumstances that the directors are living in, just like the teachers. And while sources indicate that the minister blamed Al-Fayed for not using force with the principals, given that the Future Movement is not enthusiastic about resuming education in public schools at the present time, other sources indicate that the minister did not want to use force in the first place, neither with the principals nor Professors.
The “future” is on the bank of the river
The sources add that the Future Movement has lost great popularity among the teachers, and the matter has reached the point of the resignation of the head of the Secondary Association, Kings Mehrez. Professors and members of the association blamed her for appeasing the Minister of Education. However, after her resignation, things did not go well in the association, and the professors did not achieve any demand.
Al-Mustaqbal lost his popularity to please the Minister of Education and the Prime Minister, while his teachers blamed him. In addition, the partisan control over the teachers’ associations has become for the Shiites, while one of them is supposed to be for the Sunnis, and the professional education association for the Christians, according to the customs followed. Currently, the Basic Education League is headed by Hussein Jawad (Amal Movement) and the Secondary Education League is spoken and negotiated on its behalf by Vice President Haider Ismail (Hezbollah). Therefore, it is natural that teachers loyal to the Future Movement are not enthusiastic about returning to schools, after receiving these blows, and burdening their movement with the burden of defaming teachers and being indifferent to their rights. The Future Movement preferred to sit on the bank of the river, awaiting the end of the bidding stage by some members of the teachers’ associations, and threw the ball in their court to avert the teachers’ wrath. He watches the contradictions between the secondary and primary ties: Jawad tends to return to opening schools, while Ismail wants to continue the strike.
Full time and make up for absence
According to the sources, next week the teachers’ associations will hold meetings with those concerned to find out the trends and if they really want to save the school year. The Minister of Education, Abbas al-Halabi, had previously pledged to the associations to make his calculations to pay $125 per month to teachers for the remaining months of the academic year. He received a promise from Prime Minister Najib Mikati to approve a transportation allowance of five liters of petrol for each working day. However, the meeting with the Leagues did not reach an agreement on a unified formula, so the Leagues postponed presenting any offer to the professors officially to seek their opinion. The Minister of Education insisted on full-time payment of the $125 (16 days to compensate for the days of absence to finish the curricula), while the associations want to link them not to full-time, but to regular attendance days. For example, the actual teaching days in April are limited to eight days.
Put sticks in wheels
The sources indicate that the meeting of the Ministerial Committee, last Thursday, was postponed for unknown reasons, while the committee was supposed to approve the liters of gasoline. Which means that some people do not want to achieve this simple requirement, or aspire to reduce the number of liters. As if some of these people want the professors to bow down, even without securing the slightest ingredients. Al-Mikati had previously agreed to give the teachers five liters of petrol, although the associations demanded six liters. However, after accepting the links with five liters of petrol, some seem to want to back away from it. The professors’ experience with the prime minister is bitter in this regard.
According to the sources, there are those who put sticks in the wheels and do not want to search for any solution, but rather go to more aggravation. Otherwise, a solution could have been found after the links meeting with the Minister of Education. The meeting presented a number of solutions that he was supposed to work on, so that they became fixed proposals that could be directed to the professors for a referendum. However, the rise in the exchange rate of the dollar, to unprecedented levels, complicates the possibility of offering any solution that might satisfy the professors.
