Education: Fears of being fired, training concerns break the teachers’ protest

Response to the strike that was called by Education Syndicates “CNAPEST” and “UNPEF””Alsnabast”, varied on the second day, from city to another and from School to another as well.

Total percentage of the strike, according to the Ministry of National Education, did not exceed 9.3%, as a large number of professors and teachers joined their departments, especially in Algiers.

CNAPEST and UNPEF protest movement noticed a small response compared to the response rate, which was recorded in the strikes, as various Educational Institutions, including primary, middle and high schools, noticed the reluctance of teachers to participate in the strike, because of three key factors, the first is directly related to the anger of professors and dissatisfaction from the repeated protest movements that have not achieved their demands, and which become no longer a means of pressurizing the Education Ministry, especially after is became hard to compensate the missed lessons, during the holidays and during the days of rest; and the second because many primary schools’ teachers and professors of basic education joined training at the level of the University of the Ongoing Training, which began days before the start of the strike, ie, on 25 January, on the grounds that this training session is their only and final chance, which will “upgrade” them to the higher ranks, as teachers for primary education and professors of middle schools, as they preferred “training” to be upgraded instead of participating in the protest movement. The third reason relates to referring many professors to retirement, and thus compensating them with new professors, as most of them refused to participate in the strike, fearing for their jobs.

For its part, CNAPEST asserted that the response rate for the strike on the second day, had reached 65% at the national level, ranging between 40 and 90%.

“Sector’s employees have responded to the protest movement across the 48 Wilayas, reversing ratios that were provided by the the ministry about the strike rates, that fall within the framework of a policy of escaping forward. At a time when it renewed confirmation that the best solution lies in the intervention of the Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal to find a solution as soon as possible, because any delay in providing lessons is difficult to be remedied, especially as we are in the second semester.