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Page 29


NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE


(Photo cpationed: protesters against the Mubarak regime)

(...Continued from page 28) our responsibility,” says Ahmed. “If anything goes wrong, it is deducted from our salaries. Mohamed is an honest, religious man and puts all his efforts into the school performing well. Is it justifiable for 22 years to be paid LE800 (£80) per month? We hope that unions in the UK can come up with proposals to reward teachers for what we do and provide support. Improving working conditions will reward the school, pupils and society. Teachers will devote more time to teaching and will help produce a well-educated generation.

Hope for the future

Since the uprising, the main teacher union has become more proactive and has submitted demands that include:

• granting promotion for all teachers who have fulfilled the criteria for career progression according to rules approved during the last three years but never implemented by the previous government;
• honouring the appropriate remuneration for career progression;
• paying appropriate bonuses agreed by the government in 2008 but never paid;
• changing part-time contracts to permanent contracts where necessary;
• increasing the remuneration for teachers working in remote areas from LE100 to LE300 and increasing the bonuses for teachers involved in administering the various assessment and examination from 5% to 15%;
• uplifting remuneration for the number of days allocated for exams from 200 days at 5% to 400 at 7%;
• revising the constitution of the union and beginning the fair and transparent process of electing a new executive council.

With a new right to express themselves freely, Egyptians have a fresh, bold optimism. The young generation, inspired by their education and teachers such as Ahmed, knows that, with the necessary reform a better future beckons.

(Photo cpationed: a class at Abu Bahr Al Siddiq School, Cairo)


A short film on Tariq Arafa’s Egypt journey can be found at www.nasuwt.org.uk/Egypt.

The NASUWT is working in the UK with the TUC and globally through Education International (EI) to support the development of free trade unions in Egypt after the revolution.



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