Tuesday, March 19, 2024
HomeNEWSIRAN NEWSTeachers across Iran resume strikes, protests

Teachers across Iran resume strikes, protests

Teachers in dozens of cities across Iran went on strikes and held protests in schools on Saturday, January 29, reiterating demands they’ve been making for years. The implementation of the “classification plan,” which is supposed to reorganize their wages is one of the protesting teachers’ main demands.

They are also demanding the adjustment of pensions for retired teachers based on growing inflation and prices of basic goods.

The regime’s Majlis (parliament) recently approved a budget that only meets a fraction of the needs of hundreds of thousands of teachers. The teachers are also seeking the release of their colleagues who have been arrested for organizing protests. The banners held by the protesting teachers today read:

“We’ve seen no justice”
“Teachers don’t belong in prison”
“Seeking rights is not a crime”

The gatherings include both active and retired teachers, who have been hit hard by an economic downturn and the regime’s dithering in passing laws and allocating budgets to improve their conditions.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has long praised the Iranian teachers for showing that they “will not back down despite the clerical regime’s deceptive plans, threats, & suppressive measures. The teachers’ movement will carry on until their demands are met.”

Mrs. Rajavi has also said that the teachers’ movement reflects the “determination of the general Iranian public to overthrow the clerical regime that is the main cause of oppression, corruption, poverty, unemployment, and poverty” and called on students and youth to join the teachers in their protests.

Last month, the Majlis passed the “Teachers Ranking” bill, which is supposed to address many of the problems the teachers have been faced within recent years.

According to the bill, teachers will be classified according to “general, specialized and professional qualifications, experience, and competitive function” and will be divided into five rankings. Salaries will be determined based on the ranking of the teachers.

While the regime has boasted about the bill and its achievements, Iranian teachers are calling out the regime for not addressing their needs.

The Iranian Teachers Coordination Council called the bill deceitful and unacceptable and declared that the government has warned that it won’t even implement this flawed plan in the current Persian year, which will continue until March 2022.

According to the bill, a total of 250 trillion rials will be allocated to around 734,000 teachers across Iran in the coming Persian year, starting in March 2022. But it doesn’t consider the tens of thousands of tutors who are working on unofficial contracts because the education ministry refuses to hire them despite having passed its test.

However, after the bill was passed, Hossein Arab Assadi, the deputy of the Employment Affairs Organization, said, “There’s no funding to implement the law in the current year and the government has no credit for the year 1400 [March 2021-March 2022].”

Majlis Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had previously declared that the Majlis cannot change the 250 trillion-rial budget allocated to this plan per year.

The teachers had held nationwide protests rallies in early- and mid-December.

The regime has tried to intimidate the teachers by describing their rallies as a “security threat” and paving the way for their repression.

On December 15, the state-run Keyhan newspaper warned that the rallies are being carried away and controlled by the “enemies of the state.”

Meanwhile, Javan newspaper, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), tried to downplay the teacher’s demands and complained that 72 percent of the education budget increase has been allocated to the teachers. “Instead of allocating our credit to expand the education system and increase the quality of education, we are spending it on salaries,” the newspaper wrote.

Ironically, Javan makes no mention of the budget of its owner, the IRGC, which has seen a 240-percent year-over-year increase to spend billions of dollars on foreign terrorism, ballistic missiles, internet censorship, and domestic repression.

RELATED ARTICLES

Selected

fd88217f-1f1b-4525-92f8-1ec00c750fc9_330
PMOI-MEk1-1

Latest News and Articles

No feed found with the ID 1. Go to the All Feeds page and select an ID from an existing feed.