Lower House panel recommends rejecting proposed amendments to teachers syndicate law

AMMAN — The Lower House’s Legal Committee on Sunday recommended rejecting a memorandum submitted by MPs calling for amending the Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) Law.

In a meeting attended by Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat and JTA President Hussam Masheh, Committee Chair MP Mustafa Amawi said Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh referred the memo, which entails amending 14 articles, to the committee for consideration.

Amawi added that the memo has nothing to do with Thneibat and the Legislation and Opinion Bureau, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He noted that even if some deputies adopted the memo, it must go through the proper constitutional channels, with the specialised committees examining it first. 

The legal panel, Amawi said, invited Thneibat and the JTA to have a look at the memo, since it concerns them.

The committee has recommended that the House reject the memo based on their meetings with stakeholders and listening to their views and remarks, according to the MP.

For his part, Thneibat said the ministry has nothing to do with the memo.

Masheh said the JTA was also not involved in the memo, but it received a copy a few days ago, Petra reported.

Also on Sunday, the JTA organised a sit-in near Parliament during the committee’s meeting to express its rejection of the suggested amendments, over which it was not consulted, according to a statement from the syndicate.

Participating teachers stressed that these amendments would “strip the JTA’s central committee and council of their authority in running their administrative and financial affairs”, according to the statement.

“These amendments target a national institution that teachers fought for years to revive,” protesting teachers said in the statement.

After an emergency meeting on Friday, the JTA council said the amendments “will strip more than 80,000 teachers — from the public and private sectors — of their membership in the JTA by cancelling compulsory membership”.

The amendments will also deprive around 30,000 teachers, in administrative positions, of educational incentives and Royal makrumas due to redefining the term “teacher”, according to the council.