Teachers’ strike over; students to resume school Sunday

AMMAN — The Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) announced late Saturday that it ended a two-week strike that crippled public school education at the beginning of the scholastic year.

The JTA president, Mohammad Masheh, read a statement at a press conference held at the Professional Associations Complex in Amman, saying that the decision came after “understandings” were reached with the Ministry of Education, without going into details about the deal, which the ministry and mediating lawmakers made public on Thursday.

Masheh did not allow reporters to ask questions, while teachers dissatisfied with the JTA council’s decision reacted furiously at the presser, accusing their leaders of betraying the teachers, especially since the key demand, a pay raise, was not met.

Earlier in the day, the council announced that the fate of the strike was hinging on Minister of Education Mohammad Thneibat’s written approval of the teachers’ demands, especially a financial incentive system under which best-performing teachers would be entitled to financial rights. 

The syndicate posted on its Facebook page, after the press conference, a copy of an official letter signed by the minister and addressed to Masheh, declaring that five of the six demands raised by the JTA were met, without direct reference to the incentive system.

The ministry had cited the difficult economic situation as the reason for rejecting the pay raise demand. 

The JTA demands included changes to the civil service by-laws regarding sick leaves, promotions and leaves without pay, investigating the Education Ministry’s pension fund and referring its case to the judiciary, implementing a “better medical insurance system”, enacting legislation to protect teachers against assaults, awarding them more financial benefits and ensuring that they are given better contracts at private schools. 

The agreement was reached Thursday with the mediation of the House’s Education Committee, pending the approval from the JTA’s 113-strong central committee, which comprises representatives from the syndicate’s branches in the country’s 12 governorates.

However, after a five-hour heated meeting, the committee voted to authorise the syndicate’s Islamists-controlled, 15-member council, the JTA’s top authority, to decide whether to continue with the strike or end it.

The dramatic end of the strike came after the situation deteriorated to a showdown between the ministry and JTA, which is accused of playing a political game in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and most organised opposition group. 

On Wednesday, Thneibat said his ministry was mulling temporary employment of new teachers to resume the education process stalled due to the strike. 

The association responded by threatening more escalation if the Education Ministry carries out its alternative plan. 

In a related development, the general assembly of the Ministry of Education’s social security fund on Saturday agreed to appoint a representative of JTA to the fund’s board.

During an assembly meeting on Saturday, headed by the education minister and attended by representatives of the JTA, the 420 attending members refused to dissolve the fund and cancel the obligatory membership as demanded by the JTA, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The general assembly also turned down a JTA request to invest the fund’s assets, citing the regional and international economic instability, but agreed to increase the end-of-service allowance for teachers to be equal to 15-month salary instead of 13, according to Petra.