School startup set for further delay as teachers threaten national strike on 15 October

By Libya Herald reporter.

Tunis, 5 October 2017:

The General Teachers Union has announced a national strike starting on 15 October. All classes will stop, it says. Instead school staff will be taking part in demonstrations.

The teachers’ main demands are a 100-percent increase in salaries, health insurance and protection against violence in schools.

Threats of a strike and teachers refusing to turn up for work have already twice delayed the start of the new academic year. It should have begun in September but was put back by the education ministry to 1 October as it tried to negotiate a solution. However, with it refusing to meet their demands, teachers in the east announced that they would go on strike on 1 October, the day they were supposed to start the new year. This the resulted in the start up being postponed by another two weeks, to 15 October. That is now being threatened.

The union says that the strike will affect all levels, from infants’ to secondary schools, and in every municipality.