MIDDLE EAST EYE (28/9/2019)
The school bell rings at a quarter past seven in the morning at the al-Rashid primary school in Amman.
The day starts as usual with the national anthem and the raising of the Jordanian flag, but things have been a bit different lately. Teachers line up in the schoolyard, but there are no students around to sing the anthem while the flag is being hoisted.
Public school teachers in Jordan have been on strike since 8 September, but many are still going to school every working day. The vast majority of Jordan’s 87,000 public school teachers are refusing to teach until the government gives them a 50 percent salary increase that was promised to them in 2014.
“Some people have accused us of not going to school and not doing our job, but we are coming to work every day,” Laith al-Jammal, the al-Rashid school principal, told Middle East Eye.
The teachers stand upright while the national anthem is being played on a loudspeaker that resonates across the deserted schoolyard.
More than a million students in public schools have been out of school for the past three weeks. Parents are anxiously waiting for the government to reach an agreement with the teachers’ union so the new school year can finally start.
After the morning ritual is over, the school principal takes his phone and starts showing photos of how teachers have been spending their time since the beginning of the strike.
“This is the physical education teacher,” he says, while pointing to a photo of a man fixing the school gate.
“We are not wasting our time,” he adds, as he scrolls through photos and videos of men fixing and cleaning the school’s classrooms and halls.
Government officials estimate that the 50 percent salary increase would cost $158 million, which they say the treasury cannot afford. Jordan has been facing a dire economic situation and high inflation for years.
Negotiations between the teachers’ union and the government have failed to reach a resolution, as teachers have vowed to continue the strike until they are granted what they say is a long-overdue salary increase.
“I have been teaching Arabic for seven years and I earn 385 dinars ($543),” says one teacher at al-Rashid who requested anonymity.
Read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/teachers-jordan-feel-neglected-and-unappreciated