Teachers press for a unified pay scale
Libya – Ashraf Aburawi, head of the Greater Tripoli teachers’ union, said raising teachers’ salaries through a unified pay scale that ensures social justice and a decent living tops the union’s demands, alongside issuing and activating a teacher-protection law, a lesson allowance, rewards for school principals, health insurance, payment of financial differentials and improving the learning environment.
Demands raised before the school year
In an interview with the Libyan News Agency (LANA), Aburawi said the union does not set a figure for the increase it seeks, and sees that as the state’s role through a unified scale across sectors that takes account of rising prices and balances income with living costs. He added that the demands were raised weeks before the school year through statements, media appearances and social platforms, then submitted formally to the Education Ministry, after union meetings and negotiating and protest steps, expressing hope they would be met without the sit-in continuing.
Sit-in and impact on pupils
He said the union chose the start of the school year for the sit-in because it believed delays in the first weeks were easier to make up than disruption later, while many parents fear any disruption would harm their children. He added that a sit-in during the holiday would have little practical effect, and that teachers had already put their demands before classes began without a response.
Aburawi noted that teachers from different Libyan cities were taking part in the sit-in at public schools, with solidarity from some private schools. He stressed that the sit-in does not cover schools receiving pupils facing certificate exams, and that exams would continue on schedule, saying the union would not accept students becoming “scapegoats” in the dispute over teachers’ rights.
Catching up on delays
He argued that any possible delay in the school year could be made up, citing teachers’ work in exceptional conditions during wars and the Covid-19 pandemic, and in years when textbooks were late or the school year started late by official decision. He recalled that the union had previously submitted a proposal to organise study during the pandemic that was adopted, but tied how long any delay lasts to how quickly the state responds to the demands.
Aburawi said teachers were tired of promises, and that the sit-in’s continuation depends on practical steps. He added that, according to the union, they had not benefited from the law raising teachers’ salaries or from the unified pay scale, despite increases in other sectors, while education workers face low incomes and high living costs. He stressed that the union wants a scale that balances salary with living needs, without tying demands to other sectors’ raises or naming a figure that could be read, in his words, as selfishness.
