Teachers’ sit-ins disrupt the start of the school year in Libyan cities as a parallel health-sector escalation presses the Dbeibah government to revise salaries and protect workers’ dignity
LIBYA – Sunday morning, 13 September 2026, was no ordinary school day. As the Education Ministry in the Government of National Unity announced the start of the new year nationwide, images of empty classrooms beat the bell in several cities. Teachers stood at school gates not to welcome pupils but to remind the state that those who carry the mission of education cannot continue on a salary eaten by prices, deferred rights and a workplace that does not protect their dignity.
The scene was not a blanket shutdown of every school in Libya: classes began in Sirte, morning lines formed and books were handed out, while the start looked stalled or halted elsewhere. That is the more accurate picture — a school year that began officially but did not begin in practice at the same pace in every city.
Qasr Bin Ghashir: Doors Open, No Pupils
In a video posted by the page “Qasr Bin Ghashir Tawa”, local teachers announced a full sit-in and the closure of schools in the municipality. By Sunday morning the page showed a scene more telling than any written statement: schools open, pupils absent, teachers still sitting in.
The crisis was not the school door key but the missing settlement that would allow teaching to begin.
In central Tripoli, earlier warnings turned into action on the ground as teachers continued their sit-in under the slogan “sit-in — no lessons, no duty”, after their union held the authorities responsible for the stalled start to the year.
The Central Tripoli Teachers’ Union tied education’s stability to better pay and comprehensive health insurance. Its head, Ashraf Al-Bourawi, listed demands including salary revision in line with the cost of living, payment of differentials and financial dues, and a fairer pay scale.
In Souq Al-Juma, women teachers demonstrated outside the education inspectorate under the slogan “teachers’ rights are a red line”, calling for dues, the lesson allowance and health insurance. In Tarhuna schools stood empty of pupils, while local posts in Zliten spoke of students missing from the first hours of the morning.
Teachers’ unions or groupings in Msallata, Sabratha, Bani Walid, Qarabulli, Al-Ajaylat and Zintan also announced continuing or joining the sit-in, while Al-Bayda, Benghazi, Tocra, Riqdaleen and Al-Mashashiya had issued similar notices ahead of this wave.
That spread does not mean every local decision was identical: some areas suspended classes for 15 days while administrative work continued; others declared an open sit-in until demands are met. What united them was the same call — not new promises, but enforceable decisions and announced deadlines.
Fifteen Days Before a Full Strike
The General Teachers’ Union announced a peaceful 15-day sit-in and gave the executive and legislative authorities a deadline to respond, warning of a move to a full strike if the period ends without serious action.
Demands include better salaries, payment of differentials, allowances and overdue dues for teachers and administrators, health insurance and medical care, a law protecting teachers and their dignity, and settlement of administrative and financial rights.
Local union statements added long-accumulated details: releasing blocked salaries, fixing stalled contracts, paying the lesson allowance and school principals’ allowance, settling the status of desert-school staff and reviewing retirees’ files.
In Tocra the overcrowding of classrooms — with unions saying numbers can reach 60 pupils — underscored that the crisis is not only about pay but working conditions that affect the quality of education itself.
Unions insist the sit-in does not target pupils or seek to wreck the school year, arguing years of unanswered correspondence and unmet demands pushed them to choose a moment the government cannot easily ignore. It is a painful moment for families, they acknowledge, but also shows that delaying solutions before term began is what brought the crisis to school gates.
A “Red Line” That Did Not Become an Implementation Timetable
Before the start, Education Minister Mohamed Al-Qaryou said teachers’ material and moral rights were a “red line”, and the Dbeibah government said it was following the file and working to improve conditions for staff in recognition of their mission.
But public statements reviewed by Al-Marsad still contained, as of Sunday morning, no binding timetable for paying differentials, revising salaries or activating health insurance.
That is the gap between government language and classroom language: one speaks of care and follow-up; the other asks for the decision, its number and its date. Between those phrases the first day was lost in several schools, leaving families facing a confused education map that differs from one municipality to another.
Health: A Sit-In That Began Before the School Bell
In parallel with the education crisis, health workers are continuing a movement that began on 30 August — two weeks before the school day.
The Union of the Health Sector Movement in Libya and supporting medical unions called for sit-ins inside hospitals and health centres demanding settlement of wages, differentials and financial releases, higher salaries, settlement of staffing establishments, health insurance, protection and a safe, respectful workplace.
Health facilities in Nalut, Zliten, Misrata, Tripoli and elsewhere saw protests and sit-ins, with some non-emergency services suspended, while organisers stressed that emergency and chronic cases were exempt.
Staff at Tripoli Central Hospital joined the action — a signal that the crisis is no longer confined to a small clinic or a single city but has reached reference institutions in the capital.
In a statement on 10 September the union welcomed in principle a review of rules for appointing hospital and centre directors, but warned against using administrative changes to divide staff or cast managers and cadres as adversaries. It said the failure is systemic and needs fair budgets, medicines, supplies, equipment, real staffing, protection and training — alongside fair pay and allowances and respect for those who work inside hospitals.
That is the message repeated on the movement’s page: health workers are not asking only for money but not to be humiliated while doing their duty, and not to remain the link that pays the price of shortages, chaos and assaults. The recognition they seek, in the movement’s words, is material, moral, professional and ethical — because the dignity of those who deliver care is part of the safety of care itself.
Foreign Staff Paid in Dollars While Libyans Wait for Fairness
The file grew more sensitive after the union published documents it said related to authorising a company to bring in about 200 medical and nursing staff from Syria, with foreign cadres to be paid in dollars.
The movement said it does not object to foreign expertise when there is a real need, but rejected what it called double standards and asked where Libyan doctors, nurses, pharmacists and technicians stand in the pay and recognition system.
The Health Ministry said no final contracts had been signed and the file was still at the stage of studying needs and options — a distinction between authorising and studying recruitment and actually completing contracts. That does not erase the question that fuelled workers’ anger: how can generous pay for foreign recruits be under discussion while those already in the country have for years been asking for salary differentials, insurance and protection?
The Government Promises; the Movement Asks for a Date
Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah met Health Minister Mohamed Al-Ghawi on 9 September and announced as a priority improving conditions for medical cadres, providing medicines and supplies and equipping hospitals. The meeting also discussed special contracts for Libyan doctors in remote areas and a gradual, fair system for overnight and shift allowances, stressing that outcomes must become clear executive measures.
But the Union of the Health Sector Movement called on the government to sit directly with workers’ and unions’ representatives, hear their demands in full and set solutions tied to a timetable. Promises, the movement says, are no longer enough; reform does not begin by swapping directors’ names alone but by fixing the system, restoring rights and ensuring fairness for those who keep hospitals open despite shortages of medicine, equipment and staff.
One Thread From the Blackboard to the Patient’s Bed
It is no coincidence that the teacher’s voice meets that of the doctor, nurse and technician in the same week. The two sectors asked to protect the citizen’s mind and body are telling the state that public service cannot rest on open-ended sacrifice forever.
Both demand fair pay, health insurance, legal and professional protection, and recognition that dignity is not a bonus added when the budget allows but a condition for schools and hospitals to keep working.
It is easy to blame the teacher because a pupil went home, or the health worker because a non-emergency service stopped. The prior question is why demands reached this stage after weeks and months of being public — and why the Dbeibah government enters every crisis with the same language of appreciation, then leaves those involved waiting for the executive decision.
On the first school day, what was missing in some cities was not only the pupil; a settlement that could have protected the child’s right to learn and the teacher from need was missing too. In the hospital, what was short was not only a medicine or a machine but the sense among staff that their state sees them, hears them and respects their work.
Between classrooms and clinics the message is one: fix the conditions of those who serve the public before asking them alone to carry the cost of keeping the state running.
