Public school teachers hold protests, demand salary increases

Public school teachers demonstrated throughout Lebanon on Monday to protest the deterioration of their working conditions and the severe drop in their salaries due to the depreciation of the national currency.

According to Hussein Jawad, president of the League of Public School Teachers, only 25 percent of public school teachers observed the strike scheduled for Monday. According to him, those that participated were exclusively contractual and substitute teachers.

In Tripoli, teachers protested the recent decision by the caretaker Minister of Education Abbas Halabi to offer them $5 dollars per day on top of their salaries as a sign of "support" if they show up to teach in-person classes. In response, the teachers union announced "a general strike in public schools across the territory."

"We are not only demonstrating to obtain our rights as contract teachers but to defend a cause and the rights of teachers," said Nisrine Chahine, a contract teacher and unionist.

No resumption of classes

In Nabatieh, South Lebanon, secondary school teachers in the public sector held a sit-in to denounce the deterioration of their living conditions.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, unionist Abdel Menhem Atoui pleaded for an "adjustment of salaries as in the rest of the sectors." 

"If the demands of teachers are not taken into consideration, especially with regard to wages and medical care, there will be no resumption of classes," Atoui threatened. "Teachers will go to their place of work every day without teaching." 

Reacting to their sit-in, Minister Halabi announced he would suspend his decision to pay teachers an extra $5 dollars per day.

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Halabi said he "did not know that his initiative would be perceived as an attack on the dignity of members of the teaching profession. " He also said he would meet the leaders of the teachers' union and Nehme Mahfouz, the president of the union of private school teachers, with the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, to discuss their demands.

The meeting will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Severely affected by Lebanon's financial collapse, public school teachers have repeatedly held protests to demand an increase in their salaries.