Category: Literacy

Despite an announcement that Sudan will begin paying their outstanding dues and delayed salaries, the national teachers’ strike has continued into its ninth week, accusing the Ministry of Finance of evading promises they previously made.

“We in the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee are committed to achieving our demands and rights approved by the Sovereignty Council and the Ministry of Finance,” the official spokesperson for the committee, Sami El Bagir, told Radio Dabanga.

Yesterday, teachers in Khartoum should have begun to receive any outstanding dues and salaries which have been delayed, including those in January, according to Undersecretary of the federal Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning Abdallah Ibrahim. The salaries of teachers and other educational employees have not yet been paid, according to the committee.

The other 17 states will follow soon, Ibrahim said in a press statement on Thursday. “So far, we have obtained data on the teachers for 16 states. Let us be serious and start, first with Khartoum state.”

Ibrahim denied rumours on social media about the Ministry of Finance’s inability to pay salaries after state employees did not receive their salaries for January. “The national budget for 2023 was only approved recently. For spending to start, procedures must be taken, including downloading the budget into a new computer system. This takes days.”

Strike continues

The Sudanese Teachers’ Committee reacted by saying that they will continue their strike, which started in December, “until our demands are met.” Their main demands are an increase in the minimum wage and payment of delayed pay raises and allowances.

The teachers described the statements of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance as “political fraud.”

“Claiming lack of information for the rest of the states of Sudan is a clear trick and manipulation that will not deceive us. Who is responsible for providing information on teachers working in the states? The lack of information for state teachers is a shame for the government and cannot be justification for not distributing what is owed to the teachers.”

The committee added, “the Ministry of Finance is trying to deceive public opinion with these statements. We announce our rejection of the Ministry of Finance’s step and announce the continuation of the escalation until the demands are met.”

Another leading member of the committee, Muawya Abdeen, said that the Ministry of Finance reneged on the agreement to increase spending on education to 14.8 per cent of the budget and announced an increase to 10.7 per cent instead.

He said that the Ministry of Finance is implementing some of the issues agreed on in Khartoum only, “with the aim of dividing the teachers.”

Amending calendar

In a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday, Ali Obaid, a member of the executive office of the committee, called for the school calendar to be amended so that the school year can be completed after teachers’ demands are met and they can continue teaching.

In mid-January, the Khartoum state Ministry of Education announced that exams would be postponed. According to the original schedule, students of class six will sit their exams in April, while secondary school students’ exams will start in May.

Teachers told Dabanga from Khartoum that the Ministry decided on this move to force the teachers to quit their strike and start working again.

“They counted on our consciences, putting the responsibility on us. The real victims of this issue are the students,” Duriya Babikir, leading member of the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee,?told Radio Dabanga.

Source: Radio Dabanga

A Sudanese army general on Sunday cast doubt on the capacity of the framework agreement to end the political crisis, saying the signatories did not constitute a sufficient majority to solve the country’s problems.

In a speech in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, General Shams al-Din Kabbashi, a member of the Sovereign Council, vilified the framework agreement signed on December 5, 2022, which provides to restore a transitional civilian government.

He said that the signatories to the framework agreement from the political forces “frankly” do not constitute a sufficient majority to solve the political crisis in Sudan.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Yasir Arman a leading figure of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) said they would not negotiate with the Democratic Bloc if the Darfur groups refuse to join the framework agreement individually.

The Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) refuse to join the framework agreement calling to open it for negotiation with an alliance they recently forged with other political groups.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera channel on Sunday, Arman stated that their hand remains extended to JEM led by Gibril Ibrahim and SLM led by Minni Minnawi to join the process alone without their coalition.

He stressed that the refusal of Minawi and Ibrahim to join the process without the other groups of the Democratic Bloc would force them to continue the political process without them.

No, we would not accept to negotiate with the bloc if they maintain their rejection to join the agreement individually, he said

“This is their business,” he said when he asked to explain why they continue to reject signing the framework agreement.

He underscored that they do not want to “dump the framework agreement with more actors or change its agenda”.

“We are ready to work with them and implement the peace agreement, especially since the people of Darfur stood with the revolution. So, it is better for them and for us to agree on a common agenda,” he added.

In a speech delivered at the opening session of the second phase of the political process on Sunday, the deputy head of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Daglo Hemetti said that they had delayed the process to persuade the two non-signatories to engage in the political process.

In an interview with the Sudan Tribune, Hadi Idris a member of the Sovereign Council confirmed that several initiatives had been undertaken to bring the two signatories of the Juba peace agreement to join the political process.

Idris expressed their scepticism about the “Democratic Bloc”, saying it was recently established and changed its name and components several times.

The Block “is not stable, and in order to end this controversy, any organization must sign unilaterally, as the rest of the parties that signed individually in order to bear its responsibility,” he added.

The leader of the SLM-Transitional Council and signatory of the Juba peace agreement further said they defeated calls for the cancellation of the Juba agreement.

“The extremists who call for the cancellation do not consider the people’s issues, but rather demand the removal of (certain) people from the political scene who are at odds with them,” he said.

JEM and SLM-MM say, among others, they refuse to join the process because it plans to review the Juba peace agreement and this review would lead to cancel the peace pact.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The Sudanese Teachers Committee (STC) decided to continue with the comprehensive strike and closure of schools for a period of three weeks, from January 8 until January 28. In a press statement on Friday, the Teachers Strike Committee also stated they met with Jibril Ibrahim*, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, to discuss their demands the day before.

“The outcome [of the meeting] was disappointing and reflects the disregard of the elites who have the opportunity to serve in decision-making positions, even if they are advocates of supporting the marginalised and the downtrodden,” the statement read.

The STC further announced that they will organise a protest march to the Ministry of Finance in Khartoum in the coming days.

In a statement following the STC’s meeting with the finance minister, the Undersecretary of the federal Ministry of Education said that “the minister rejected their request to increase the minimum wage this year”, but “referred to a nine per cent increase in spending on education in the total of the 2023 budget”.

However, the ministry sated their refusal in paying the three-month differences in allowances to the teachers, “because these differences were not paid to any staff of any government institution”.

As well as the refused three-month shortfall, the clothing allowance, which is another point of contention for the STC, is to be disbursed in all states except for Khartoum.

Ibrahim further promised to form a committee to consider and amend the fixed value allowances.

Source: Radio Dabanga

Students from the University of Khartoum closed El Jami’a Street (University Street) on Monday, to protest the refusal of the university administration and the Ministry of Higher Education to back down from the tuition fee increase.

University administration reportedly issued a decision to investigate four students for their involvement in the demonstration against the recent tuition price hike.

The street closure comes a week after the failed joint meeting called for by student representatives, which was meant to include the Ministry of Higher Education and various administrations from the Universities of Khartoum and Sudan.

According to the displeased students, the meeting was held between the university administrations and the ministry, in isolation from the students.

The government officials present at the meeting reportedly repeated the same excuses in the same manner.

Sudan lecturers

The Sudanese University of Science and Technology Lecturers Association announced its categorical rejection of the decision to increase university fees.

In a statement on Wednesday, the assembly called on the university administration to sit with the students and listen to their “legitimate demands and strive to solve them, instead of creating bigger problems that might lead to stopping the teaching process at the university for an unknown period”.

The Sudanese University Lecturers Committee gave the government until next Monday to approve the entire salary structure and raise the pension age, as was mentioned in the terms of service demands.

The committee threatened to resume the comprehensive and open strike, starting next Tuesday, if the demands were not implemented.

In a press conference in Khartoum on Wednesday, Yasir Abdelrahman, a member of the committee, accused the Ministry of Finance of being “intransigent and refusing to adopt the salary structure derived from the list of conditions of service for faculty members in the 2023 budget”.

The committee said that the strike excludes exams that were scheduled before the date of publication of their statement.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The Sudan Teachers’ Strike Committee announced that the general strike of schoolteachers will continue this week, after having embarked on strikes last month. Authorities try to break the strikes in various ways.

All state schools in the country will remain closed until Thursday, strike committee member Duriya Babiker told Radio Dabanga.

She reported “a wide response among teachers at state schools in the country, at a [participation] rate of almost 100 per cent” and explained that they demand an increase in the minimum wage and an improvement of the work environment.

Throughout December, teachers across Sudan closed schools on a series of strike dates.

After earlier strikes in November, the Service Affairs Bureau promised 6 per cent increase in wages two weeks ago, but teachers lament that this barely covered the rise in the cost of living in Sudan.

On November 28, the Teachers’ Strike Committee also organised a nationwide comprehensive strike because they had not received their full financial dues, such as back payments that were owed to them as far back as 2020.

The fact that teachers in the Blue Nile region and South Kordofan are not participating in the strike is due to the special circumstances in the two regions, she said. “We are in continuous contact about the strike with teachers in these areas.”

Both regions witnessed significant violence and insecurity recently.

Breaking strike

Babiker said that the authorities are trying to break the strike through various means.

In El Hilaliya in El Gezira teachers were instructed to start working on the preparation for the exams. In neighbouring Sennar, mosques urged students to prepare for their exams despite the strikes.

The North Darfur Ministry of Education closed all schools (primary, middle, and secondary schools) until Sunday, “officially because of the cold wave in the state”.

In South Darfur, the authorities announced the re-opening of the schools on Monday. Classes were suspended more than once in December ‘for security reasons’ after students took to the streets to protest against increased school fees and the inflated costs of living in general.

Bahreldin Abdallah, Secretary of the South Darfur Teachers Committee, told Radio Dabanga that the teachers in the state will continue their strike.

“This strike aims to reform the educational process in addition to preserving the rights of the teacher,” he said. “We have nothing to do with what the ministry decides, but the teachers cling to their right to strike until the competent authorities respond to our legitimate demands.”

Source: Radio Dabanga