Lebanese teachers go on strike against growing education crises New Education

Beirut, Lebanon – Mona Azzam has been a primary school teacher in the mountainous Chouf district of Lebanon since 1996.

The 58-year-old said he was happy with his job and living conditions for a long time, but since the value of the Lebanese pound began to fall in 2019, he has made an effort to cover basic costs.

This month, for the first time in his career, he has joined a teachers ’strike to demand higher wages and better working conditions.

With the depreciation of the pound, Azzam’s monthly salary has dropped to the equivalent of less than $ 100, and the cost of fuel to keep the lights on and the heaters running in the winter is rising.

“My salary can barely cover fuel costs and tire changes, and I live in several villages far from my school,” Azzam told Al Jazeera. “We live in the mountains, so if I can’t change the car’s tires properly, I’m going to have a car accident.”

On January 10, public school teachers in the country began an open strike. Most public schools in Lebanon have closed and refused to open because teachers are demanding higher salaries and subsidies to earn a living wage.

The salaries of Lebanese public sector workers have not been adjusted to reflect a devaluation of more than 90 per cent of the pound and a rise in the country’s inflation rate.

In the two years since the country’s economic crisis began, three-quarters of the population has slipped into poverty, and the cost of electricity, water and food has put heavy burdens on millions of families who are forced to work on budget cuts.

Abier Jaber is one of the many charter teachers who pay by the hour. Since the crisis began, the value of his hourly salary has dropped to just under $ 1 an hour above the equivalent of $ 13 an hour.

“Teachers tried to deal with car sharing because they couldn’t afford gas, and sometimes we paid out of our own pocket for students to have enough paper and enjoy learning,” Al Jazeera said. “But now we can’t do this anymore.”

There are also a shortage of teachers in schools, Jaber added, adding that the government does not have the resources to hire more of them. Meanwhile, as a result of the economic crisis, many Lebanese families who previously sent their children to private education are enrolling their children in public schools, leading to an increase in demand for places.

Some teachers initially paid out of their own pockets to help students pay for the books and stationery they needed, but Azzam and Jaber say this is not sustainable. Teachers say they did not receive any compensation from the government during the pandemic when they were taught remotely due to the additional costs of internet and phone bills.

Dima Wehbi, the International Rescue Committee’s political, defense and communications adviser, told Al Jazeera that families face many obstacles to ensuring their children’s education.

“Access to education is becoming increasingly difficult with parents struggling to pay for transportation and paper and meals,” Wehbi explained. “Heating fuel is also a problem in schools and so is electricity.”

He added that the devaluation of teachers’ salaries, “especially in the public sector”, is affecting access to and quality of education.

But the Lebanese government, which has almost failed, says it cannot do much. Education Minister Abbas Halabi said the demands for better teachers’ salaries and working conditions were “justified”.

“It simply came to our notice then. public transport drivers”Halabi told Al Jazeera. “This is not just a problem with teachers. It’s a problem all over the country. “

He also said that the whole government must work to solve the problem.

“It’s a bigger problem than the Ministry of Education, and I don’t have that ability to fix that,” he said. “I am not the Minister of Finance, and I do not specify the policies of the Cabinet alone.”

The Minister called for the support of humanitarian organizations to help schools with public health measures for COVID-19, on-campus facilities and to help the most vulnerable families keep their children in school.

The crisis in Lebanon has been devastating effect in millions of children. UNICEF and humanitarian groups have documented thousands of cases of child abuse over the past year, including rising child marriage rates and child labor to secure money for struggling families.

According to group estimates, about 15% of families stopped sending their children to school.

Non-profit organizations, including CodeBrave, have tried to provide other opportunities for children. The organization provides technical education to children in vulnerable situations with the aim of helping them get jobs and higher education opportunities.

“We met about 30 children in 2018 while we were volunteering at a shelter, and many of them were taken to the militia and sex work because they had no job opportunities,” CodeBrave founder and director Clementine Brown told Al Jazeera. “And it was one of the kids, Khalil, who suggested learning to code.”

The offices in Beirut are full of laptops, tablets, mobile phones and other equipment for students. Brown says they are expanding rapidly as demand from schools and NGOs has risen.

CodeBrave has helped more than 400 students in 2021 and has funding to support 100 more this year.

Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities have no plans to raise the salaries of teachers and other public sector workers at this time, according to lawmakers and lawmakers. Government’s 2022 draft budget. The government will discuss a plan to increase teacher transportation subsidies and provide a temporary cash reward at its first meeting in more than three months on Monday. Lawmakers close to the prime minister say they hope to agree on such measures.

Azzam says he is grateful that his son, who lives abroad, is catching some hard-earned money needed to help with his monthly expenses. Her husband has postponed his retirement and decided to continue working after the value of his savings dropped. But he says the government cannot allow teachers to continue to do so.

Jaber, on the other hand, says that if the working conditions of the teachers do not improve, they will continue to strike.

“Schools need to work in better conditions,” he says. “Otherwise, the school year is over.”