Tunisians call for education minister to be sacked

Strikes were held in secondary schools across Tunisia yesterday in protest against the policies of the education ministry, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported. Protesters also called for the minister of education to step down.

Secretary of the Secondary Education Syndicate Las’ad Al-Yaqoubi said: “The education situation is congested and the accumulated crises have become chronic. This led to the full strike across secondary schools.”

He described the strike as “successful” as a large number of the teachers responded to the calls for the strike, noting this “sent a clear message to the government that the teachers are angry with the current situation and the prime minister has to find alternatives.”

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Al-Yaqoubi warned that the final exams are approaching therefore the government should act quickly.

He urged officials to find a solution that “maintains the dignity” of the teachers in order to let the exams go smoothly; otherwise, the strike would continue and include other sectors.

“Calls to oust the education minister are not based on personal hostility,” Al-Yaqoubi said, “but there are several justifications… It is illogical for a minister to head the education ministry while he degrades teachers and announces failure reforms while the government does not act against him.”