Thousands of lecturers leave Tunisia for Europe

A strike by university professors is underway in Tunisia in protest against the failure of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to pay their salaries adequately. The ministry reportedly gives the same salaries to all university lecturers, regardless of their level of education; the lecturers’ union is protesting against this, as well as the multiple deductions from its members’ salaries.

The situation has pushed thousands of lecturers to seek employment outside the country. According to statistics from the local Institute of Strategic Studies, around 4,000 emigrated last year; of those who remain, 80 per cent plan to leave Tunisia,

“Tunisian universities have been emptied of their skills and the level of education in public universities continues to deteriorate,” said Najmeddine Jouida, the general national coordinator of the Union of Tunisian University Professors (IJABA). “IJABA will continue its protest movement until the satisfaction of its legitimate demands.”

Read: Increase in number of Tunisians seeking to leave

The State Secretariat for Migration and Tunisians Abroad ranks academics and researchers at the top of skilled Tunisians overseas. According to the Arab report on knowledge (2009) based on the World Bank’s brain migration indicator, Tunisia ranks second among the countries which are “expellers of skills”, just behind Syria.

Aware of the scale of the phenomenon, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed announced the establishment of a global strategy to attract Tunisians with desired skills who work overseas and associate them with the development and modernisation of the country. Chahed emphasised the responsibility of educational and academic institutions, research and training centres and administration and economic enterprises in creating an environment conducive to the development of individual and collective skills in order to encourage such people to create and innovate.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 94,000 Tunisians have left their country in the past six years for what they believe are better opportunities in Europe.