Algeria’s primary teachers go on strike

Teachers at Algeria’s primary schools went on strike and staged rallies to protest against their working conditions yesterday.

The National Autonomous Council of Teachers of the Ternary Education Sector (CNAPESTE) said that it has not endorsed the strike, which had been called for on social media, according to Algerian media outlets.

CNAPESTE’s spokesperson Messaoud Boudiba was quoted in Algerian media as saying: “Union work has its fundamentals, and we have a strategy for how to protest, so we cannot adopt any strike.”

The striking teachers’ demands include reducing the number of working hours, freeing them from the task of supervising and accompanying students outside classrooms, and creating a new teaching post for physical education teachers. They also ask that teachers’ salaries be raised so they are equal to other public sector employees.

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