For the Second time in one week,
Thousands of teachers protested outside the Iranian Parliament
March 7, 2007Thousands of teachers protested outside the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) in Tehran on Tuesday, March 6, 2007. This protest was a follow up to their earlier mass rally on Saturday, March 3, 2007. There were also similar protests, in smaller scopes, in other provinces across the country. Teachers, who are very angry with the Minister of Education, were carrying red cards with them demanding the resignation of Minister Farshidi. Teachers are also upset because many of their existing issues and demands date back to several years ago, being totally disregarded by the Ministry of Education. For instance, according to interviews conducted by the official Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) about 98 percent of retired teachers live below poverty line. Most teachers have second or third jobs because they cannot afford the cost of living with their current salaries. Many teachers are paid hourly and are on contracts. One main demand of teachers is the coordination and harmonization of salaries.
After teachers staged a huge demonstration outside the Majlis last Saturday (between 10 to 15 thousands participated in the rally), there were some gestures by a few Members of Parliament as well as government representatives from the Ministry of Education to meet and negotiate with teachers. However, there have been serious disagreements on the main issues, including the actual rate of salaries currently paid to teachers as the Ministry claims a much higher amount is being paid despite the evidence to the contrary. Moreover, teachers had given the government the names of 10 representatives to negotiate on their behalf but the authorities only accepted 5 delegates thus the last meeting which was scheduled for Monday, March 5th did not take place as the result of the dispute over the Ministry’s refusal to meet with elected representatives of teachers.
Teachers vow that if their demands are not addressed they will shut down schools as of next Saturday. Demonstrators used numerous slogans, including: “schools will be shut own as of tomorrow”, “incompetent Minister, resign, resign”.
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