The teachers’ associations are waiting for this session and the basket of promises that will be agreed upon with the Minister of Education, Abbas al-Halabi, to take the decision regarding the return to education. The basket is supposed to include the productivity allowance promised by the Minister of Education, Abbas al-Halabi, in dollars and a transportation allowance equivalent to five liters of petrol for each working day, in addition to the teachers benefiting from a small difference in the exchange rate of an exchange platform, regarding four thousand pounds to the dollar.
Production allowance in pounds as well
According to Al-Modon’s sources, promises of a productivity allowance in Lebanese pounds will be added to the basket, in addition to the productivity allowance in dollars. It will be between 200 and 250 thousand pounds per teacher for each day of attendance, to be paid from school funds. It is the only new thing among all the previous promises. But the problem with this productivity allowance is that the school funds are empty and awaiting the transfer of funds from UNICEF, which stipulates that the school doors be opened for students to transfer funds.
The sources add that the teachers will not be able to obtain more than this aid, which is a “patchwork” solution to pass the remainder of the academic year. The amounts of the productivity allowance in Lebanese pounds are very low. Each school fund will receive an amount not exceeding $1,500, from which the productivity allowance is supposed to be spent for regarding the remaining 35 days of the school year, in order to conduct the official exams for the general secondary certificate.
Conditional return to education
In addition to the aforementioned amounts, the school funds are supposed to receive the previous year’s incentive arrears. So far, not all teachers have received the $90 incentives from the previous academic year. However, the directorates of secondary and primary education have told school principals that funds are available to pay arrears. Consequently, the teachers fear that the same thing will happen this year, and that they will not all receive the dollar incentives that the Minister of Education promised.
The sources exclude the return to teaching two weeks ago. Any decision that will be taken will be following the government decides to pay a transportation allowance equivalent to five liters of petrol. However, the sources feared that the associations would end the strike and link it to a conditional return, without the professor’s referendum with general associations.
And she adds that the solutions that are reviewed within the administrative bodies of the associations are the return that is conditional on the fulfillment of the demands, as happened previously. This may lead to more educational chaos in light of the escalation of the professors’ anti-linkage rhetoric.
Professors who object to the performance of teachers’ associations point out that the associations built their relationship with professors on promises without realizing any of them. Confidence in it has been lost. The recent sit-ins indicated that the association’s ability to mobilize is dozens of times less than the opposition professors’ groups, although the latter is not organized and does not have any funding and no parties stand behind it. This indicates an outright rejection by the teachers of any basket that the teachers’ associations may present to the teachers.
Fulfillment of demands and preaching
The sources of the opposition professors add that the bankruptcy of the associations led them to visit the religious authorities, amid widespread mockery of them on social media, as if rights and demands are achieved through sermons and prayers. After it became clear to the associations that the basket of the Minister of Education was empty, and only the clergy remained in front of it, the teachers preached sacrifice to end the academic year.
While it is said regarding the conditional return, which means relying on promises only, the path of dismantling the strike continues before announcing its dismantling from the teachers’ associations. In the south and the Bekaa, meetings are held with professors loyal to Hezbollah and the Amal Movement to return to education, even if for one month. There are attempts to persuade teachers to donate a month of education to end the school year. Likewise, there are principals of schools and high schools who receive donations from funders, under the pretext of helping teachers with transportation allowances. Likewise, schools and high schools began to escape and open their doors, despite the teachers defaming their principals on social media.
