Teachers call off Monday strike after ‘fruitful meeting’ with officials

AMMAN — The government and the Jordan Teachers late Saturday night reached an agreement that ended a sit-in demonstration in front of the Prime Ministry planned by the association for Monday.

The union had several demands including changing the employees’ performance evaluation system and cancelling the newly implemented fingerprint system, which prevents educators from leaving before the end of the school day even if they finish their classes. 

The syndicate, led by its elected council, began the escalation last week when over 75,000 government teachers staged a partial strike at the Kingdom’s public schools in response to calls by the syndicate’s top body.

On Saturday, the government, represented by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs Jamal Sarayreh, Education Minister Omar Razzaz, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani and other relevant ministers and MPs met with the council members to discuss their demands.

The meeting, which was presided over by Sarayreh, ended with several decisions and recommendations, including cancelling the sit-in demonstration that was planned for Monday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Several points were agreed upon during the meeting, including issuing special regulations to govern the education sector starting next year to replace the Civil Service By-law that is currently in force, Petra reported, adding that the new regulations will be discussed with the teacher leaders’ before they go into effect.

Other points included increasing the level of health coverage and adjusting the fingerprint system rules so as to allow teachers to leave work after finishing the fifth class if they do not have any other assignments and after obtaining approval from their supervisors.

The government also referred several points agreed upon in the meeting to the relevant entities for further examination and consideration, such as increasing the punishment for individuals who attack teachers while on duty among other demands aimed at protecting the teacher’s rights and safety at work. 

The council’s vice president, Ibrahim Shabaneh, described the meeting as “fruitful and positive”.

“The government officials were very cooperative and expressed their willingness to respond to our demands and we were satisfied, so we decided to halt plans to escalate the protest,” Shabaneh told The Jordan Times.   

Momani told The Jordan Times that the government is constantly concerned with improving the education system in Jordan.

“The government is always thinking of ways to improve the education system and conditions, but sometimes the economic and financial constrains do not allow us to meet all the demands of educators,” Momani told The Jordan Times.