Teachers association insist on demands as MPs mediate to end strike

AMMAN — The Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) on Monday refused to suspend its ongoing open-ended strike amid parliamentary mediation to meet some of its demands.

During a meeting with Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh on Monday, the association insisted on its demand to increase teachers’ salaries across the board by 50 per cent, a move the government has said would cost the Treasury around JD250 million annually.

Tarawneh told the JTA that he will seek a meeting with His Majesty King Abdullah to bring about a midway resolution to the issue. 

Under his new initiative, the quota of university seats allocated for children of teachers at public universities would increase from 5 per cent to 10 or 15 per cent.

Moreover, as an alternative to the salary raise, Tarawneh encouraged the teachers to accept a new formula under which they will receive incentives linked to the performance of their students each year. Private schools have been applying similar incentives.

However, JTA President Hussam Masheh told MPs at the meeting that suspending the strike is not his decision, but he will consult with the association’s central committee and inform them of its decision accordingly.

“I doubt that the central committee would accept such a solution,” he said.

He criticised the government’s stance over the strike, which entered its seventh day on Monday. 

“It seems this government does not want to back down from its position,” Masheh said.

The JTA wants the government to amend the civil service by-law; improve teachers’ health insurance; and draft laws to protect them; offer them more financial benefits; endorse the private schools by-law; and refer the education security fund case to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The Education Ministry has said it already referred the fund to anti-graft bodies, sent the amended civil service by-law to the Cabinet, and prepared the private schools by-law.

Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat said last week that the ministry cannot make any promises to meet financial demands and will not force the government to commit to any future obligations due to the deficit in the state budget.

The government has said that the JTA’s demands for additional allowances for teachers will cost the Treasury between JD230 million and JD250 million, a figure the JTA disputed, arguing that the cost will not exceed JD 90 million.

In 2012, teachers went on a 12-day strike which ended after after they reached a compromise with the government under which the latter agreed on an additional 15 per cent raise on their basic salary, upping the demanded professional allowance for that year to 85 per cent, with the remaining 15 per cent disbursed in 2013.