Egypt's parliament has approved a draft law on financial benefits that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi instructed the government to provide for school teachers and their assistants in 2017, and amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait announced Sunday. The new law is expected to benefit 2.1 million pre-university teachers in general and Azharite schools at a total cost of EGP 6.6 billion starting from January 2021.
Maait added that the new law includes structural reforms related to teacher wages in the public pre-university education sector and the establishment of a fund that will provide social and financial care for teachers and their assistants.
He added that the new benefits will be increased monthly, with an average ranging between EGP 390 for assistant teachers up to EGP 630 for senior teachers, in addition to disbursing a school management bonus.
Under the new law, new bonuses will be disbursed for teachers who supervise midterm and final exams at a total cost of EGP 2.8 billion, according to Maait.
The law also includes an increase in other teacher bonuses by 50 percent (ranging between EGP 75 and EGP 180), applied as of June 2020, benefiting 1.4 million teachers at a total annual cost of EGP 1.2 billion.
For the new fund, Maait said it is expected to provide financial and social care for teachers and their assistants, adding that it will be financed through one-time financial aid extended by the public treasury worth EGP 500 million provided in tranches during FY2020/2021 and the coming FY2021/2022, at EGP 250 million per tranche.
In October, Egypt's cabinet approved the new draft benefits law, which targets improving the salaries of around 700,000 public school employees.
