School teachers continue to protest against what they see as humiliating exams they must take, Reem Leila reports Dozens of school teachers staged a demonstration on 30 August in front of the Cabinet building to protest at what they described as a farce and the squandering of public funds. Protesters raised banners and chanted slogans against the new cadre system under which the teachers are tested, after which their salaries will be set accordingly. They called on Minister of Education Yosri El-Gamal to scrap the assessment exams which determine whether teachers receive pay increases or not. Members of the 6 April Youth Movement took part in the sit-in, saying they would in fact participate in all the teachers' protests. The exams were held over the course of three days last week for primary, secondary and technical college teachers. During the protest, teachers condemned what they regard as the tests being "humiliating" and "ridiculous". "I did not sit for this exam because it is a humiliation," teacher of Arabic Ragheb Ghazal told Al-Ahram Weekly. "How is it that even though I graduated from university 15 years ago and have been teaching for 12 years I am still forced to take an exam to determine whether I can receive a pay increase or not?" Ghazal wondered. While many of the teachers at the protest boycotted the assessment exams, those who did take it say that the questions were both unrelated to their teaching disciplines and did not properly assess teaching ability. Secondary teacher Nefisa Atwa told the Weekly that the multiple choice format rendered the exam a matter of luck. "One of the questions asked was, 'if two pupils are involved in a fight, how would you respond?' All of the options were correct. There was no wrong answer," Atwa argued. Teachers opposed to the exams protested at the examination halls while the tests were being conducted last week. Mohamed Abdel-Moneim, a teacher from Alexandria, told the Weekly during the protest that he was arrested and briefly detained while chanting slogans in the examination hall on the second day of the tests. He was threatened with "more serious repercussions" if he was involved in further protest action. But Abdel-Moneim has not been deterred. "I will continue protesting no matter what. These exams are nothing but a real humiliation of the dignity of teachers," he stated. During the demonstration, teachers called for a pay increase not to be linked to assessment exams, which they say is their right under legislation introducing pay increases. They claim that the assessment exams form part of an eventual plan to privatise the Egyptian education system and phase out free education. In addition to rejecting the assessment exams in principle, teachers believe that the pay increase promise is, as one put it, "derisory". According to a statement issued by a support group called Teachers' Voice, "the increase decided on by the Ministry of Education is insulting and completely out of touch with the huge price increases and the minimum wage needed to survive." Sayed El-Badri of Teachers' Voice said that after the protest the group launched a million- signature campaign to rattle the confidence of the syndicate. Another demonstration is scheduled for 20 September, which coincides with the start of the new academic year, at the Teachers' Syndicate in Dessouq, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Naim Ramadan, a primary school teacher, announced. "I expect more than 5,000 teachers to take part. We will not stop until the Education Ministry responds to our demands for pay increases without assessment exams," he said. Ministry of Education officials say the results of the exam will be out the last week of October after which pay increases will be applied. The first phase of the school teachers' pay scale will be applied starting this school year 2008/2009. Reda Abu Serea, deputy to the minister of education, said that in Article 70 of Law 155/2007, teachers' salaries will be applied to all those who work in the educational system. Accordingly the ministry agreed with Al-Azhar to apply the second phase of the system which will begin by the school year 2009/2010 for Al-Azhar school teachers. Al-Azhar formerly did not agree on applying the pay scale system. The Network of Egyptian Teachers (NET) has accused ministry officials of wasting public money by holding these tests, whose cost was estimated by Abdel-Nasser Ismail, a founding member of NET, at around LE20 million. Ismail alleged that teachers were cheating on the exams because most of them did not know the answers to at least 40 per cent of the multiple choice questions. Ismail also accused the ministry of blackmailing teachers after it linked the pay raise to passing the assessment exams. "Many teachers had to sign up for the exams because their salaries were too low and they are in dire need of an extra pound, although this does not hide the fact that they were angry," Ismail said. Most school teachers are not opposed to the idea of being tested "but they have a crystal clear demand: to receive high quality training courses, then be tested, not vice versa," added Ismail. In a press release issued by the Ministry of Education on 31 August, Minister of Education El-Gamal said the cadre system in schools follows on the heels of a recent government initiative in universities whereby professors will volunteer for a scheme of pay increases linked to performance. "Accordingly the aim of the cadre is to enhance school teachers' status and equate them with university professors, not to worsen or degrade their position as they claim," El-Gamal said.
