CAIRO: More than 22,000 teachers at Al-Azhar schools and educational institutions have gone on strike, demanding the implementation of the new teachers law passed by the People s Assembly (PA) two weeks ago. The protestors refused to mark the preparatory and secondary students final exams to pressure the Al-Azhar's administration to submit to their demands. The protests began on Tuesday in Cairo, Sohag, Sharqeya, Garbeya, Assiut and Aswan. The new law promises to increase teachers salaries by 50 percent, starting July. The new law s budget is estimated to be LE 1.5 billion and, according to the PA, and should be implemented in public, private and Al-Azhar schools. However, the law is under the authority of the Ministry of Education and cannot be enforced on any other institution that does not fall within the ministry's jurisdiction. According to lawyer Ahmed Sayed, this is the reason why Al-Azhar's administrative body has control over whether or not to implement the law. Sayed told The Daily Star Egypt that Al-Azhar's refusal illustrates Al-Azhar s and the government s negative stance towards Al-Azhar's educational system and their intention to undermine it. This strategy, Sayed adds, has been going on since year 1996 based on recommendations from the US government that aim to diminish any type of Islamic education. And indeed the strategy is working well in the regular educational system, as the government deleted the subject of religion from school curricula and substituted it with ethics,' Sayed said. On the other hand, Sheikh Mohmoud Ashour, former deputy of Al-Azhar and member of the Islamic Research Center, told The Daily Star Egypt that teachers have the right to ask for the new teachers law to be implemented at their institutions. For the sake of controlling the issue before it gets bigger than it already is, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawy, head of Al-Azhar, promised to put the law into effect soon, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. However an obvious lack of trust between Al-Azhar faculty and the administration seems to exist as teachers refused to believe Tantawy s promise and refused to end the protest.
