CAIRO: A decree issued by President Hosni Mubarak, to be officially signed in the coming days, ended a three-day strike by more than 22,000 Al-Azhar school teachers, according to Sheikh Mahmoud Ashour, former deputy of Al-Azhar and member of the Islamic Research Center. The teachers were demanding the implementation of the new teachers law passed by the People s Assembly (PA) three weeks ago, which increases salaries by 50 to 150 percent starting this month. Mubarak s decree made the new teachers law with all its privileges applicable to Al-Azhar teachers. More than 250 teachers and educational experts at Al-Azhar schools and educational institutions will benefit from the new law, according to Al-Ahram daily newspaper. The PA originally recommended that the law be applicable to teachers in public, private and Al-Azhar schools. However, since the law falls under the authority of the Ministry of Education, it cannot be applied to institutions outside its jurisdiction. The teachers protested by refusing to mark preparatory and secondary students' final exams, pressuring Al-Azhar's administration to succumb to their demands. The protests began last Tuesday in Cairo, Sohag, Sharqeya, Gharbeya, Assiut and Aswan. Mubarak's decree settled the dispute. Lawyer Ahmed Sayed told The Daily Star Egypt in a previous interview 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 is not the first time the president interferes to end a problem that is on a smaller scale than what he is usually occupied with, Hafez Abu Saeda, director of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) told The Daily Star Egypt. He added that Mubarak interfered last year in Alaa's case, a preparatory student from El-Beheira who failed Arabic due to a composition she wrote attacking the government. Mubarak issued a presidential decree that allowed her to pass. We do not have real ministries, they are more like secretariats with no vision or power, Abu Saeda said. "When the president interferes to solve small issues, people lose faith in the abilities of their government officials, and it makes them believe that the president is the only one capable of solving their problems. The estimated budget for the new law to be implemented on Al-Azhar teachers will be around LE 1 billion annually. About LE 300 million has already been allocated to be used in the first stage, according to Al-Ahram. The total budget for the teacher s law is approximately LE 1.5 billion.
