CAIRO: The People s Assembly (PA) educational committee is currently debating a new law adopted by the Ministry of Administrative Development that calls for firing teachers who give private lessons, in return for a LE 70 increase in teachers salaries, said Hamdy Hassan, PA member affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood group to The Daily Star Egypt. The law was regarded by most PA members, according to Hassan, as being an excessively harsh punishment for giving private lessons, as most members called for a lesser sentence such as transferring teachers to administrative jobs. This law does not fit with the teachers conditions in Egypt and the financial raise that compensates for private lessons is really low. The Ministry of Administrative Development claimed that it does not have enough in its financial budget to increase the financial raise, Hassan said. The first under secretary of the Ministry of Finance said in the PA educational committee meeting that took place two days ago that the Ministry of Finance estimated figure specified for the new law is LE 1 billion and 550 million, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. Ahmed Darwish, minister of administrative development also indicated in the same PA educational committee meeting, that the total salary of teachers will eventually reach LE 547 when all regular and social compensations and raises gets added together, as reported by Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. However, Darwish, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, rejected the teachers syndicate s demand to make the basic starting salary of teachers before the raises and compensations are added to it, LE 500. Hassan indicated that the Ministry of Education was not involved in the law s debate because the issue is purely financial. Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah, parliament member belonging to the National Democratic Party told The Daily Star Egypt that the new law is still in process and we should not precede events and judge it in advance . The law will take lots of discussions in this parliamentary session and is expected to be finalized by next July, Kwaitah said. On the other hand, Hassan believes that the law will underestimate teachers and make their lives harder rather than giving them the appreciation they lack.
