CAIRO: Cabinet agreed Wednesday to implement a presidential decree allowing Al-Azhar school teachers to benefit from the new teachers' law passed by the People's Assembly (PA) last month. Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawy, head of Al-Azhar filed a memo stating that Al-Azhar teachers have equal rights with teachers under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. The new law will increase the teachers' salaries by 50 to 150 percent starting this month. President Hosni Mubarak's decree, which preceded the Cabinet's decision by three weeks, made the new teachers' law with all its privileges applicable to Al-Azhar teachers. The decree 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. Lawyer Ahmed Sayed told The Daily Star Egypt in a previous interview that Al-Azhar's refusal to implement the law when it was first passed "illustrates Al-Azhar's and the government's negative stance towards Al-Azhar's educational system and their intention to undermine it. 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 total budget for the teacher's law is approximately LE 1.5 billion. Magdy Rady, Cabinet spokesperson told the press that the Ministry of Finance's estimated budget for the new law to be implemented on Al-Azhar teachers will be around LE 272 million for the first stage and LE 274.3 million for the second stage. A total of 151,549 Al-Azhar teachers will benefit from the new law.
