CAIRO: Teachers who passed the second phase of public school teachers' assessment exams complain that they did not receive their promised pay raise in December, said Ibrahim Younis, teacher and member of the People's Assembly's education committee. "December salaries were paid without any raises, Younis told Daily News Egypt. Minister of Education Youssry Al-Gamal had, however, told the press last week that the ministry will implement the teachers' raise with the December salaries and that they will not have to wait till the end of January to receive it. "We can wait, said Younis. "The government had previously promised to give us the raise in July 2007, then they postponed it to December 2008 to finish up the assessment exams. So one month won't make any difference. He added that the raise will increase teachers' salaries by 50 to 150 percent. The increase will vary from LE 70 for new teachers, to LE 200 for older teachers whose basic salaries are around LE 400. But Younis said that teachers will continue demanding a LE 1,000 minimum wage, highlighting that teachers' financial problems will top the PA's educational committee agenda in the current parliamentary session. According to Muslim Brotherhood MP Osama Gado, 14 percent of the teachers who sat the teachers' assessment exam failed it and consequently they are frustrated and feel that their public image has been marred. He explained that the 14 percent correspond to 100,000 of the 830,258 teachers who took the exam. "Only 85.9 percent of the teachers passed and 13 percent [of teachers overall] boycotted it, Gado said in a previous interview.
