CAIRO: As teachers across the country await a timetable for meeting their demands, the Ministry of Education, in coordination with UNESCO, celebrated World Teachers Day on Wednesday, steering clear of the weeklong nationwide strikes in public schools. In an event held at the Ministry of Education, UNESCO celebrated Teachers' Day under the patronage and presence of Minister of Education Ahmed Gamal El-Din Moussa. Twenty-seven teachers from all over Egypt – each representing their governorate – were honored in the ceremony for winning the “Model Teacher” competition, organized by the Ministry of Education. UNESCO chose to focus this year on gender equality in its celebration of World Teachers Day. Gender Equality is the fifth of the six Education for All (EFA) goals. “Female teachers around the world make up around 62 percent of the total number of teachers,” Ghada Gholam, UNESCO office director in Cairo, stated during her speech at the ceremony. “And with the increasing number of women taking up this job, their circumstances remain yet in deterioration.” On his part, Moussa assured that girls excel over boys in education; both in their number and in their educational level. “And unlike other countries,” Moussa continued, “women don't suffer from discrimination in salaries here in Egypt. Yet, one must admit that they don't occupy enough managerial posts.” However, Moussa confirmed that the ministry began this year implementing a plan to choose school headmasters according to their efficiency instead of seniority – as has been always the case – and that they have indeed started applying that in some schools. Throughout the ceremony, no mention was made regarding the teachers strike which started with the launch of the new academic year on September 17 and has been proliferating through governmental schools. Teachers are demanding better pay and working conditions and greater government investment into what they believe is a notoriously overburdened educational system. While public school teachers decided to suspend nationwide strikes for one week until the education ministry presents a timeline for meeting their demands, teachers in some schools in Beni Seuf, Sharqeya, Suez and parts of Cairo continued the strike pending “positive steps” by the ministry. However, some of the teachers present at the ceremony criticized the strikes. “Loud voices never retrieve rights,” Shadya Gaber said. Gaber was honored for being the Model Teacher in Fayoum governorate. She's been an Arabic teacher for 18 years, and was honored by the government for the first time on Wednesday. “With our mild voice and our patience,” Gaber insisted, “we will get our rights back.” Ashraf Abdallah, mathematics teacher and Model Teacher for the Giza governorate, echoed Gaber's same sentiments, describing the strikes as an “abuse of students' right to education.” “If we have rights, we can demand to reclaim them, yet without going on strike,” he said. The ceremony resumed with a video conference call with Egyptian teachers currently teaching in the United States, in an attempt to draw a constructive comparison between the working atmosphere in Egypt and the US, as well as honoring Egyptian teachers all over the globe. The UNESCO World Teacher Day began in 1994 to commemorate the 1966 signing of the UNESCO / ILO agreement on the status of teachers and the 1997 UNESCO recommendation regarding the status of higher education teaching personnel.
