East Darfur schools to re-open on Sunday

The Ministry of Education of East Darfur announced that school lessons will be resumed again on Sunday. This follows a hiatus of more than 50 days, owing to a teachers’ strike in the state. The teachers embarked on a strike on 3 September, in protest against the non-payment of several arrears, amounting in total to about SDG3 mn ($522,000). The state Minister of Education, Siddig Abdelnabi Ahmed, told Radio Dabanga that an agreement was reached on a payment schedule of the arrears, allowances, and salaries until the end of this year.   The secretary general of the East Darfur branch of the Teachers’ Union, Ali Eisa Ahmed, said that the teachers decided to lift their strike, after the state’s Ministry of Education offered to pay 50 percent of the arrears immediately, and the other 50 percent according to a fixed schedule.He told Radio Dabanga that he hopes that the teachers will “do their utmost best to compensate the lost school time so that this school year will not be affected”. File photo: A school for girls in Kabkabiya, North Darfur (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related:Sudan Workers Union supports Darfur teachers’ strike (11 September 2014) Teachers’ strike continues in East and North Darfur (9 September 2014)East Darfur teachers call open-ended strike (3 September 2014)