Teachers in Sudan’s White Nile state refuse to start new school year

Teachers in White Nile state said that they will not open the schools for the new school year unless they get a salary raise, can elect new legitimate trade unions and have other demands met.

Ibrahim Ali, a leading member of the White Nile Teachers Committee, told Radio Dabanga yesterday that the state's Ministry of Education reminded the headmasters in the state by phone that the new school year should begin last Sunday.

Demands

He said that the teachers sent a memorandum to the acting governor last Sunday with their demands: an increase in salary, dissolving the old teachers unions that are closely connected to the regime, electing new legitimate trade unions, dismissing the state’s general director of education and the director of secondary education, and an end to arbitrary relocations of teachers to remote areas.

The White Nile Teachers Committee urged all teachers not to go to school and to stand with them until all these demands are met.

In Khartoum state, the new school year was supposed to begin again on June 16 too, but this has been postponed until the end of this month.

University of Delling

The administration of the University of Delling in South Kordofan announced that the university would be closed because lecturers objected to starting the new year. On Sunday, Abdallah Abuhum, a leading member of the Alliance for Freedom and Change in Delling, told Radio Dabanga that the university earlier announced it would re-open on Monday. He pointed to the instability of the situation in the country and said that this made the lecturers to force the administration to close the university for an indefinite period.