Teachers gather in 50 Iranian cities to protest against the failure to approve the ranking plan
Teachers in about 50 cities in Iran gathered on Thursday, November 10, to protest the failure to approve the ranking plan and other union demands.
Meanwhile, the Free Union of Iranian Workers has reported the arrest and beating of several teachers during a protest rally today in several cities in Tehran province.
According to this report, Masoud Farhikhte from the Islamshahr Teachers' Association and several other teachers have been arrested and taken to an unknown location.
The nationwide rally on Thursday was held based on a call from teachers' unions, and images of teachers' gatherings in front of education departments in the cities of Hamedan, Tehran, Qazvin, Qom, Pol-e Dokhtar, Dorod, Yazd, Bushehr, Saqqez, Zanjan, Izeh, Tabriz, Borujerd, Anzali, Aligudarz, Mamasani, Zarrinshahr, Shirvan, Ilam, Genaveh, Marivan, Qom, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Andimeshk, Shiraz, Gorgan, Khorramabad, and Jolfa have been published on social media.
Most of the slogans raised in these gatherings were related to the need to implement the ranking and equalization plan and the livelihood problems of teachers, including "livelihood, dignity, are our indisputable right," "Implement equalization without trickery," "We have always heard promises, but have not seen justice," and "Teachers are awake, they hate discrimination."
Meanwhile, some teachers in Bushehr wrote letters demanding the closure of the case of Mohammad Malaki, a member of the Teachers' Union, and the restoration of his dignity, and protested the forced redemption and dismissal of Mohammad Habibi, the spokesperson for the union.
Mahmoud Malaki, the Secretary of Education of Bushehr, was arrested in April 2011 by the Bushehr Intelligence Department for his trade union activities.
Mohammad Habibi Khozani was previously sentenced to more than ten years in prison (seven and a half years enforceable) on charges such as "propaganda against the regime" and "gathering and colluding to act against national security." He was transferred to prison in May 2018 and released in November last year.
However, the Ministry of Education's appeals board investigating violations sent a letter to the Shahriar Education Department in October of this year, announcing a final verdict and voting for the forced redemption and dismissal of the teacher from education.
In Kurdish-populated cities, including Saqqez and Marivan, teachers wrote in manuscripts that free, quality education is the right of all children, and they called for education in the mother tongue and attention to Article 15 of the Constitution.
In the final resolution of this nationwide rally, published by the Coordination Council of Teachers' Unions, the reason for today's rally is stated to be protesting the method of budget distribution and the allocation of a very small percentage of the country's annual budget to education.
The resolution also criticizes the 14-year delay in implementing the Civil Service Management Law for employees and retirees in education and training, as well as the violation of the right to protest law, severe security clashes with protesters, long-term imprisonment, beatings, expulsions, exiles, and various deprivations of protesters.
Working and retired teachers have gathered repeatedly in the past two months to protest the failure to implement the teacher ranking plan, the general outline of which was approved by parliament in June of this year.
If the ranking plan is approved and implemented, teachers' base salaries and benefits will reach at least 80% of university faculty members who are of the same rank and experience.
This is despite the approval of the general outlines of the ranking plan, its details have not been reviewed in the open court of the parliament for about four months.
Source: Radio Farda
