Africa-Press – Angola. The new proposal for the salary situation, presented by the Union of Higher Education Teachers, will merit a reassessment by the Government, the Secretary of State for Higher Education said yesterday in Luanda.
Eugénio da Silva stated that this review has to do with the need to find a compromise with one of the main points of the demands of the Higher Education Teachers’ Union.
As for scientific research and the continuing education of teachers, he said that a funding plan had already been drawn up to give consistency to this process.
He added that the issue of salary will be analyzed again on the basis of a proposal from the Union, specifying the participation of the ministries of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security and that of Finance, since it is a matter that transcends the competences of MESCTI.
In relation to scientific research, he assured that there were two important decisions taken, one already in execution, which is the funding of research programs via public notice”, said the Secretary of State.
Therefore, Eugénio da Silva acknowledged that some claims, presented by the Union, go beyond the competences of the Higher Education sector.
The Secretary of State was reacting to the strike of public Higher Education teachers, which began yesterday, due to the fact that the Union felt that the employer did not meet the demands presented.
The strike installed, for an indefinite period, is based on the failure to resolve four essential points of the eight contained in the claim book, of which salary improvement, health insurance, continuous training and funds for scientific research.
Little Adherence To The Strike
In the round made to a series of public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), the Jornal de Angola report registered a kind of division of opinions among the teachers.
Therefore, in several faculties it was found that many teachers joined the classrooms and taught normally, while a few, being in educational establishments, did not teach.
At the University Campus of the António Agostinho Neto University (UAN), for example, in the mornings, some rooms were full of students and the professors were working normally.
But, as a result of the announcement of the strike, in some classrooms, despite the presence of the teachers, the number of students was no more than 20 and a few classes were even at a loss.
Student Egídio Victor, a higher education student, has no doubts that the strike will harm students.
“We can have all the material and topics, but in any case, the interruption of classes greatly harms students”, said Egídio Victor.
Due to the disturbances that the strike may cause, on the University Campus, students are unanimous in defending that the authorities must resolve the teachers’ concerns as quickly as possible.
“We, the students, also make life plans based on the years of college and we would not like to live the same as we did in the academic year, in which we were more than two months without classes”, concludes Egídio Victor.
In the Faculty of Economics of the UAN, during the period of the morning of yesterday, it was remarkable the massive presence of students, but few professors.
But, at the Faculty of Engineering, the scenario was completely opposite, since there were more professors working than students present at the institution.
The secretary general of the Higher Education Teachers’ Union highlighted that the four points mentioned above were claimed to be structuring and of great importance for improving the quality of higher education in the country.
The academic year 2022/2023 officially started on the 3rd of this month. Last year, the Higher Education Teachers Union had already carried out a strike, interpolated on May 20, 2022.
In addition to the strike observed in Higher Education, the country has also registered, since yesterday, strikes by nurses at the General Hospital of Luanda and technicians from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
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