Africa-Press – Cape verde. eachers on the island of Sal joined, en masse, the demonstration scheduled for today, at national level, dressed in black shouting “enough” to the Ministry of Education, through the streets of the city of Espargos, positioning themselves later, in front of the School Delegation.
Sal Island: Teachers joined the demonstration en masse dressed in black as a sign of indignation. The peaceful demonstration, with the support of the Teachers’ Unions, took its starting point at Escola do Ensino Básico e Secundário Olavo Moniz (EBSOM), in Espargos, demanding “more respect and dignity for the class”.
Teachers from different educational centers and levels of education paraded to the area where the Delegation of the local Ministry of Education is located, shouting slogans and holding signs with various sayings, in a way of demanding what they consider to be rights acquired several years ago.
Representing teachers, Aissata Diarra called on the Government, the Ministry of Education, to review the situation and comply with teachers’ rights.
“We are fulfilling our duties, we are in the classroom, we want more dignity and working conditions”, he stated, noting that, in the case of Sal, specifically, there are still classrooms with 45/49 students.
“We don’t want that, we want quality”, he reinforced.
Also on behalf of the teachers, Alessia Brígida, lamented the fact that teachers were not “heard or listened to”.
“The ministry simply makes it for the teacher to apply, then all the blame falls on the teacher. The teacher is everything, he is responsible, but nobody respects the teacher, nobody looks after his rights”, he lamented, in a tone of indignation.
“We want to be valued, respected, have a say and a voice, be able to choose who we want to be at the head of the school to represent the teacher. Enough promising, it’s time for action”, he concluded.
According to Albertina Rodrigues, executive secretary of the Democratic Teachers Union (Sindprof-Sal), she said that there was a turnout of around 70 percent (%) and that, for the first time, she saw teachers united, in a “single language”.
“It was not a decision made by the unions, but by the teachers, and it must be respected. As has been said here, teachers do not have to crawl for their rights to be respected. The demands are old. Promises don’t go to the table,” she emphasized.
The union leader warned that teachers are ready to move on to other forms of struggle if their demands are not met.
According to an explanatory note, in 2022, the Government and teachers’ union organizations reached a compromise that provided for the resolution of all pending issues in 2023, which would a priori be converted into unlocking the frozen career for promotion purposes.
Also the negotiation of measures that would respond to all teachers’ problems, namely, the payment of the subsidy for non-reduction in workload, career transition, improvement in the career of teachers with masters and doctorates, reclassification, as well as a new salary scale for teachers and automatic promotion to all teachers before they retire.
However, as the end of 2023 approached, “despite the meetings held, none of these commitments were fulfilled and the problems that already existed were joined by others related, mainly, to teacher competitions for career promotion, the creation of the Statute of Monitors and Early Childhood Educators, among others”, reads the document.
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