Are Teachers' Demands 'Endless'?

While the head of the Education and Research Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly claims to be 'unaware' of the strike by several teachers in various cities across Iran, the teachers' sit-in entered its second day on Tuesday, and a responsible member of the Coordinating Council of Teachers' Trade Unions in Bojnord has also been arrested. The two-day sit-in of teachers across Iran began on Sunday, October 14, and according to images published on social media, many teachers have gone on strike and held sit-ins in several schools in both small and large cities. The state-run news agency IRNA, affiliated with Hassan Rouhani's government, published an article on Sunday titled 'Endless Demands of Teachers,' stating that educators make up about one-third of government employees and that the education system has always faced budget deficits over the past decades. According to this report, despite financial promises made to teachers, any increase in their salaries would impose a 'heavy burden' on the government and the ministry, and its approval by the Guardian Council would not be easy. IRNA also confirmed the significant gap between teachers' salaries and those of other government employees and the failure to fulfill promises made to them over the years, quoting Mohammad Mirzadeh, the spokesman for the Education and Research Commission, who added that teachers 'have never been a priority in any of the Islamic Republic's governments.' Teachers in Iran have been protesting and gathering for years to voice their professional demands, but the government's response has been to promise solutions while cracking down on their gatherings and arresting teacher activists. In images from the recent two-day sit-in of teachers across the country, most of them hold placards with demands such as 'salary increase, effective and comprehensive insurance, school safety, equal education, opposition to the monetization of education, and freedom for imprisoned teachers.' The Telegram channel of the Coordinating Council of Teachers' Trade Unions in Iran, which published the call for this two-day gathering, wrote that specifically, teachers are protesting against 'low salaries, the imprisonment of teachers, the non-implementation of the Civil Service Management Law, the non-implementation of the ranking plan, the plundering of the Teachers' Reserve Fund, the full-time teacher plan, the violation of the right to free education for all, and the monetization of education.' The main slogan of the teachers is 'Health, livelihood, dignity, sit-in, and organization are the undeniable rights of all,' and in addition to demanding the freedom of imprisoned teachers, they are calling for salaries above the poverty line, the elimination of discrimination from the educational system, and the safety and standardization of schools. The request for school safety from teachers comes at a time when officials acknowledge the dilapidation of many schools in Iran, and recent news reported that a child named Donya Vaisi lost her life due to the collapse of a school wall in the village of Garmash in Sanandaj. However, there were also reports of possible assault on this young girl and staging the incident. Iranian teachers consider their salaries 'unfair' and protest against the high 'concentration' of students in classrooms and the low quality of education at all educational levels in Iran. In a statement from the Coordinating Council of Teachers' Trade Unions in Iran on October 10 addressed to teachers, students, and their parents, it is stated that 'for years, active and retired educators in Iran have suffered due to low salaries and have protested against budget cuts and the meager per capita funding for schools, as well as the unconstitutional burden of education placed on the shoulders of the people, and to express this pain and suffering, they are constantly engaged in interactive and protest actions.' This council has accused responsible officials in Iran of being 'blind and deaf' and added that they seem to 'only think about fat morsels and maintaining their power, understanding only their own profit-seeking and that of a few, as well as citizens from other nations.' The phrase 'citizens from other nations' in this statement may be a critique of the Islamic Republic's regional policy and the costs incurred to expand its influence in Middle Eastern countries. The statement mentions that the Teachers' Reserve Fund has been 'plundered' and 'about 18 million tomans have been stolen from each member's share, according to the statistics from the fund's investigative committee.' Teacher activists believe that the poverty line for the year 2018 was set at six million tomans by 'independent economists,' and based on this, Iranian teachers 'are practically below the poverty line, and public schools have become low quality and are run with the people's money.' They explicitly state that despite their years of efforts, 'the government and the state have not taken a single positive step to solve the problems' of educators, and security institutions and the judiciary threaten, exile, dismiss, and imprison demanding and justice-seeking teachers instead of 'dealing with the thieves and corrupt individuals in society.'