Teachers’ Strike Enters Second Month

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The Minister for General Education Ustaz Daniel Wuor Jock last week conducted a meeting with all the Counties and Payams Education Directors to influence teachers to end up the ongoing teachers’ strike.

Jock urged the education directors across the state to convince teachers and return to their classes to give their normal lessons.

The teachers were expected to return to their ordinary duties after receiving the July’s salaries while waiting for the disputed June’s salaries.

However, since Monday, no teacher has reported back to their workplace.

Upper Nile teachers’ strike which has forced all government primary and secondary schools to close commenced on 29 July and has now completed one full month with two parties, the teachers and the state ministry of education not convincing each other.

The state minister last week explained that South Sudan is surviving within a difficult austerity measures asking teachers to understand the situation in the country and start their normal duties.

“These are our children and they are the future of this country, we should teach them,” Jock said.

In the recent development after teachers have refused to respond positively to the minister’s call to stop the strike, authorities in the ministry have called for an inclusive and urgent meeting of teachers with ministry to conclude the dispute.

“This announcement serves to inform all the primary and secondary school teachers in Upper Nile state that there is going to be a general meeting in the education ministry’s meeting hall on August 29, all are asked to attend,” said the Director General in the Ministry Ustaz Lul Ruei Dhuol.

Teachers have been commenting that they would not start teaching without receiving their June’s salaries adding that they protested for June’s salaries not July’s.

Last month in the beginning of the strike, teachers blamed the minister of being rough in one of the meetings warning to dismiss teachers on strike and replace them with jobless people on the street if they don’t stop the ongoing strike.

“He blamed us that we have no patriotism. That we don’t love our country and we must go and teach or else he would look for jobless people to come and occupy our positions,” said one of the headmasters who asked not to be named adding that the minister should know that “not every educated person on the street can be a teacher. He needs to have teachers in the class not jobless people.”

“We would be ready to listen to the minister if he were soft but it is unfortunate he was not,” he added.

If teachers don’t begin their lessons until next week they will have entered the second month of their strike with students and pupils staying at home without getting lessons and authorities not able to solve the problem.