Education crisis | Teaching staff at Al-Shaddadi educational complex go on general strike in SDF-held areas

Al-Hasakah province: Teaching staff at Al-Shaddadi educational complex in southern Al-Hasakah countryside have announced a general strike in Al-Shaddadi city, protesting low monthly salaries and demanding that schools be provided with the necessary supplies to complete the educational process.

According to SOHR activists, many male and female teachers at Al-Shaddadi Educational Complex have staged a vigil declaring that they would stop teaching until all their demands will be met, the most prominent of which is monthly salary increase to meet the high prices of essentials.

A few hours ago, Several male and female teachers participated in protest staged at Euphrates educational complex in Abu Hammam and Al-Kashkiyah towns in eastern Deir Ezzor countryside to express their rejection over the new educational curriculum developed by the “Autonomous Administration” in north-eastern Syria.

The protestors also demanded a monthly salary increase that is nearly 260,000 SYP, equivalent to only 57 USD.

According to Syrian Observatory activists, the teachers also demanded that school guards be appointed, and maternity entitlement salaries paid.

The protestors also called on the “teaching staff” of the “Autonomous Administration” to stop distributing the new curriculum in Deir Ezzor to make the students back to schools, as the students’ parents refuse to send their children to schools due to their rejection of the new curriculum. Teachers threatened to escalate protests if their demands ignored.

The teachers also called upon UNICEF to intervene to prevent the change of curriculum, as all schools have been adopting UNICEF’s curricula for several years.