TRIPOLI: A teachers' strike over pay and working conditions is disrupting schools across Libya and delaying the start of the new academic year.
Teachers began protesting on September 13, the day schools were due to reopen, staging sit-ins outside schools and government buildings in the capital, Tripoli. Two weeks later, the teachers' union escalated the campaign into an open-ended, nationwide strike across public schools.
Teachers say low salaries and deteriorating school conditions have pushed them to act. "These are not demands, but rather rights — and rights have to be taken," said Mustafa al Bahilil, head of the teachers' union in Ain Zara on Tripoli's southern outskirts.
Teachers face difficulties ranging from a lack of computer labs to desks so worn out that they are unusable, often forcing staff and parents to pay for equipment themselves.
Teachers have also joined the strike in Benghazi in eastern Libya. The country has been divided between rival administrations in the east and west since a 2014 civil war. Mohammed al Jahawi, head of the teachers union in Benghazi, said the strikes were driven by surging food and other costs which had left many teachers unable to meet their basic needs. — Reuters
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