Iranian schoolteachers rising up to improve their conditions

Noura Bendari

Iranian schoolteachers are calling on new Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, to do something to improve their living conditions by raising their salaries.

The living conditions of the schoolteachers have been worsening for a long time now.

President Raisi criticized the demands of the schoolteachers on September 22, instead of giving them hope and responding to their demands.

He said the Iranian government had formulated a reform plan to address the problems of the teachers.

Known as the ‘Classification Scheme’, the plan contains several points that deal with the problems of the schoolteachers.

“Unfortunately, the schoolteachers demand the implementation of the financial aspect of the scheme, even as it contains many other aspects,” the Iranian president said.

He said the scheme aims to improve the status of the schoolteachers by preserving their identity and dignity.

“It also includes an aspect for improving the teachers’ livelihoods as well,” President Raisi said.

Nonetheless, the president’s comments stoked tensions even more among the teachers, especially on September 25 when more teachers staged protests outside education departments in different Iranian cities to demand the implementation of the classification plan and raising their salaries.

The schoolteachers threatened to abstain from going to work if the plan did not come into action.

Head of the Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly (parliament), Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said earlier that the parliament would consider a bill on the classification of schoolteachers.

The bill was approved by the Committee on Education and Research in the Iranian parliament on March 15.

It stipulates a raise of the schoolteachers’ salaries to 80% of those of university teaching staff.