Ei-iE

The Teachers’ Union of Senegal has struck back in response to a national parliamentarian’s call to implement repressive measures aimed at discouraging teachers and other education workers from striking.

In an effort to intimidate teachers, Senegalese Member of Parliament Moustapha Cissé Lô called striking teachers “unable people to be whipped”. The claim was made in front of the country’s Education Minister, Serigne Mbaye Thiam, who was defending the department’s 2016 budget at the time.

“We must ensure that whoever goes on strike either sees his or her salary cut, or we dismiss him or her,” said Cissé Lô. “If you do this for a year, no one will go on strike anymore. If the government would give me the country for a year, no one would strike.”

Marième Sakho Dansokho, General Secretary of the Teachers' Union of Senegal (SYPROS) and member of Education International (EI)’s Executive Board, was quick to condemn the MP’s comments. “It is with both scorn and concern that SYPROS has followed your delirious speech on the occasion of the vote on the Education Ministry’s budget,” she said. “What you said confirms your total ignorance as a people’s representative supposed to enlighten the government with courage and objectivity.”

Teachers and their organisations are “the principal architects of sustainable development in Senegal”, she said, adding that this development will never happen without quality education which inevitably requires quality, well-trained, motivated and supported teachers.

In response to Cissé Lô’s comments, Mr. Mbaye Thiam reiterated that “the right to strike guaranteed by the Senegalese constitution must be respected”. To further help reduce the tension, he said that “we must recognise the efforts made by the majority of teachers working in extremely difficult conditions.”