Cape Verde: trade union celebrates national Teachers’ Day urging to improve the condition of the teaching profession and to protect it from COVID-19
On the Cape Verdean Teacher's Day, 23 April, the Federaçao Caboverdiana dos Professores (FECAP) has called for measures to improve the condition of the teaching staff and demanded that educators be put on priority lists for vaccination against COVID-19.
FECAP wants to seize the opportunity of the national Teacher's Day, under the slogan “Uniting voices for the valorisation of the teaching class”, for “a great reflection” on teachers and their appreciation, and proposes measures to improve the classroom environment and to prioritise the vaccination of teachers against the COVID-19 virus, the union’s General Secretary and member of Education International’s Africa Regional Committee, Abraão Borges, said.
For him, it is legitimate for teachers to demand more respect, recognition and appreciation, as it is “the right path for the future of education”.
Acknowledging the exponential increase of the COVID-19 infections, he regretted that “the pandemic scenario does not allow the realisation of great events that gather teachers”.
Teachers are “extraordinary, true heroes” in the time of COVID-19
Borges went on to underline that, like health, civil protection, police and military professionals, teachers have shown and are showing that they are “extraordinary, true heroes” in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. He also recalled that the fight for education does not stop countrywide, despite successive confinement measures adopted by authorities.
Union proposals to enhance the status of teachers
The FECAP leader also insisted that his union proposes to the Government measures to improve the career of Cape Verdean teachers, such as a new salary scale or the automatic promotion of all teachers who, in the light of the new career structure, are entitled to it.
The union also proposes to revise the law regulating the retirement of teachers at the end of their careers, similar to the one of national police forces.
It is particularly focusing on the appreciation of the career of pre-school staff and strives to improve their entire careers.
“The 23 April is celebrated since 1990 with the aim to honour the teaching profession. That is why, uniting the synergies and the voices of all teachers, the education workers will be dignified and respected,” recalled Borges, appealing to the Government to have teachers prioritised in the vaccination campaign against COVID-19.
