While the last Council of Ministers did not mention the situation of teacher-researchers, the latter decided to continue their “dead universities” days that started three weeks ago.
Classrooms are empty and students revise on campus without knowing when they will be able to take their exams. For more than two months, the union of teacher-researchers of the capital has been demanding, among other things, the payment of additional hours and vacations for teacher-researchers for the last three university years.
In front of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of the University of Antananarivo, Toby tries to complete his classes with a friend. “Classes were interrupted so we couldn’t finish the program at all. There, we are working in a Facebook group. We help each other like that. It is very complicated and it puts us in difficulty. But teachers are like everyone else. They have to eat, pay their rent and they haven’t yet received their allowances on time”, she explains.
“We urge the state to address issues within public universities, as this recurring situation persists. We invest in transportation, only to find classes canceled. It’s imperative to rectify these matters, ensuring effective education and addressing teachers’ grievances, as students bear the brunt,” emphasizes Toby.
Until then limited to the capital, the movement of discontent among teacher-researchers has spread to the University of Antsiranana, in the north of the country, where they are threatening to interrupt their teaching activities. At the University of Fianarantsoa, in the south of the island, members of the teacher-researcher union have decided not to go to the end of the academic year.
Contacted, the communication from the Ministry of Higher Education indicates that the demands of the union of teacher-researchers no longer depend solely on the competence of the supervisory ministry, whether for the payment of allowances or the adoption of decrees relating to their status. A meeting with the Prime Minister is expected.