On December 2, Iranian teachers in nearly 50 cities across Iran held demonstrations to protest the Iranian regime’s lack of action and disregard of the demands that the teachers have been making for months since the start of the academic year.
Both working and retired teachers are demanding for a ‘classification plan’ to be implemented, which will divide teachers into five classes and have their salaries adjusted accordingly.
as well as the adjustment of the salaries of retired teachers and for other socio-economic problems they are facing to be addressed.
According to the Iranian opposition, “The rallies were planned and organized in advance. The Iranian Teachers Coordination Council, which had organized the rallies, had declared that the announced budget for teachers in the classification legislation is not enough and the government and parliament are just trying to put something on paper.”
In a statement from the council, they stated that the government has only allocated 25 trillion rials to the classification plan. Of this total, 12.5 trillion rials cover the needs of the teachers for the remainder of this year, with the rest being postponed until the next Persian year which starts in mid-March 2022 if enough funds are available. The regime’s own experts have stated that the plan requires double the allocated amount.
Iranian opposition highlighted that “Demonstrations took place in at least 66 cities in most provinces, including Tehran, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Yazd, Fars, Qazvin, Mazandaran, Khorasan, Kerman, and Sistan and Baluchestan.”
Teachers in the provinces of Tehran and Alborz gathered in front of the Iranian Majlis (parliament), while in other cities and provinces, rallies took place outside of the education ministry’s offices.
Among the slogans chanted during the demonstrations were, “Detained teachers must be released,” in response to the regime’s repressive actions towards the protests and demands, and “This nation has never seen such injustice.”
The President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi expressed her support for the protest rallies of the hordes of teachers across Iran.
She said, “Khamenei, Raisi, and his cabinet of IRGC terrorists and torturers squander the Iranian people’s assets to make bombs, missiles, and drones. Thus, they keep teachers and other sectors of society under the poverty line.”
The teachers, who have been protesting since September, are rightly disappointed at the regime’s disregard of the problems they are facing. The ratification of the legislation for the classification plan was delayed by the regime for several months, and they are now only addressing a small part of the problems.
The Teachers Coordination Council has also stated that the legislation to adjust the salaries of retired teachers was brought before the Majlis in the summer but has still yet to be discussed during the parliamentary sessions. A number of reports have suggested that the delay in ratifying this legislation is due to a number of MPs who are circulation petitions against it.
The Iranian opposition in this regard said, “The Iranian regime is literally stealing from the country’s teachers by maintaining their salaries at a low level. Many teachers have committed suicide in recent years due to poverty and not being able to provide for their basic needs.”
