Khartoum — Teachers all over Sudan will embark on a one-day strike today to demand the implementation of eight demands, including better salaries and the payment of other financial dues.
Durriya Babiker, a leading member of the Sudanese Teachers Committee, confirmed to Radio Dabanga that all local strike committees are ready to carry out the strike. The teachers will resume their work as normal on Tuesday.
She said that the strike committees will hold a meeting on Thursday to evaluate the strike and may announce an escalation schedule for next week.
On October 16, the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee demonstrated outside the Council of Ministers’ headquarters in Khartoum and delivered a memorandum detailing their salary demands. September saw a number of strikes across Sudan over unpaid salaries and the failure of authorities to implement the promised 2022 salary structure.
Earlier this year, the teachers’ committee organised a nationwide comprehensive strike in protest of not receiving their full financial dues, such as back payments that were owed to them as far back as 2020.
In April, their strike efforts led to a meeting with Sudan’s chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council and Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, in order to review the committee’s unmet demands. A meeting with the Ministry of Finance agreed upon pledges which include salaries and shortfall in payments, as well as disbursing an Eid al Fitr grant.
The teaching delegation also asked El Burhan to abolish his recent decisions that impacted teachers, and to ensure that teachers would not be punished for “exercising their right to strike.”