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PM urges teachers to reconsider strike, says students will pay price

By Omar Obeidat - Aug 14,2014 - Last updated at Aug 14,2014

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Thursday urged teachers to cancel their plans for an open-ended strike starting next Sunday, saying students will pay the price.

At a meeting with chief editors of daily newspapers and columnists at the Prime Ministry, the premier said the government agrees with the Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) that the social and economic conditions of educators should be improved, and the government is willing to meet their legal demands. 

But Ensour said some of the demands are hard to meet in light of “the difficult financial conditions in the Kingdom”. 

“With the current economic and financial conditions, the Jordanian society would also reject such demands due to their cost on the budget and the Kingdom’s indebtedness,” he noted. 

Ensour added that the planned strike would harm the interests of Jordanian families, as students would be left without education, noting that the strike would also harm the reputation of the association.

“Students would pay the price of this strike,” he said, urging the JTA, which is led by Islamists, not to go ahead with the planned work stoppage because it will be interpreted as a political move by a certain group to reflect regional developments inside the country, in reference to the Israeli war on Gaza.    

“The association is not the right place to implement political agendas. Those wishing to play politics should go to political parties,” Ensour said, noting that the JTA Law does not allow teachers to carry out strikes.

Meanwhile, JTA members held a protest outside the Education Ministry on Thursday as part of escalatory measures the association is taking to push for meeting its demands.

The protesters issued a statement reiterating their calls for amending the civil service by-law, improving teachers’ health insurance coverage and opening an investigation into the teachers’ fund, among other demands. 

The JTA said teachers are planning to start an open-ended strike as of Sunday, until the government listens to their demands.

Official figures estimate the number of teachers in the Kingdom at around 120,000. 

JTA President Hussam Masheh was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying that students will be compensated by extra lessons after the strike is over once the government approves their demands. 

The 2014-2015 school year starts on August 24, while next Sunday marks the first day of work for educators and administrative staff.

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