Teachers to organise partial strike against 15 per cent lay-off decision

AMMAN — The Jordanian Teachers Association (JTSA has recently announced its intention to organise a partial strike next Tuesday in protest against the Civil Service Bureau’s new regulations dictating that all government directorates must end 15 per cent of their employees’ services at the end of the year.

All government ministries are required to provide an annual performance report for all their directorates’ employees, after which 15 per cent of those with the lowest ratings will have to be laid off, the regulation stated.

“This does not pose a problem in small ministries which will only have to let one or two employees go in each directorate, as they will lay off those with the weakest performances or those who are eligible for retirement. When it comes to teachers, who make up 55 per cent of all government employees, the equation changes,” said JTA Spokesperson Ahmed Hajaya.

There are around 100,000 teachers in the Ministry of Education, out of the total 200,000 government employees working in ministries, according to official figures.

“This means that each ministry directorate will end the services of at least 10 people,” Hajaya pointed out.

The JTA is also protesting the way in which the teachers’ performances are evaluated, as each directorate will review reports written by a teacher’s immediate boss, in most cases a principal, which “poses yet another issue”, according to Hajaya.

“It is illogical to only consider one person’s opinion in someone’s performance, especially if the evaluation might lead to something as serious as losing a job. A number of things can get in the way of a fair evaluation, such as personal preferences,” the spokesperson claimed, noting that it has been cited as a problem that teachers and principals have personally faced.

“Sometimes, there is no time to get to know all your employees in a big school, so those who aren’t as social and active usually get lower performance reports, even if their work is better than others,” said Lotfieh Farraj, a former principal.

Suzan Khouly, a teacher, said: “I had a principal who hated me over a personal dispute, so I would always get a rating much lower than what I deserved, which got in the way of my promotion. When she retired, the new principal gave me the evaluation I deserved and I was promoted the very next year.”

Another problem raised regarding the performance reports was its relativity, as someone obtaining a rating of 80 in a directorate might be laid off if the local average is high, while in another directorate the highest rating might be an 80.