The Rights of Palestine's Teachers

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The rights of Palestine’s teachers are a story that has lived with us for many long years, going back to the days of the Zionist administration. Teachers’ strikes and teachers’ rights remain a constant presence in the movement of the Palestinian street, and there seems to be no seriousness about putting an end to this state of affairs so that it can finally settle. Educational policy in our country forces teachers to take steps they do not want to take, and those responsible do not show sufficient concern for solving the problems.

There is a basic principle we must all respect: if a teacher is respected and feels within himself secure and stable, the generation raised at that teacher’s hands will be psychologically healthy and capable of giving in the future. But if the teacher is burdened with worry, that worry spreads through the limbs of the generation, plunging the country into deep failure. This is a principle the Zionist occupation never respected, because respecting it did not serve its interest, and it is likewise a principle the Palestinian Authority does not respect, because respecting it does not serve its interest either. An authority of this kind has no use for respected people and an aware generation, zealous for its nation and homeland, and we should not expect it to take serious measures to commit itself to building the homeland and establishing an independent state.

There are a number of points that must be brought out regarding the teachers:

There are those who claim that the Authority has no money, and that teachers must therefore be patient, as others are patient. This is a lie. The Authority squanders and wastes money, and is reckless with the wealth of the Palestinian people, whether it comes from domestic work or from begging and foreign aid. There are countless thousands of people drawing high salaries without providing any service to the Palestinian people, and there is spending, luxury, and waste that no reasonable mind could accept. If the Palestinian Authority took steps toward rationalization, and lightened the burdens on the Palestinian people, a great deal of money could be made available. For instance: why do Palestinian factions receive money from the Palestinian Authority? Why are there such extremely high salaries for the heads of the security services and other directors? Why are there more than four hundred people drawing ministerial salaries? Why are there all these official cars that cost the people about two hundred thousand dinars every single day? And there are many more “whys,” all of them tied to expenditures that harm rather than help.

The teacher’s salary ought to be doubled if we, the people, are truly seeking to achieve stability in the teacher’s life, so that we can be confident he will devote his efforts to raising a great generation capable of saving the homeland.

…we will not succeed if we isolate ourselves from public causes and turn our backs on the rights of others. We ought to stand with everyone who has a just cause if we are to achieve the social cohesion, mutual support, and solidarity that protects us all from invaders, tyrants, and aggressors.

The Palestinian teacher is also burdened with the enormous volume of instructions pouring down on him from the Ministry of Education. There are educators within the Ministry who believe that Western educational thought is excellent and can be successfully applied in Palestine, and who, it seems, worship Western educational teachings. These instructions have gone so far as to greatly weaken the teacher’s standing before the student, particularly the unruly student who finds for himself political protection and armed cover. The teacher is deeply humiliated under the authority of the Palestinian Authority, and his dignity is continually violated; the Palestinian Authority must rethink all of its educational directives so that the teacher’s respected standing is restored to him, and so that we restore to the teacher his proper stature.

The security services interfere in the schools, and there are attempts to recruit teachers to spy on other teachers. There is factionalism in appointments, and the security services conduct a security screening of every candidate for a teaching post. This is a gross transgression and a great insult to the educational process. A teacher ought to obtain his position on the strength of his competence, not because he belongs to Fatah or Hamas, or because he is for or against Oslo. Shameful and disgraceful acts are being committed against our people, and against those who raise up the coming generations. The security services ought to be removed from the schools, and should not interfere in appointments and hiring. This repugnant Arab habit of political and partisan control over schools is loathsome, and constitutes a betrayal of God, the homeland, and the people. And if the official responsible for education is himself a person of proper upbringing and education, he must stop cooperating with the security services on questions of appointment and hiring, and must rely solely on the competence of the candidate for teaching.

We also ask teachers not to focus on salary alone, for questions of respect are very important, and ought rightly to be placed at the top of their demands.

In general, we need a revolution against ourselves, and things will never be set right unless we set them right with our own hands. Change is urgent, and the longer it is delayed, the closer we come to an internal conflict whose price we will all pay together. And these stupefied ones who refuse to hear the voices of the people are gambling with the future of the homeland and its citizens.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “حقوق معلمي فلسطين” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.