Statement on the crisis of education and teachers By the Palestinian educational coalition

The Palestinian educational coalition expresses its deep concern regarding the escalation of the educational process and the teacher crisis, and announce its rejection of all measures taken against teachers , demanding their professional and living rights. It indicates that its responsibility as a coalition aims at improving and developing the educational process, and as we are facing a continuation of the crisis and the inability of all sides for finding a radical solution, in addition to the absence of the unity of the trade union work. The coalition emphasizes that what is happening gets contrasted with the bright image that our teachers enriched during their participation in the “Global Teacher Prizeâ€‌, and in which one of the teachers succeeded to be one of the top ten finalist, to be the only teacher of the Arab world that achieved this global achievement . And therefore we would like clarify our following position:

First: We emphasize our respect for teachers role on national ,developmental, educational and social levels. Nations "as history confirms," come out from crises  and progress and development occur at the hands of teachers, who are considered as the pioneers of any progress and development ; whoever does not estimate the values and roles of teachers, is far from understanding the movement of history and its requirements.

Second:  We demand that all energies and capabilities be directed to teachers development and support, because teachers hold the future of our children in their hands and the future of our nation as well. We also call on all parties to deal with education and teachers matter as a first national priority, because we believe that talking about the quality of education in isolation from the attention to the teachers matters and rights is a fake discourse.

Third: We demand to increase education budget to at least 5%, when planning for the distribution of resources and budgeting by the decision-makers, because investment in the education of our children is an investment for a better future.

Fourth: We emphasize the illegality of the detention procedures against teachers . We recognize that these actions constitute a serious encroachment on freedom of opinion and expression, emphasized by the Basic Law and the Palestinian laws , in addition to the international conventions signed by the State of Palestine. Persisting in the teachers’ ignored demands relevant to social, economic and humanitarian security.

We affirm the right to exercise trade union action. We anxiously look to the process of the repeated strikes on the schools which negatively affect the educational process in different aspects.

Fifth: We emphasize that teachers issue is an issue of demands and legitimate trade union. We call on all sides, including the official authorities and teachers on the need to remain within this framework, and to reject any attempts to politicize it by any party.

Sixth: The immediate start for preparing and holding the elections of the General Union for teachers during the next two months and stop strikes and protests during this period, with the need to apply and implement what was agreed upon before the current crisis and retroactively.

Seventh: After the elections and the development of the General Secretariat democratically, we emphasize the need to begin a dialogue between the government and the elected General Secretariat with the participation of representatives of the Palestinian educational coalition and the related civil society organizations, to ensure the presence of a third party helps to overcome the differences, and facilitate reaching an agreement achieves the aspirations , rights of teachers and regularity of the educational process.