The Gezira State Teachers’ Committee has announced the start of an open-ended strike, reaffirming its commitment to demands for higher salaries, payment of outstanding financial entitlements, and improvements to employment conditions.
Last week, the Gezira State Ministry of Education began recruiting recently graduated volunteers to work in schools in an effort to address the shortage of teachers.
The education sector in Gezira State has experienced weeks of disruption due to teachers’ strikes demanding better pay and the settlement of outstanding dues. The industrial action has affected the academic calendar as authorities seek to complete the compensatory school year following prolonged disruptions caused by the war.
In a statement, the committee said it had consulted its local field committees, which reported that individuals identified as members of the “Support Brigades” had entered 59 schools across the state, with one or two individuals assigned to each school. The committee described the move as an attempt to undermine the strike.
It also alleged that some school principals in one of the state’s localities had been subjected to harassment and threats by security authorities in an effort to pressure them into ending the strike.
