Workshop on university teachers’ living conditions

A parliamentary workshop, held last Sunday, on the state of university teachers witnessed sharp altercations between university teachers and members of parliament, due to the poor salaries of teachers compared to their counterparts in the neighboring countries, a matter led a university professor to demand the government to step down for its failure to control the prices of hard currency.

The Parliament deputy speaker Hajo Gasm Asied, considered, the comparison of the salaries of Sudanese professors and teachers to their counterparts in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is unscientific, pointing to the vast production of the kingdom's oil and the economic hardship the country is going through, Hajo, however admitted the bad conditions of teachers as a part of the current situation of the country.

Hajo demanded a free hand to the Ministry of Higher Education and universities to increase the percentage of special admissions and seeking additional resources to improve the teachers’ conditions and to address the issue of their immigration, adding that the ministry should find practical solutions.

For his part, the MP Ahmed Hassan Kambal strongly denied any intention for the state to approve any increases on teachers’ wages, 

“If there was anyone who promised to increase your salaries, then he hasn’t told you the truth and let you hope on the impossible”. Kambal said, warning them by adding that “There are thousands of new teachers who would like to take your place.”!

Meanwhile, the Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions Teachers (AUHET) warned that the country might lose, in the medium and long term periods, the ability to generate more teachers, adding that it is likely 2500 university teachers will leave the country by the end of the year, including assistants who received doctorate and masters, professors and owners of high-level positions at universities.

The teachers criticized the MPs who left the workshop and directed criticize for teachers before listening to responses, the workshop hall prevailed angry speech by the participants teachers who described the MPs talks as empty.

The chairman AUHET Omar El-Tom defended the presented papers and described it as scientific stressing that the issue is not political and the teachers should be fully granted all their rights calling for a establishing of a new salary structure.

“Our problem is a financial and if the government is incapable of controlling the U.S. dollar and riyal, they should step down”, said Alfatih Eliasa’a, university teacher.

For his part, MP and leader in the ruling Congress Party Alameen Dafalla admitted existence of injustice on teachers describing the work environment as encouraging, adding that teachers who currently work in the country are making a sacrifice, “I am afraid that one day we will not find a single qualified professor because of immigration” he added.

In the same context, a paper on the immigration of university teachers prepared by AUHET and presented in the workshop, revealed that the first reason for the immigration of teachers is to build a family home which estimated by 55% of teachers, indicating that 84% of teachers desire to immigrate compared to 10% who are unwilling, while 3% said they want to immigrate for owning a car and 12% for conducting scientific researches due to the lack of structures locally.

According to the study, there are some departments at universities have no assistant teacher who holds a doctorate, expressing fears of adopting the decision by the higher education that will prevent lecturers with no doctorate from teaching in the year2015, the paper noticed that the brain drain was mostly at the universities of Khartoum, Sudan, Gezira, Alneelain and Omdurman Islamic university.

The workshop recommended further improvements in special allowances for the university teachers including allocation of 30% of the special admissions, graduate and diplomas higher studies revenues for teachers.