To avoid a strike, Egypt's government must remove Mubarak's overpaid 'rope dancers' from senior academic posts
Amira Nowaira
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 September 2011
"Egyptian universities seem to be heading for a major confrontation. Last week, more than 4,000 faculty members of various Egyptian universities met, perhaps for the first time in their history, and agreed to call a strike if their demands were not promptly met.
The demands are as simple as they are clear. All those currently occupying top university posts, mostly members of the now dissolved National Democratic party, should be removed from their posts and fair elections held to replace them.
A new salary scale should also be implemented. The huge income disparities between faculty and top positions are no longer acceptable....
For many decades now, the Egyptian government has blatantly and deliberately interfered in every aspect of university life. Top posts were filled through direct government appointments. Efficiency, academic excellence and leadership qualities were not recognised as prerequisites for these jobs.....
....Unfortunately, none of these promises have been honoured. For seven months, the government, still in the Mubarak modus operandi, has been stalling, quibbling and pursuing its policy of giving no more than promises....
The current crisis highlights the frightening split between the decisionmakers and the rank and file. The protests that are also shaking private institutions in Cairo, such as the American and German universities (AUC and GUC), reveal a similar split, even though the root cause of disaffection may be different, with private university students protesting against a steep rise in tuition fees and in solidarity with university employees who are calling for fairer wages.
To avert a strike when the academic year begins in October, both the government and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will need to understand that the rope dancers have to go, and along with them all the failed educational policies of the Mubarak regime...."
Amira Nowaira
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 September 2011
"Egyptian universities seem to be heading for a major confrontation. Last week, more than 4,000 faculty members of various Egyptian universities met, perhaps for the first time in their history, and agreed to call a strike if their demands were not promptly met.
The demands are as simple as they are clear. All those currently occupying top university posts, mostly members of the now dissolved National Democratic party, should be removed from their posts and fair elections held to replace them.
A new salary scale should also be implemented. The huge income disparities between faculty and top positions are no longer acceptable....
For many decades now, the Egyptian government has blatantly and deliberately interfered in every aspect of university life. Top posts were filled through direct government appointments. Efficiency, academic excellence and leadership qualities were not recognised as prerequisites for these jobs.....
....Unfortunately, none of these promises have been honoured. For seven months, the government, still in the Mubarak modus operandi, has been stalling, quibbling and pursuing its policy of giving no more than promises....
The current crisis highlights the frightening split between the decisionmakers and the rank and file. The protests that are also shaking private institutions in Cairo, such as the American and German universities (AUC and GUC), reveal a similar split, even though the root cause of disaffection may be different, with private university students protesting against a steep rise in tuition fees and in solidarity with university employees who are calling for fairer wages.
To avert a strike when the academic year begins in October, both the government and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will need to understand that the rope dancers have to go, and along with them all the failed educational policies of the Mubarak regime...."
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