Hail the teachers [Archives:2006/947/Viewpoint]

Editor
The Yemeni constitution is known to be one of the very good constitutions generally. The laws articulated within it promote law and order, freedoms, civil organization and even gender balance. To top the cake, the Yemeni government is one of the very few governments worldwide that supports international agreements and treaties. The state has ratified almost every existing international agreement, almost without any reservations at all. If there were to be a competition for defining the best global citizen, our government probably would win, of course only theoretically. This is because we could have the best systems, yet there is a huge glen between what is and what is supposed to be. Obviously, this is an old story, but what is relatively new is that unfortunately our government is somewhat becoming shameless about it.

In this issue you will read a report about tragedy of the education syndicates for two years now. There is almost no actual syndicate work in Yemen, and the little that there is, is being crushed under the ignorance and arrogance of some officials in the country in spite of all protecting laws. There has been a very good step forward when the government exempted girls from school fees recently. But this is simply not enough; education should be compulsory not only for free.

I believe that teaching is a noble profession. However, in Yemen teaching is one of the least financially rewarding professions and even one of the most looked down upon career wise. “Oh he/she is just a teacher” is a typical phrase we are used to. Not only school teachers get their souls drained off their bodies everyday, university professors are sharing the gloomy picture too. There is no country in the world that does with university professors like in our country. It is a massacre! Just when the university professors have reached their professional high and are able to give the most, they are forced to step down.

Education is the way forward. Other governments like that of Malaysia and Tunisia knew this long ago and invested a respectable share of their national revenues in promoting this sector. Many of the high technical and skilled jobs in Yemen are filled by international recruits because there is no local substitute. Yet, despite acknowledging this problem and working on enhancing the educational sector, all actions by the state today are pushing the wheel backward. I feel there is no worse act than humiliating teachers and threatening to make their living worse by either moving them to remote work stations, cutting down their salaries or simply firing them. I dread to think of the future and how our students are going to land up when they are old enough to participate influentially in the society. The education sector needs prime attention from the donors also. If the international organizations assisting Yemen truly want to help, this is what they should be working on now because this is what Yemen needs desperately.
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