University professors question government promises in Libya

Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed – Osama Ali
The university academic year in Libya is still threatened with being halted at any moment. Although university professors suspended their sit-in, which they began in September, in early December, following an agreement between them and the officials of the Government of National Unity to meet their demands, they doubt the durability of this agreement, especially since the government’s promises have been repeated every time they announced their intention to hold a sit-in over the past years.

For years, university professors have been demanding rights that they describe as legitimate, such as the right to participate in scientific conferences, the right to send decisions to study abroad, sabbatical leave, and an increase in their low salaries.
At the end of last November, the General Union of University Faculty Members announced the suspension of the “comprehensive and open sit-in in higher education institutions,” after its agreement with the National Unity Government to implement the demands of university professors, noting its instruction to university professors about the necessity of amending the study plan to compensate for the sit-in period. In order to ensure the success of the academic year 2023-2024.
The union referred to the Attorney General’s letter addressed to the government regarding the necessity of directing the government’s Ministry of Finance to take the necessary administrative measures to implement Law No. 18 of 2023, amending the salaries of university professors, and to adopt it as a reference when settling their rights.

Although the House of Representatives issued new measures earlier this week to strengthen Law No. 18, Abdul Hakim Dakhil, a member of the University Faculty Union, doubts the authorities’ intention to settle the status of university professors, saying: “We have seen decisions and laws like this many times before, and none of them have been implemented.”
The head of the National Unity Government, Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, stressed the need to pay attention to university teaching staff members, provide appropriate conditions to perform their duties, and address the conditions of teaching assistants in accordance with the laws regulating this matter. At the same time, he pointed out that the return of students to classrooms is the responsibility of the government. He issued instructions to the Ministries of Finance, Higher Education, and Technical Education on the necessity of discussing the proposals submitted regarding the problems raised at the beginning of each academic year, and implementing them in accordance with the approved and available financial allocations.

The official “Our Government” platform reported that “Dabaiba stressed the need to pay the rights of faculty members according to working hours by applying the specified system so that the state can give faculty members their rights, and ordered the treatment of the conditions of teaching assistants who meet the legal conditions and continue to perform their duties, and that universities and higher institutes bear the responsibility of determining the numbers according to needs and compliance with the legal conditions,” stressing the need for the committee formed by the Council of Ministers to continue to follow up on the activation of the delegation file, implement the first phase of it, and pay attention to the top students and teaching assistants as they are important segments.

The platform indicated that Dabaiba asked the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the Minister of Technical and Vocational Education, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, to work on settling the conditions of university teaching assistants and disbursing their salaries according to the unified salary schedule, and issuing instructions to universities and higher institutes to implement directly through the financial window opened to them by the Ministry of Finance to facilitate procedures, which was objected to by the University Faculty Union, and led to its withdrawal from the meeting.

The day after the meeting, unknown persons kidnapped the General Secretary of the University Teaching Staff, Abdel Fattah Al-Sayeh, from the union headquarters and took him to an unknown location, which necessitated the implementation of protests and the issuance of statements supporting the union’s position and demanding the release of the secretary, while holding Dabaiba responsible for Al-Sayeh’s safety and calling on all national and international parties to intervene to ensure his personal safety.
Political, partisan and human rights groups supported these demands, most notably the Education Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, which held Dabaiba responsible for the fate of the captain, whose release they demanded, stressing everyone’s right to peaceful protest and not to respond to them with violence or enforced disappearance.
The union announced the kidnapping of a group of its members, including a faculty member from the city of Bani Walid and a member of the university professors movement.
Last week, the arrest of a Tripoli University professor by a security force from within the university campus renewed suspicions about parties behind the restrictions on the demands of university professors, as the Tripoli University Faculty Union threatened to suspend studies at the university if the detained professor was not released.

The union described the arrest of university professor Bashir Aribi as “kidnapping by an unknown party from inside the university campus,” demanding that the party responsible for his detention release him immediately. Two days after his arrest, the government’s Internal Security Service claimed responsibility for Aribi’s arrest, accusing him of “inciting faculty members at the college to stage a sit-in and stop classes.” In a statement, it explained that Aribi “ignored all efforts made to resume classes and attacked sovereign security institutions in the state, describing them as terrorist and repressive organizations.”

In this context, Dakhil told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed: “Incidents like this are further evidence of the lack of intention to settle the situation of university professors.” I believe that the matter is related to the fears of some parties about the strength of the union movement that was established by the University Professors Syndicate and the possibility that the idea of ​​unions will spread in other fields and constitute labor, professional and social pressures. I do not think that the lack of response has anything to do with paying money that is wasted in astronomical numbers in all directions.”
For her part, Farah Al-Zawi, a student at the Faculty of Science at the University of Tripoli, expresses her fears about the possible return of sit-ins, especially since the union announced its “suspension” and not its termination. She asks about the fate of her studies and her university colleagues.