Teachers end month-long nationwide strike

Most public school teachers in the Republic of Congo agreed on Tuesday to return to class after having been on strike since 3 October, the beginning of the school year. However, the umbrella organisation of eight teacher trade unions, known as the Le college syndical des enseignants, warned the government that failure to respect its commitments to them would result in another strike on 6 March 2006, the first day of the next semester. Union representatives negotiated a settlement to the strike with the two ministries in charge of national education, the commissions on education in the two houses of parliament: the National Assembly and the Senate; and with the president's office. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso has ordered his office and the government to meet the teachers' demands. These include unfreezing funds for education in the 2006 budget; applying a 1991 presidential decree on education; and setting up a commission to integrating voluntary teachers into the civil service. "We had to suspend the strike so that our detractors would not have a reason to criticize us because now the authorities say they guarantee to resolve our situation," Paul Médard Bouélé, one of the union leaders, said.