Teachers return to school in Brazzaville

Primary and secondary teachers resumed work on Monday in Brazzaville and other parts of the Republic of Congo (RoC) after a strike that had lasted more than six weeks. "We were tired of staying at home," Sébastien Ambala, the headmaster of Lycée Thomas Sankara, a secondary school in Brazzaville, said. A teacher union had asked their members to return to class on 8 November, after having been out since 3 October, the beginning of the school year. Trade union representatives negotiated a settlement with the two government ministries in charge of education and the commissions on education in each of the two houses of parliament. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso had ordered 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. Teachers are also asking the government to increase their allowances for correcting exams. The minister of primary and secondary education, Rosalie Kama Niamayoua, said, "By ending the strike, the teachers show that they are ready to pursue negotiations with the government."