Defending Public Education in the Age of Austerity: A Crisis of Union Legitimacy in Tunisia

• In Event: Activism and Education Change (I)

Proposal

Unions have played a decisive role in promoting democracy and social justice in Tunisia. This article discusses a ‘silent strike’ of withholding student marks from administration by teacher unions in 2023. Based on interviews with 60 teachers, the article analyses teacher views on the role of the unions and on the ongoing protests. While unions are still considered the main defenders of public education, the article underlines an alarming level of dissatisfaction with their performance and with the latest union action in the context of renewed authoritarianism, rising nationalist sentiments, a debt crisis and global pressures towards austerity and privatisation.

There is no more central value to teacher unions than their dedication to public education, rooted in their belief that education is a public good, essential to the development of an educated citizenry (Casey 2012). Yet, in May 2023, a spokesperson for the Campaign against the Destruction of Public Education in Tunisia argued that unions were behind rising privatization by scaring parents out of public schools through protest action that is destroying public education. While this was an extreme and shocking statement for the Tunisian public, the latest teacher protest action that began in December 2022 has been a topic of heated public debate throughout the school year, within society as well as within the teaching profession. In April 2023, the courts rejected the lawsuit filed by parents against the two teacher unions for basic (Primary: years 1-6) and secondary (years 7-13) education. By July, the Ministry made limited concessions to the secondary education teacher union, while escalation continued with the primary union. Teacher salaries were a key element of union demands, as well as the regularization of precarious teachers and inclusion in education reform efforts. Compared within the wider North Africa region, average salaries in Tunisia are lower than in Morocco, but higher than Algeria or Egypt, when calculated in purchasing power parity (PPP). However, teacher salaries, like other public sector wages in Tunisia, have seen considerable erosion in real value over the previous years and decades. The decline in real income and in moral status has fuelled pressures to resort to private tutoring/ informal privatization, exiting the profession or seeking to leave the country.

The recent union action allows us to examine the changing perceptions and role of unions in light of austerity, a debt crisis and the democratization process that Tunisia has been undergoing since the Revolution that removed the regime of Ben Ali in 2010. Tunisia represents a unique case of unionism in Africa, the Arab region and the Global South. It is the Arab country where trade unionism was the strongest and most influential in shaping the outcomes of the uprising. Its famous umbrella union organization, the Tunisian General Labour Union, commonly referred to with its French acronym: UGTT (Union générale tunisienne du travail) was co-winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 for its role in Tunisia’ democratic transition. Apart from the role of union cadres in mobilizing during the Revolution against the former authoritarian regime, it also represented a key counterbalance to Islamist forces. The UGTT has been at the forefront of resistance to the austerity measures stipulated in an IMF agreement that has been waiting to be signed since 2022. The UGGT has received considerable media and scholarly attention. However, little research exists on sectoral unions, their relationship with the state or with the UGTT itself.

This research is the first to study teacher views on unions and union action in the Arab region and in Africa, in the context of scarce research on teacher views on unions in the global South more broadly. This presentation discusses a unique case of teacher mobilization, where two separate teacher unions engaged in a ‘silent protest’, where they withheld student marks from school and ministry administration throughout most of the school year 2022/2023. Based on interviews with 60 teachers from April to June 2023 in addition to union leaders, experts and other stakeholders, the presentation analyses teacher views on the defence of public education, the 2023 strike and the role of unions in the country’s politics more generally. It surveys the existing literature on teacher unions and the defence of public education and teacher views of unions and situates the Tunisian case within the literature on unions as interest groups vs. political machines, the impact of nationalist and populist politics on teacher protest and within the larger global (teacher) movements resisting austerity.

Author

• Hania Sobhy, Max Planck Institute MPI-MMG