University Professors Gave the Government One Week to Fulfill Their Demands

Members of the Faculty of Teaching in Egyptian universities gave the government one week to implement and fulfill their demands regarding their income, before escalating, as they also demanded the inclusion of assisting teaching staff, full-time assistant teachers and professors to the list.
 
The teachers participating in the Sixth Conference for the Faculty of Teaching Club which was convened, April 3^rd, have all agreed that in case of not reaching a satisfactory decision for all teachers, then they will arrange protests in all universities of Egypt, followed by a collective protest in Cairo University’s Club to discuss new forms of escalation.
 
Teachers have also demanded the inclusion of lecturers, assistant teachers, full-time assistant teachers and professors to the demands of increasing the income and abolishing all security applications which is sometimes requested in some academic and administrative activities such as the appointment or travel of  members of the faculty of teaching to conferences and scientific missions and tasks.
 
They also called for the need to the immediate release of political prisoners of Egyptian universities professors such as Dr. Essam Hashish (professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University), Dr. Mahmoud Abu Zeid (Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University) and Dr. Mohamed Ali Beshr (Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Monoufeya University) who spent three quarters of the sentence issued against them from the Military Court.
 
Teachers expressed their solidarity with Dr. Ibrahim El-Iraqi (Professor at Mansoura University) after he was referred to investigations upon security request, and called the professors of Mansoura University to protest in solidarity with Dr. Ibrahim.
 
Participants in the conference confirmed their adherence to the decision of the Fourth Conference of Teachers, held in November 2007, which refuses the intervention of security in the universities and insist on the need to improve the educational process as they considered the reform of Egyptian universities as “the infrastructure and the starting point for the reform of the nation as a whole”, pointing out to the importance of university education which is a continuous and renewable source of the national income.
 
In the Sixth Conference for the Faculty of Teaching, professors have called for saving the Egyptian education from the clear deterioration evident the poorness of intellectual level of graduates that would be achieved by increasing the governmental support to the university education, improving the living and professional conditions for members of the Faculty of Teaching. They also stressed on the need to improve the mechanisms of the university, increasing public universities and increasing the budget of scientific research.