The government appealed to striking teachers to return to the classroom as the work stoppage entered its second day Tuesday.
Secretary of State for Education Pok Than appeared on state-operated TVK on Tuesday night asking teachers to be patient and go back to work.
“Have pity on our new government which is beginning administrative and military reform in an effort to improve education and health care,” the Funcinpec-appointee said on the broadcast.
“So I wish to appeal to all teachers and professors to perform your teaching duties normally for the sake of the students, the young people of our nation.”
The Council of Ministers has established a committee including representatives from the Education and Finance Ministries to review the teachers’ demands, said Khieu Thavika, spokesman for the council. The Council of Ministers is the government’s top decision-making body, and would have to approve an increase in teacher salaries.
Furthermore, Khieu Thavika said, teachers are not the only civil servants demanding higher salaries.
“Civil servants in other areas, including the Ministry of the Interior and the police, want raises too,” he said Tuesday evening.
He said that reforming government administration, including shedding surplus staff, would allow the teachers’ salaries to be increased. Government leaders have pledged to reduce the number of civil servants, but have set no timetable.
Chea Sophara, the first deputy governor of Phnom Penh, said the government could afford to give the teachers a raise if it reduced smuggling.
“If the government cut off corruption where goods are imported, it could get the money for the teachers,” Chea Sophara said Tuesday by telephone.
Representatives of the 400 teachers on strike at the Royal University of Phnom Penh boycotted talks with Education Ministry officials on Tuesday, insisting on a meeting with Minister Tol Lah, who is also a deputy prime minister and a senior member of Funcinpec. He is currently in Bangkok.
“Now, we don’t know what to do,” said Bun Sok, undersecretary for the Ministry of Education (CPP). “If they refuse, we have no one to talk to.”
Pok Than speculated Tuesday afternoon by telephone that the teacher representatives needed more time to prepare for the negotiations.
The exact number of teachers on strike is still unknown. Strikes were confirmed on Tuesday at Tuol Tumpong High School, Baktuk High School, Sisowath High School and the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Primary schools remained unaffected.
Teachers currently are being paid $15 to $20 (57,000 to 76,000 riel) a month and are demanding a raise to $315.89 a month, an increase of more than 1,500 percent. The government offered a $5 monthly “bonus” to teachers nationwide on Jan 15 after threats of strikes from teachers at several schools in the capital.
The government has acknowledged the bonus is not enough but maintains it does not have the money to meet the raise demand, said Sam Bunheng, chief of the public salaries department at the Finance Ministry. He participated in a roundtable discussion broadcast Sunday on state-run TVK.
Teachers at Tuol Tumpong entered the second day of their strike by hanging signs on the school gates that read, “Teachers’ stomachs are hungry” and “Teachers strike non-violently for an appropriate salary.”
Un Sakada, the representative of the teachers of Tuol Tumpong High School said they continued to strike because they were still suffering.
While teachers sat outside, in some classrooms students were teaching each other in small groups and remained sympathetic to their instructors. “Our teachers’ salaries can’t buy one bag of rice,” said Nhek Phakdey, a student at Tuol Tumpong. “As a student, I spend $40 a month. Our teachers’ salaries are only $20. How can they live?”
(Additional reporting by Deutsche Presse-Agentur)
