Mali teachers strike over virus concerns as schools reopen

934

BAMAKO, June 3, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Teachers in the West African state of Mali
went on strike Tuesday, the first day schools reopened after being closed for
two months, over fears of inadequate protection against coronavirus.

Details of the number of students affected were unavailable, but seven
teachers’ unions are striking, officials said, in a move that will hit public
primary and secondary schools, as well as teacher-training colleges.

The government shut schools to curb coronavirus in late March. These
reopened on Tuesday, but only for final year students who are facing exams.

Sambou Diadie Fofana, the general secretary of Mali’s National Union of
Secondary School Teachers, told AFP that the strike was triggered by a “lack
of measures (taken) in schools to protect everyone”.

Authorities have recorded 1,351 coronavirus cases in the country to date,
with 78 fatalities.

Mali’s education ministry did not immediately respond about the number of
students and teachers who returned to school on Tuesday.

In a meeting with education organisations on Monday, Mali’s Education
Minister Mahamadou Famanta promised that facemasks and hand-washing kits would
be available in schools, local media reported.

Moussa Diallo, 41, a unionised public-school teacher in the capital Bamako,
said that soap and water had been made available in “several places” in his
school.

Malian teachers also walked out of classrooms in January — before
coronavirus hit — over a pay dispute.

Authorities had promised salary hikes in October 2016, which never
transpired.