Teachers across Algeria go on strike to protest low salaries and poor conditions

ALGIERS, Algeria — Teachers throughout Algeria went on strike Wednesday to protest low salaries and deteriorating working conditions, following demonstrations staged by students last month in an unusual outpouring of protest.

Students stood outside shuttered classrooms and roamed aimlessly on Tuesday, when teachers started a two-day strike.

The action by teachers and students comes at a time when public criticism of the government is becoming rarer. Teachers say the strike is significant amid a gradual shrinking of rights, including for women, the press and opposition parties.

The right to strike is "a right enshrined in the constitution,'' said Hafidha Amiréche, a long-time trade unionist.

Gas-rich Algeria has long taken pride in its free education system and the opportunities it affords students and teachers. Yet despite investing more on education than its neighbors — the country only spends more on its military — the school system has become a target of popular anger toward larger government problems including rising costs, corruption and a lack of jobs for skilled and educated workers like teachers.

Teachers say they're underpaid and educated young people are increasingly trying to emigrate out of the country in search of opportunities, with European visa applications steadily rising.

To address economic malaise, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has raised wages throughout his time in office, including for public sector workers like teachers who saw their salaries go up by 37% during his first term.

But teachers' unions say starting salaries were barely more than the minimum wage or unemployment stipends, and are hoping for more increases.

In 2019, demonstrators from across Algerian society took to the streets to protest a status quo that concentrated political and economic power in the hands of a small number of political and business elites. Public criticism of government officials and their policies has since become rarer in Algeria, which has increasingly clamped down on activism and the country's once-muscular trade unions.

Last month disillusioned students went on strike, organizing protests both at their schools and on social networks like TikTok to express anger about costly supplemental courses and old-fashioned curriculums they argue aren't equipping them to maintain stable, well-paying jobs.

''We're Generation Z and the AI revolution is already permeating our daily lives,'' says Lilya Saoudi, a second-year high school student.

Algeria's new Minister of Education, Mohamed Seghir Sadaoui has pledged to address some of the curricular concerns following a report from federal auditors highlighting the system's ''dysfunctions.''