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Photo: Euan Denholm/IRIN

Just 29 percent of Niger's 13.4 million people learn to read and write, according to the UN children's agency

NIAMEY, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - More strikes among primary and secondary school teachers have been met with violent protests in Niamey by their disgruntled students, and as separate protests erupt on university campuses, some observers are warning that the whole academic year is in jeopardy.

Basic education, which is only provided to 30 percent of Nigerien children, is widely viewed as one of the main pillars to reducing mortality in the desperately poor country.

However, since the start of the academic year last October, powerful unions controlling 24,000 of the 28,000 primary and secondary school teachers in the country have called almost two months of strikes at intermittent periods.

“We need a significant pay rise and we hold the government responsible for whatever happens,” said Mounkaila Halidou, spokesperson for the striking teachers. Teachers in Niger are paid the equivalent of between US$960 and $1,400 per year. Last year, unions rejected a government offer of a 10 percent pay rise.

The teacher strikes have been met with protests by students who have frequently rampaged through the quiet, tree-lined streets of the capital, Niamey, broken into government and private properties, and clashed with police, according to city residents. The students say they are demanding better conditions, including an end to the teacher strikes, provision of more books and other investment in their schools.

Meanwhile, the campus at the University of Niamey, the largest university in Niger, has also seen frequent disruptions this year as student unions there have organised large protests at least four times since March.

Moustapha Douka, spokesperson for the university students, said on private Dounia television on Tuesday that they want the reinstatement of six popular students, the release of others arrested during the protests, and the “demilitarisation” of their campus.

Several of the university protests have also turned violent, as students have set up barricades of burning tyres in Niamey, and thrown petrol bombs at police. On Tuesday, one soldier was “lynched”, according to Niger’s Interior Ministry, which declined to confirm whether the soldier was killed or wounded.

“The ongoing crisis at the heart of these academic institutions is jeopardising the whole school year for 2006-2007,” warned Garba Djibo at the National Association of Parents, a lobby group campaigning for improved education.

“If things keep going like this, I don’t think the year can be saved because the teachers will have been on strike for so long,” Djibo said on Wednesday.

However, Education Minister Ousmane Samba Mamadou said those fears are overblown. “Schools are not really menaced,” he said, adding that outside Niamey he did not believe the strike was being observed.

Mamadou went on to reject the teachers’ demands saying the government could not afford more than the 10 percent already offered.

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