After working as a teacher in one of Sana'a’s public schools for more than 20 years, Mohammed Al-Bashiri (51 years old) found himself on the sidewalk of Al-Nasr Street in the Sawan area of Sanaa, with a group of daily wage workers, waiting for any work that might earn him something to bring back to his family. Al-Bashiri, in his interview with "Khuyut", says that he has been working for daily wages for more than four years, after he sold all of his wife’s jewelry and belongings, and that he despaired of disbursing his interrupted salaries. He points out that he has tried to work in many professions, from which he has only earned a lot of fatigue and little money due to his advanced age and inability to practice some of them.
Al-Bashiri supports a family of six members. He returns to them most days empty-handed, due to a lack of work. He feels the pain and bitterness of life whenever he remembers that he is a government employee and a teacher, whose life is supposed to be more stable and better than this.
As a matter of fact, about 120,000 teachers in Yemen are suffering from severe tragic conditions due to the interruption of their salaries for more than 8 years, especially those in the areas controlled by the Ansar Allah group (Houthis), who are more numerous due to population density and more marginalized by the "Houthi" policy towards them.
Besides, the authorities of Ansar Allah (Houthis) have not only refused to pay the salaries of teachers and employees in areas under their control but have been forcing them for years to work without any financial compensation or reward. In addition to abusing and making accusations of treason against all teachers who may demand their salaries or object to the starvation policy being practiced against them, and so on, arbitrariness is practiced against many of them. Further, the authorities have dismissed many teachers from their jobs and replaced them with volunteers affiliated with them who are less qualified and experienced. Consequently, this threatens the progress of the entire educational process.
Royalties and Financial Levies Under the Name “Teachers Fund”
In 2017, the authorities of Ansar Allah (Houthis) established in the areas under their control what they called the "Teacher and Education Support Fund", which they said was aimed at disbursing and paying teachers' salaries and supporting the educational process. But, however, the group continued to argue that the fund was not successful and was not officially established until 2019. Subsequently, the legitimacy of the fund was discussed in Parliament council at the end of the same year, in which the law on its establishment was ratified and approved, which was issued in 2020 and put into effect. The minister of education, Yahya Al-Houthi, was appointed as the head of the fund.
On July 20, the Yemeni Teachers’ Club, a Syndicate representing all educators who work in public education in Yemen, announced a general strike in all areas controlled by the Sana’a authority of the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) until their demands are met, after long suffering and many false promises.
The fund collects large financial revenues. According to the law of its establishment, which allocated enormous resources to it from different places, including: 2% to be added to the Qat sales tax, 1% to be added to the customs duties on goods and commodities from the main ports, and 1% to be added to the value of foreign land, air, and sea travel tickets. In addition, 5 riyals are added to the value of each local cement bag weighing 50 kilograms, packed or bulk, and 10 riyals to the value of each imported cement bag weighing 50 kilograms, packed or bulk. Further, 5 riyals are added to the value of each pack of local cigarettes and 10 riyals to the value of each pack of imported cigarettes. 1% is added to the value of each telephone bill (landline or mobile) and Internet service.
Additionally, one riyal is also added to the value of each carton of local mineral water and all juices, refreshments, and soft drinks, and two riyals to the value of each carton of imported mineral water and all juices and soft drinks. Two hundred riyals are added when granting or renewing residence permits, entry and exit visas, and work permits for non-Yemeni individuals. One riyal is added to each liter of gasoline and diesel. 50% of the annual tuition fees, which have doubled to more than 1000%. Likewise, exorbitant royalties and financial levies are also imposed on merchants and the private sector, which has become obligated to pay them to this fund under the justification of supporting teachers and education in every period.
Despite these diverse and massive revenues that the group has been collecting for years and never tolerated or neglected, it has not fulfilled its obligations and has not paid teachers' salaries. As the teacher receives only one split salary per year, which is disbursed in two payments, the first on Eid Ramadan and the second on Eid Al-Adha.
In this regard, the economic analyst, Wafeeq Saleh, believes that there is no reason to explain the non-commitment of the Houthi authorities in the areas under their control to pay salaries; other than that, they are trading in the suffering of citizens and blackmailing the international community to put pressure on the coalition and the internationally recognized government in order to pay salaries in their areas. Saleh points out in his interview with “Khuyut”, that the Houthi authorities are dealing with the issue of employee salaries in areas under their control as a bargaining card and blackmail before the international community and the United Nations, and are exploiting human suffering in the country in order to achieve political and utilitarian gains for the group’s leaders and their narrow circles of power.
Teachers' Movement (Hirak)
On July 20, the Yemeni Teachers Club, a Syndicate representing all educators working in public education in Yemen, announced a general strike across the areas controlled by the Sanaa authority of the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) until their demands are met, after long suffering and many false promises.
In this context, Abu Zaid Al-Kumaim, the head of the Teachers’ Club, says to “Khuyut”: The club’s demands are very simple, which is to provide teachers’ salaries on a monthly basis, in full and without interruption. In addition to disbursing all previous salaries through a specific mechanism that is created.
The teachers' strike caused an almost complete paralysis of the educational process and stopped it in many areas. The club announced the strike after the club’s preparatory committee communicated with the leaders of educational unions and the directors of school districts in order to implement the strike process. Consequently, teachers responded by going on strike in most regions under Houthi control, according to Al-Kumaim.
On the other hand, Al-Kumaim says that the preparatory committee contacted the office of the group’s leader and put their demands on it. It also communicated with members of the parliament council, who raised the issue within the council, obligated the government appointed by the Houthis to pay teachers’ salaries, and summoned the Minister of Education, Yahya Al-Houthi, to attend the interrogation session, who refused to attend the parliament session more than once for unknown reasons.
In his post on Twitter, Member of Parliament Ahmed Saif Hashid said that the government did not attend the Council and that the Teachers’ Club submitted an urgent report to the House of Representatives (Parliament) against the Ministry of Education due to its disavowal of disbursing teachers’ salaries. It also issued through the education offices a directive to school principals to work with the emergency schedule in order to break the strike and warned of the consequences of this directive on the educational process and students.
The Intransigence of the Authorities
The club's movement caused a disruption and confusion among the Ansar Allah (Houthis) authority in Sana'a, which announced the distribution of a financial incentive to teachers in all its regions in the amount of 30 thousand riyals ($60) per teacher. The head of the Houthi Political Council has committed his government to regularly pay incentives on a monthly basis. On the other hand, Al-Kumaim asserts that the process of paying incentives was intended to silence the teachers from demanding their rights, and that about 90% of the teachers received those incentives and returned to continue the strike, which aims to receive their full and regular salaries.
In contrast, the authorities dealt with the issue in a crude and intransigent manner, considering that those demanding their salaries are merely traitors and agents of the coalition countries, and they—the authorities—have established many media campaigns to incite against them. The head of the Houthi-affiliated Political Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, said, in a recorded speech, that demanding salaries comes within an American plan that he has reviewed himself, which aims to destabilize stability, and that speech carried many threats against all those demanding their salaries.
It didn't just stop there; the authorities conducted widespread arrest campaigns against teachers and those participating in the strike in many areas. Al-Kumaim indicates that they are subjected to many threats and that the club has monitored many of the arrests conducted by the authorities. Subsequently, the club’s legal team followed up on the issue, and then the authorities released the detainees, some of whom had been detained for more than a day. However, the club's Secretary General, Mohsen Al-Dar, has been missing for more than a week, and no one knows his whereabouts yet.
Likewise, the authorities had launched a campaign on social media under the hashtag #Our_Salaries_From_Our_Oil_and_Gas, in order to incite public opinion against other parties, with another justification that employees’ salaries were paid from oil and gas revenues. In previous years, the authorities used the excuse of the lack of revenues and the closure of the port of Hodeidah before an agreement was reached between the political parties in 2018 that stipulated: to open the port of Hodeidah and to transfer the revenues of the port, customs, and taxes there to a bank account in the Central Bank of Hodeidah branch, in order to disburse the salaries in accordance with the terms of the Stockholm Agreement held at that time. This was confirmed by Essam Al-Mutawakel, the official spokesman for the oil company, in a video he posted on his Twitter account, where he said that oil derivatives taxes are being transferred to the Central Bank, as stipulated in the agreement since 2018.
In this context, Saleh says that the resources in the areas controlled by the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) have doubled significantly, especially after the full opening of the port of Hodeidah and the rerouting of container ship traffic to it. Consequently, the group has become dependent on huge revenues that are constantly growing and multiplying, while refusing to spend on basic services or pay employees’ salaries. Further, Saleh confirms that there are enormous financial resources controlled by the Houthi authorities, which are sufficient to pay the salaries of all employees in the Republic of Yemen on a monthly and regular basis.
