The Autonomous Union of Higher Education in Senegal declared a 72 – hour strike in response to the continuous violation of the rights of families of deceased teachers and researchers. The Union noted that the government, represented by the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation made a commitment to “reintroduce the Decree, which was the subject of the claim, into the circuit of adoption of administrative texts.”
However, the commitment was not complied with by the government, and by the strike action, the Autonomous Union of Higher Education seeks to suspend all academic activities, administrative activities and trainings, as well as paid training courses.
The government’s failure to commit to the agreement with the Autonomous Union of Higher Education does not only violate the rights of families of the deceased teachers and researchers, but it is a violation of academic freedom on the part of the researchers and students. Families of deceased teachers should be entitled to receive any benefits due them, as a failure to bestow such benefits, and consequent strike actions have a toll on academics. Additionally, students tend to bear the consequences of these strike actions as the teaching and learning process comes to a halt. Government should ensure that such hindrances are removed to create an enabling environment for teaching and learning.
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