AMMAN/IRBID - Minister of Education Tayseer Nueimi on Monday renewed the government's support to establishing a teachers association “in line with the Constitution and the law”.

He made his remarks as a teachers’ strike continued for the second day in several towns amid controversy over the wisdom behind such a move.

The Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported that Nueimi, who met in the Southern Jordan Valley yesterday with representatives of teachers who started a work stoppage in several schools across the Kingdom, said that the government, since its inception, has been showing full support for establishing the association, adding that the issue was listed in the government's policy statement presented to the Lower House.

Prior to establishing the association, Nueimi explained that “there are constitutional and professional obstacles that should be removed, noting that the Lower House asked its Legal Committee to rephrase a question on the constitutionality of the association that will be sent to the Higher Council for the Interpretation of the Constitution, Petra said.

The agency reported later that the new version of the request for experts’ opinion was sent to the council, which ruled in 1994 that the association is not consistent with Jordan’s basic law. The rephrasing is hoped to solicit a different ruling that would be the green light to set up the syndicate for the country’s more than 100,000 educators, the majority of whom work in government schools.

The minister said that the government opened dialogues with teachers’ committees, especially the Committee for the Revival of the Teachers Professional Association and the Jordan Teachers Committee to discuss the issue, adding that “the dialogue with teachers will continue as the best path towards establishing the envisaged union”, according to Petra.

Meanwhile, teachers had mixed reactions to the work stoppage that entered its second day Monday in several schools.

In phone interviews with The Jordan Times yesterday, some teachers argued that the work stoppage is the best policy to place pressure on authorities to “take the whole matter seriously” and accelerate establishing the association, while others indicated that the strike is not the best tactic and it is against “the ethics of teaching”.

Ratib Ababneh, a teacher of English in the Bani Kananah Directorate in Irbid Governorate, said that all schools in the area went into a work stoppage yesterday and will continue the protest “until the government takes practical steps towards establishing the union”.

Asked if this procedure will be of negative affect on students, Ababneh said: “Even doctors went into strikes… for us [teachers] it is a matter of completing or not completing the curriculum as scheduled but for doctors, it is a matter of life or death.”

Biology teacher Saleh Hassan, in Northern Mazar, said that establishing the association has become an urgent matter and a pressing need for all teachers, adding that however, a strike is not the best policy because students will pay the price.

“Let dialogue be the policy and, if it does not work out, teachers may resort to other methods,” he said.

“I am afraid that certain parties aim at serving their personal interests from the strikes,” he added, questioning the leadership of the two committees that claim they are the representatives of all teachers. “I have no idea who appointed these people to speak for us and decide strike or no strike.”

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