World Teachers’ Day
“Salute the teacher and revere him … for the teacher is almost an apostle
Do you know of someone nobler than … he who nurtures minds and hearts”[1]
Today, Thursday, October 5, 2023, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrates World Teachers’ Day[2]. This year, UNESCO chose the theme “The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage”, aiming to put the importance of stopping the decline in the number of teachers and then starting to increase that number at the top of the global agenda[3].
Meanwhile in Libya, this occasion takes place less than a month after the flood disaster that swept through the cities, towns and villages of the Green Mountain region “Jabal Al Akhdar”, in which thousands were killed and thousands more still missing. In this disaster, according to some sources, the city of Derna alone lost at least 300 teachers and educational mentors. Al-Nasr School for Elementary Education lost forty-five teachers, al-Zuhair Primary School lost thirty teachers[4], and the University of Derna lost twelve of its faculty members. These are all preliminary and not final figures, and they are likely to increase, as the number of missing people from the city still exceeds 8,000 people.
These, and all the victims of the storm that swept the region from September 8 to September 11, 2023, were not victims of a natural disaster, but rather victims of a political class that hold positions and responsibilities in the Libyan state, at all administrative levels of the state. To say the least, it is a failed class and not up to the level of responsibility. A class that reached positions of power and influence not because of its competence, but because of other reasons[5], most of which, if not all, have nothing to do with the will of people and or their choices.
The flood disaster in Jabal Akhdar, and especially in the city of Derna, exposed the inability of the executive political class, in the internationally recognized government and that appointed by the House of Representatives, to manage state institutions[6], whether civil or military. The disaster also revealed the capacity and ability of society, whether through individual initiatives or through associations and civil institutions, to provide material and moral support, in an astounding display of community cohesion and solidarity.
In the past, we, at Human Rights Solidarity Organization (HRS), have always to and called on the “Libyan authorities”, but today, considering the colossal loss of life and property, and in light of the poor response of state agencies to deal with the massive damage caused by the storm, we find it absurd to address those, whom there is no benefit to be expected from them. Therefore, we direct our call to activists in charities and independent civil society organizations, of the necessity of continuing to support the victims of the September 2023 storm disaster, as there are no authorities that care about them. Not a month has passed since the disaster, and now the failed political class has turned its attention away from the victims of the storm, to engage in its absurd rivalries.
The city of Derna has lost more than three hundred teachers, and the final number may be much more, and when the students and teachers who survived the flood return to their schools and classrooms, the psychological trauma and emotions will be intense. Civil society, and educational and medical services must start working now for that day, the day of returning to school.
Human Rights Solidarity
Tripoli – Libya
October 5th, 2023
[1] Aldiwan (Arabic Poetry Diwan): “Salute the Teacher”, a poem by Ahmad Shawqi, (YouTube).
[2] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): “World Teachers’ Day, 5th October”. The World Teachers’ Day, adopted by the 27th Session of the General Conference of UNESCO in 1993, organized annually since 1994 to commemorate the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 International Labour Organization (ILO)/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. This Recommendation sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions. UNESCO: “UNESCO, General Conference, 27th Session Resolution”, 15th June 2007.
[3] UNESCO: “World Teachers’ Day, 2023”.
[4] Teachers Syndicate of Derna and its environs: “Teachers from al-Zuhair School have passed away”, September 23, 2023. The syndicate’s Facebook accounts has many posts of the names of flood victims from different schools in Derna (link).
[5] Some of it came to power through corrupt political money, some of it through loyalty to foreign parties, some of it through alliance with rogue militias, and some of it through regional and tribal quotas.
[6] State institutions and agencies, all without exception, failed to take any measures or steps to avoid or at least mitigate the losses of lives and property, especially human lives. Meteorological centers in Italy and Malta sounded warning sirens on September 4 to warn of a hurricane that would hit the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. On September 5, the storm swept through Greece and Turkey, causing significant property damage, but limited loss of life. On September 6, about 20 people of Derna, including experts, met and issued warnings to the two governments about the dangers of the collapse of the Derna Valley dams. On September 9, the storm swept through the city of Al-Bayda and its surroundings, causing floods that killed at least 180 people. All these days and warnings, the failed political class did not take any measures to prevent or reduce the loss of life in the Al-Bayda region and its environs, nor in the city of Derna.
