الأهرام – الجمعة 16 مارس 2007

بحث الدكتور أحمد نظيف أمس الخطوط العامة للشق المالي الخاص بمقترحات الكادر الجديد للمعلمين، بحضور وزراء المالية و التنمية الادارية و التربية و التعليم.

و صرح الدكتور مجدي راضي المتحدث باسم المجلس بأن التكلفة الاضافية للكادر الجديد تبلغ 4.5 مليار جنيه، حيث سيتم منح المعلمين، فور اقرار الكادر، بدل تدريس بنسبة 50% من المرتب الأساسي و بما يتراوح بين 70 و 225 جنيه شهريا لكل معلم، و تبلغ تكلفة البدل 1550 مليار جنيه... و أشار الى أن هذا البدل لن يكون بديلا عن الزيادة السنوية المقررة للمعلمين، مثل بقية موظفي الدولة...

الله أكبر

1. 4.5 مليار

Givens:

Unless I'm mistaken, a مليار is 1000 million.

The average salary increase per month, as stated, is 148 [(225+70)/2] i.e. annually equals to 1,776 EGP.

Result:

4,500,000,000 EGP divided by an annual increase of 1776 per teacher gives us a total of 2,533,784 active and working public teachers in Egypt. That’s 3% of the population. That's also 1 teacher for every 33.3 persons. That's assuming that every single Egyptian, infants to elders, still go to school.

I don't know about you, but this shit doesn't make any sense.

2. بدل تدريس بنسبة 50%

This news headline made my day. It was written on the first page of Al Ahram newspaper (Egypt's official). I thought بدل referred to an extra bonus in a person's salary offered due to going an extra mile on the job. That's like getting paid for transportation if you live away from work, getting paid overtime for staying up late, or getting paid for borne risks if you're a fireman. THEY DON'T PAY بدل TO DO YOUR FREAKIN' JOB.

I think teaching is one of the noblest professions out there, but to actually have that بدل mentioned on the front page of our official newspaper, the one that gets shipped off to the rest of the world to read… that's just pure pathetic.

Is there any hope left in this country? I'd have said much more than that if only I haven't stopped swearing.