The teachers have already officially suspended the boycott and restarting the teaching process, but the protests will not stop.
The Union of Teachers, in a statement to the media, says that the protests will continue "with all democratic and institutional forms, including periodic national university protests, until the assessment and resolution of the demands presented".
Meanwhile, the lecturers will hold the next national university protest, on Tuesday at 11.00, in front of the Central Corps of UPT.
STATEMENT:
Dear colleagues!
As you are aware, SPUSH addressed the President of the Republic on 03.11.2022, requesting a constitutional guarantee for the inviolability of the integrity of volunteer lecturers, who would go on hunger strike, a strike which was not at all inspired by desperation or lack of the intellectuals' hope for the fulfillment of their legitimate demands in the university premises, but it was stimulated by the immediate necessity of their fulfillment.
The escalation of steps followed by academic, assistant-academic and administrative employees came as a result of the indifference and arrogance of the authorities, who are responsible for the current situation. We are talking about both the Government and the relevant Ministry, as well as public higher education institutions.
We want to emphasize once again that the intellectual movement of the employees of public HEIs, supported by SPUSH, is a movement that aims to transform public universities into a place of knowledge and holistic development of the student.
Much has been said, but little has been done about the university, which, acting as a community of researchers in the service of the public interest, should be the priority of any government.
The successive governments are not able to bring the temple of knowledge to the level it deserves. Today this temple appears with a shaky reputation.
Trade union movements, in their focus, have the rights of employees, and in this case, the trade union organization of academic employees and academic assistants of higher education in our country could not be an exception.
Seeing with a critical eye and concern what is happening within the academic environment, we jointly considered that the truncated financial support has an impact on the quality of service to the student, so we turned to the Government, because despite its autonomy, it has the obligation to support and enabled the quality that this institution certifies.
To everyone's surprise, the Government was silent?!
The institutional silence provoked protests and the boycott of the teaching process, which affected its behavior in an escalation of its form, with Ngujimin on Hunger Strike. Mistrust towards institutions due to intimidation from inside and outside higher education institutions, subsequently, sowed civic and academic uncertainty, in the realization of this sublime act!
Faced with this critical situation, the Union of Employees of the Universities of Albania, interested in the normalization and successful development of academic life, decided:
1. The suspension of the boycott and the resumption of the teaching process, in order to fulfill our academic obligation, that of imparting knowledge to students;
2. The continuation of the protest with all democratic and institutional forms, including periodic national university protests, until the assessment and resolution of the submitted demands;
3. All kinds of protests, including strikes of any kind, continue to remain as the final option for the realization of all the demands of the Petition and beyond!
4. To hold the next National University Protest, on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, at 11:00 a.m., in front of the UPT Central Corps.
The readiness of the Governing Bodies of the Universities to partially contribute to the fulfillment of the presented requests: - 'with a modest increase in the salary fund', and this, only for the academic staff, not maintaining a clear position regarding the salary increase for assistant academic and administrative staff, presents us with another problem in Higher Education Institutions: - The need for transparency on their overall financial activity.
We believe in the support of every member of the academic staff, to carry out the process of evaluating the purity and professional integrity of university heads and university personnel as a whole, as the only opportunity to demonstrate academicism and seriousness from everyone involved in providing the noblest service of a nation, as is education.
The most valuable capital of a country is its human capital.
All together for "Public Higher Education, National Priority"
Our academic mission continues!