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Ammon News - Anas Damra

AMMONNEWS - Hundreds of public school teachers on Tuesday demonstrated in front of the Parliament, protested the continued stalemate in forming a professional association for teachers despite government promises.

Tuesday's protest comes on the third day of thousands of teachers going on strike throughout the kingdom.

The protesting teachers, joined with a number of education employees and parents of students, are calling for establishing a professional association for teachers that would work to safeguard their rights and improve their wages.

Protestors' shouts escalated as the organizing committee announced that a teacher in Irbid was suspended from work and referred to investigation for presumably taking part in the strike.

The recent teachers' escalations come nearly a year after thousands of kingdom teachers had waged widespread protests in February and March 2010 demanding teachers' rights.

The protests escalated following remarks by then Minister of Education Ibrahim Badran that were deemed offensive by many teachers and citizens.

Badran was replaced in a ministerial reshuffle last May, when former Prime Minister Samir Rifai appointed University of Jordan President Khaled Karaki to head the Education Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Lower House of Parliament on Monday requested an constitutional opinion from the Higher Council for the Interpretation of the Constitution on the legality of issuing a law to form a teachers' professional association.

The parliament's demand comes a day after thousands of teachers from throughout the kingdom went on strike demanding forming a professional syndicate and improving their wages.

The Lower House's inquiry pertains to whether the Jordanian Constitution permits legislating a law for a teacher's association for both public (Ministry of Education) and private sector schools.

The teachers' demand for an association escalated in February and March 2010, but the demand was declined by former Prime Minister Samir Rifai's government, who cited the 1994 decision by the Higher Council for the Interpretation of the Constitution that found the teachers' demand unconstitutional.