Full Breakdown
Libyan Teachers’ Nationwide Strike Suspends the New School Year
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Teachers Strike Halts the New School Year
On September 13, the day schools were scheduled to reopen, teachers across Libya began sit-ins outside schools and government buildings in Tripoli. Two weeks later the teachers’ union expanded the protest into an open-ended, nationwide strike that has kept public-school classrooms empty in both the western Government of National Unity (GNU)-controlled region and the eastern area under Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army.
Background and Context
Libya has endured economic and political instability since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. A cost-of-living crisis, rising food prices and a volatile dinar-U.S.-dollar exchange rate have deepened teachers’ grievances over low salaries, unpaid arrears, insufficient benefits and deteriorating school facilities. In April, the rival legislative bodies of the west and east agreed on a unified national budget for the first time, yet the strike persists amid the broader schism that has fragmented governance since the 2014 civil war.
Official Statements and Responses
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah met with Finance Minister Rashid Boughofa and senior officials to discuss a proposal for a unified pay system covering all public-sector workers. The government described the teachers’ demands as “legitimate” but emphasized the need to protect students’ right to education.
Union leaders rejected the meeting’s outcome. Ashraf Abu Rawi, head of the Tripoli teachers’ union, said authorities had not taken the demands seriously and warned the Ministry of Education against reopening schools, warning that doing so would “lead to further escalation.” In the east, Mohammed al Jahawi, head of the Benghazi teachers’ union, linked the strike to surging food and living costs that leave many teachers unable to meet basic needs.
Parent Osama Abboud expressed support for the teachers’ claims but urged them to consider students’ futures and avoid abandoning classrooms.
Data and Statistics
- An education-budget brief prepared by Libya’s National Council for Economic and Social Development with UNICEF reports that 91 % of the education budget is allocated to salaries, with the remainder covering equipment and other school costs.
- The sector employed 560,000 workers in 2024, including roughly 270,000 teachers in basic and secondary education, in a country of about 7.5 million people.
- Law No 4, passed in 2018 by the GNU, regulates teachers’ salaries, allowances, health insurance and occupational protection. A 2021 decree raised pay in line with the law but did not settle outstanding salary arrears.
Verbatim Quotes
- “These are not demands, but rather rights — and rights have to be taken,” — Mustafa al Bahilil