Thousands of teachers in Tunisia on Thursday started a strike demanding better wages, two days after the beginning of the new school year in the country.
The two-day stoppage followed collapse of talks between the government and the teachers’ union for pay increases and education reform.
There are about 70,000 teachers in Tunisia.
Repeated strikes by teachers last year prompted the Tunisian government to allow primary schoolchildren to promote to the next grade without sitting for exams.
The North African country is in the grip of an economic slowdown resulting from unrest that has hit the country since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Tourism, one of Tunisia’s main income sources, has also been hard hit by militant attacks.
–dpa
