The National Union of Higher Education Teachers of Angola (SINPES) today resumed its indefinite strike in protest against "miserable salaries" and the executive's reversal of priorities.

Speaking to Lusa, the general secretary of SINPES, Eduardo Alberto, said that the teachers had resumed the strike in view of the government's "silence" on the issues of salaries and health insurance.

In the last round of negotiations, he stressed, the government took responsibility for taking these concerns to the President of the Republic, but there has been no response so far

SINPES had suspended the strike on November 1, approving the return to classes, which had been paralyzed since October 24, 2022.

However, at the last meeting, on February 17, "where the executive's reversal of priorities was noted", no solutions were presented, the trade unionist pointed out

"When you can buy 45 vehicles worth a total of 9 million euros, this is a paradox. In a country that wants to be competitive and knows that knowledge is a lever for growth, there is no political will to increase salaries," he said.

According to Eduardo Peres Alberto, there are around 3,400 teachers in higher education, with an average salary of 373,000 kwanzas, while the salary of a full professor can go up to 593,000 kwanzas.

"You can't talk about improving the quality of teaching with this miserable salary," he lamented.

In a statement, SINPES stressed that the death of several teachers due to precarious medical care and medication is "recurrent". A "precariousness" that "stems from the poor remuneration" of the teaching profession, it said.

In the negotiations between the parties during last year's strike, there was a promise that two of the four demands in the teachers' list would be met, namely funding for scientific research and continuing training.

As for salaries and health insurance, the response to these two complaints remained pending and would be submitted to the head of the executive branch.