Trend of the time? Lecturers are venturing into politics

Is it a trend or a demand of the time? A substantial number of university teachers or lecturers are standing in the parliamentary elections due to take place in Algeria on 12 June.

This comes amid a political deadlock dating back to the peaceful revolution of 22 February 2019, which is still continuing today.

Many students are also worried that their teaching and learning will be negatively affected if their lecturers participate in the elections.

For the Conseil National des Enseignants du Supérieur or the National Council of Teachers in Higher Education (CNES), this event is “a sign of good health and proof that the university community has finally decided to leave the bubble in which it shut itself during the 1990s”.

The CNES recalled that it had participated in the authority monitoring the presidential election of 12 December 2019, and that this experience had ‘whetted its appetite’. For the union, it was time for university teachers to become more politically active.

The CNES maintained its total support for all lecturers taking part in this election, according to Abdelhafid Milat, president of the CNES, who is himself a candidate in the election.

Academics offer an alternative

Individual higher education teachers are running in this political battle, either under the aegis of political parties or on independent lists.

It is a choice that is due to the political deadlock in which Algeria has found itself since the start of the peaceful revolution of 22 February 2019, which is still continuing today.

Abdelkrim Tiferganit, a lecturer at the University of El Afroune, 60km west of Algiers, has chosen to put himself forward as a candidate supporting a particular party, although he told University World News that he is not a member of that party.

He said it was an important new experience for him to try because of the country’s political stalemate and because academics could make a contribution.

Even if many of the political classes have decided to boycott the election, and if public opinion remains unconvinced about the relevance of an election in the middle of a political crisis, it remains the case that the involvement of university teachers could constitute a major turning point in this crisis, given that, in the past, this type of election was marked by the dominance of businessmen, many of whom are now in prison.

The academics, therefore, offer an alternative to the dirty money that undermined elections in the past.

Students worry about politician lecturers

However, the teachers’ decision goes against the determination of the students who continue to demonstrate every Tuesday, in spite of arrests, trials and all kinds of intimidation with which they are confronted.

The risk of seeing the campuses flounder in the political crisis has not been ruled out, given the depth of the divisions between those supporting a return to the ballot box and those who reject it. Each sticks to its position, and each maintains its accusations, making cohabitation even more difficult in the universities.

The students have already had to deal with many changes in their study programmes because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they now fear that this massive participation of their teachers in the elections will have an adverse effect on their courses, which are already difficult to comply with.

It is certainly an unprecedented situation, especially as the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has not reacted to the risk of seeing many lecturers deserting the campuses in the middle of the academic year, to go and try their chances in politics.