WHAT IT MEANSPremature retirement of public university teachers [Archives:2008/1130/Local News]
Prof. Hasan Ali Mugali
Countries both in the Arab world and worldwide take care of academics working at their universities, exerting untold efforts to utilize them to the utmost and retain them as long as possible.
Such academics are afforded the necessary resources to continue contributing creatively to their fields, being asked to retire only when they no longer are able to work due to old age or illness, which typically appears after age 75.
However, contrary to the above, official minutes were drafted Aug. 21, 2007 featuring an agreement between former Prime Minister Abdulqader Bajammal, former Finance Minister Alawi Al-Salami and Civil Service Minister Hamoud Al-Soufi, providing that:
1- Teaching staff will retire upon reaching age 60 or after serving the state for 35 years.
2- Decisions regarding extending any teaching staff member's service will be canceled and that staff member will be retired immediately if a sabbatical decision has been made, even if the member is fully eligible for the sabbatical, but has never taken it throughout his or her academic service at the respective university.
3- The prime minister will make a resolution approving the extension of service of any teaching staff member if the respective university wishes to retain that member and further utilize of his or her academic services.
If applied accordingly, this retirement decision would remove talented academics from Yemeni universities and deprive retired teaching staff of their statutory right to complete their term of service, as specified in Article 31 of the Prime Minister's 1998 Resolution No. 238 issued pursuant to Article 58 of the Universities Law.
Article 31 sets forth the conditions for retirement, defining the end of the term of service at age 65, whereas the above agreement stipulates retirement at age 60. Therefore, this administrative resolution violates Article 31 of the Retirement and Pensions Law and Article 4 of the Civil Service Law.
The abovementioned resolution confiscates the legal right of teaching staff to continue their academic activity until the end of the statutory term, i.e., age 65. Additionally, this right allows teaching staff to apply for a five-year extension and then another five-year extension, even under contract, until that individual reaches age 75, unless he or she is unable to work due to illness or the like.
This flagrant interference in university affairs and requiring the prime minister's approval to extend the term of service upon arbitrary retirement, as per the above notorious ministerial agreement, violates the autonomy of universities.
Moreover, this invalid resolution connotes political, oppressive and ignorant impulses, potentially leading to detrimental outcomes. It only serves narrow illegal partisan ends, contrary to applicable laws and the Yemeni Constitution, and its achievement will be at the expense of scientific advancement and public interest.
Implementing the said resolution inevitably will evict those teachers dedicated to education, particularly given that a large number of professors don't attend the university setting, such as police and army officers, who are retired only by the departments where they work, not by the university, via presidential decree.
As the official responsible for executing general policy as well as running academic, administrative and financial affairs as per Article 13 of the Universities Law, Sana'a University Rector Khalid Tameem has done his best to prevent some risks related to this premature retirement resolution in an effort to maintain his university's pedagogical performance. Thus, he made several resolutions extending the terms of service for a number of retired teaching staff, given their considerable academic competence and irreplaceable talent.
What underscores the politicized nature of this retirement resolution regarding university teaching staff is the retirement list, which includes more than a third of university teaching staff, excluding those with government positions, those teaching at police or military academies, some Supreme Court judges, police and police directors, ministers and deputy ministers, heads of government authorities, military and judicial institutes, etc.
The resolution canceling an extension of service if a university approves a sabbatical for a relevant staff member is against the constitutional and legal rights of teaching staff who never have received a sabbatical throughout their academic careers. This is a right on par with other employee rights to accumulated leave.
By stipulating that the prime minister approve such extensions, the resolution concerning retirement at age 60 or upon serving 35 years will reinforce the subservience of Yemen's public universities to the state's executive apparatus.
The Universities Law sets the retirement age for professors at 65, extendable to age 75, pursuant to certain procedures in the law and the 1998 Ministers Cabinet Resolution No. 238. The wisdom behind such legislation is retaining academic resources represented by experienced, high-brow and professional university teaching staff.
Yemen's public universities can lead their society creatively and be a veritable fountain of brains and talent, as well as an instrument of reform and development – but only if they are financially independent from the executive authority, namely the Finance Ministry, by allocating their finances according to Article 3 of the 1998 Universities Law No. 18.
This article recognizes universities' financially and administratively independent juristic personality in implementing a fundamental constitutional principle provided in Article 27 of the Yemeni Constitution:
“The State shall ensure freedom of scientific research and literary, artistic and cultural achievements that comply with the spirit and goals hereof, as well as providing the instruments for them. The State shall provide all assistance to advance arts and sciences and shall encourage artistic and scientific inventions as well as artistic creativity.”
Not stopping this slaughter of Yemen's public universities will show the world and those observing the Yemeni situation irrefutable proof that public universities in Yemen are no home to independent thought, nor producers of free scholars and scientists, but rather mere administrative space controlled by the government – namely the Civil Service and Finance Ministries – and the political tentacles of the ruling apparatus.
Issuing this early retirement resolution shows that Yemen's ruling authority disrespects the academic and political consensus of Arab states and the world at large. The resolution constitutes an affront to the resolutions and recommendations of the Arab Higher Education Ministers, who met in Yemen itself, designating age 70 as the minimum retirement age for university academics.
Hasan Ali Mugali is a criminal law professor at Sana'a University.
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