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Teacher strike puts Tunisian kids' year of studies at risk

This school year might not be counted in the Tunisian educational system unless the striking teachers and the government can resolve their differences.
Students cross their arms to demonstrate they are listening carefully to their teacher at Al Hakim El Kassar Primary School in Tunis, Tunisia, September 16, 2015. Schools have reopened, with around 2 million pupils heading back to classrooms after a three-month summer break. Nearly three years after Taliban gunmen shot Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, the teenage activist last week urged world leaders gathered in New York to help millions more children go to school. World Teachers' Day falls on 5 Octo
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TUNIS, Tunisia — Teachers in Tunisia moved out of their classrooms and into the streets recently, hoping yet another strike would teach a lesson to those who control public education's purse strings.

The April 17-24 strike was the latest move in a long-standing feud that threatens to throw the school calendar so far off that administrators are threatening to declare what they're calling a "gap year." If that happens, elementary and secondary students would neither pass nor fail, nor would they receive any credit for their work this year.

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