​Higher education: Minister Abdourahmane Diouf announces a very good news for… 

  The Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Abdourahmane Diouf, announced a three-year plan to recruit 500 research teachers. “A three-year plan for the recruitment of 500 research teachers: 500 for this year, 500 for the rentrée 2026 and 500 for the rentrée 2027 is in progress”, a déclaré le ministre, adding that the Senegalese government will have recruited 1 500 research teachers in two years. Abdourahmane Diouf presided over the 15th Ordinary Congress of the Autonomous Syndicate of Higher Education (SAES), held on Friday 8 August 2025 at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD) on the theme “The health of research teachers and researchers in the context of working conditions in universities”. According to Minister Diouf, this massive recruitment of teacher-researchers will reduce the over-work of teachers and preserve their health. It also indicated that the SAES had submitted a number of claims to the government which was working to resolve them. As regards the question of the decree, Abdourahmane Diouf stated that the first payments had been made. “There are still some technical difficulties, but the government is working to relegate them”, he said, adding that the government had undertaken the implementation of an emergency plan to resolve the question of construction sites in the various universities. The health of research teachers is a painful question, given the working and living conditions in public universities. “We are here to put an end to all those factors which have a direct impact on the health of teachers, on their well-being and which can influence the performance of universities”, affirmed the Secretary General of SAES, David Célestin Faye. These factors have been linked to the shortage of teachers in universities for many years. “The recruitment of 500 teachers-researchers, announced by the government, could help to alleviate the situation, but the effort must be sustained and continued in the coming years”, he said. Mr Faye also underlined the deficit in pedagogical and classroom infrastructures. “There are indeed difficulties, but the SAES being a syndicate de réflexion, de proposition pose des progrès, mais propose aussi des solutions”, he said. The SAES calls for the continuation of the dialogue in order to be able to anticipate all existing difficulties. “We remain available and wish that the dialogue space be well defined and consolidated”. Célestin Faye affirmed that recommendations and resolutions will be submitted to the authorities at the end of the congress. Delegates from all Senegalese universities and trade unionists from the sub-region took part in the congress.