TEACHERS have reacted angrily to a government decision to scrap a $660 million (pound;453m) a year incentive fund that tops up their salaries by $60 a month.

In poorer provinces, such as Chaco and Missiones, that represents 25 per cent of teachers’ pay.

In response, the main teachers union is planning to resurrect the white protest tent that stood in front of the national congress building for 1,003 days, to the embarrassment of the administration of Carlos Menem. Called the “White Tent of Dignity”, it was dismantled two weeks after President Fernando de la Rua assumed office in December 1999 when he promised to set up the fund.

The decision to close it was announced by economic planning secretary Guillermo Mondino at a time when Argentina is facing economic collapse. All schools were closed last Thursday during a national strike.

Even while the fund existed, teachers complained of delays in receiving both the incentive and their normal salaries. The school year ending in December has been plagued by teacher stoppages. In some provinces pupils were locked out of schools for a third of the year.

A nationwide 24-hour teacher strike had been called before the government announced the ending of the incentive pay for next year. The strike was to protest against four-months’ arrears in payment of the incentive.

With the government predicting a shortfall in funds equivalent to 13 per cent of the national budget next year, the prospects for teachers are grim. Established in 1998, the incentive fund was by law designed to run for five years. But last year Congress scrapped an unpopular motor vehicles tax that provided money for the fund. Now the elimination of the fund altogether has added insult to injury.

“If this is how we end the year,” said Marta Maffei, head of the Confederation of Education Workers, “then I assure you that classes will not start in 2002.”