Kurdistan
Striking teachers swarm streets of Sulaimani in protest on January 3, 2024. Photo: Peshawa Bakhtiyar/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) education minister said on Sunday that they have requested Baghdad provide funding to offer permanent employment to non-contract educators, one of the demands of striking teachers.
“We have sent the list of non-contract teachers to Baghdad twice,” Education Minister Alan Hama Saeed told reporters on Sunday, adding that they are currently awaiting Baghdad’s response.
The commencement of the 2023-2024 academic year was delayed for over four months in the provinces of Sulaimani and Halabja and the administrations of Garmiyan, Raparin, and Koya, where teachers went on strike over unpaid wages by the KRG.
The protesters demanded the KRG pay their salaries on time, hand out promotions where due, and offer contracts to non-contract teachers.
The minister noted that he recently met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and discussed the financial entitlements of the Kurdistan Region’s non-contract teachers and asked for them to be treated the same as the rest of Iraq’s non-contract educators.
The Iraqi finance ministry late last year announced that it has completed the procedures to permanently appoint over 376,000 non-contract employees, including nearly 290,000 non-contract teachers and administrators.
“We have informed Mr. Sudani and others at the Iraqi government, that we, as the KRG, will be the ones offering contracts to the non-contract teachers once the funds have been allocated. We have only asked for the allocation… All of the Iraqi non-contract teachers have been permanently employed, all we ask is for our teachers to receive contracts,” Hama Saeed said.
Unemployment is one of the biggest obstacles facing people, especially the youth, in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, leading thousands to leave the country on a yearly basis in search of better opportunities even through illegal and hazardous routes.
The KRG’s Ministry of Education announced in January that it has agreed to hand out promotions “within the legal framework” and to sign contracts with teachers who are working without them “once the federal budget is amended and the financial entitlements of the Kurdistan Region are sent.”
The majority of the protesting teachers in Sulaimani, Halabja, Garmiyan, and Raparin ended their strikes following the ministry’s announcement. Many teachers, however, have continued to protest, mistrustful of the government’s promises.
The commencement of the 2023-2024 academic year was delayed for over four months in the provinces of Sulaimani and Halabja and the administrations of Garmiyan, Raparin, and Koya, where teachers went on strike over unpaid wages by the KRG.
The protesters demanded the KRG pay their salaries on time, hand out promotions where due, and offer contracts to non-contract teachers.
The minister noted that he recently met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and discussed the financial entitlements of the Kurdistan Region’s non-contract teachers and asked for them to be treated the same as the rest of Iraq’s non-contract educators.
The Iraqi finance ministry late last year announced that it has completed the procedures to permanently appoint over 376,000 non-contract employees, including nearly 290,000 non-contract teachers and administrators.
“We have informed Mr. Sudani and others at the Iraqi government, that we, as the KRG, will be the ones offering contracts to the non-contract teachers once the funds have been allocated. We have only asked for the allocation… All of the Iraqi non-contract teachers have been permanently employed, all we ask is for our teachers to receive contracts,” Hama Saeed said.
Unemployment is one of the biggest obstacles facing people, especially the youth, in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, leading thousands to leave the country on a yearly basis in search of better opportunities even through illegal and hazardous routes.
The KRG’s Ministry of Education announced in January that it has agreed to hand out promotions “within the legal framework” and to sign contracts with teachers who are working without them “once the federal budget is amended and the financial entitlements of the Kurdistan Region are sent.”
The majority of the protesting teachers in Sulaimani, Halabja, Garmiyan, and Raparin ended their strikes following the ministry’s announcement. Many teachers, however, have continued to protest, mistrustful of the government’s promises.
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