ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – After weeks of strike action swept the education sector in protest against the salary saving system, schools in the Sulaimani and Halabja provinces, Raparin and the Garmiyan bloc resumed lessons on Sunday.

Hardi Mohammed, Rudaw’s correspondent in Sulaimani, said teachers in Sulaimani and surrounding areas ended their strike action and resumed work.

In a bid to compensate for the days lost during the strike, principals have decided to open schools on Saturdays.

Examinations have already been postponed until May 14. They were supposed to take place on April 28.

An agreement between teachers and the education directors in Sulaimani stipulated that teachers would resume classes once they received their salaries under the new saving system.

Faced with mass strikes and protests among teachers and health workers across the Region, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) decided to revise the unpopular salary saving system and cap the saving proportion at 10 percent for low earners and 30 percent for high earners, while exempting those earning less than $336.

Some teachers in the Garmiyan bloc have continued their strike, calling for the complete abolition of the salary saving system, introduced in 2016 following a crippling financial crisis.

 

Photos: Sartip Othman