ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Striking teachers in Halabja province on Monday announced the decision to break their five-month-long strike, following a meeting with Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani on the same day. The majority of schools in the provinces of Sulaimani and Halabja and the administrations of Garmiyan, Raparin, and Koya have yet to open their doors for the academic year that began in September 2023. Teachers have since then been on strike over unpaid wages by the KRG, which has been unable to pay its civil sector employees regularly, on time, and in full for nearly a decade. The Halabja teachers’ rights protection committee, a group representing the teachers striking in the province, announced that they decided to end the months-long strike in a statement read to journalists late Monday night. The decision came hours after a meeting with Talabani, during which he promised the teachers that the government “will be in contact [with them] to meet their rightful demands.” “In my meeting with the striking teachers, I reiterated the KRG’s decision that with the amendment of the federal budget law, deserving teachers will be promoted and lecturers will be given official contracts within the legal framework and years of service,” said Talabani on X. Teachers demanded the KRG pay their salaries on time, hand out promotions where due, and offer contracts to non-contract teachers. “According to the statement released by the deputy prime minister, and in line with our meeting, as of tomorrow every teacher will be free to return to the classrooms,” Farhad Qadir, a representative of the Halabja teachers told journalists in a press conference after publicly reading the statement announcing the end of the strike. Qadir told Rudaw that teachers will wait until the federal budget law is amended in the Iraqi parliament, “if we see that there is stalling [on meeting the promises], we will restart all forms of civil protests.” Despite the announcement from Halabja, teachers in Sulaimani and the rest of the striking cities are yet to announce their official decision on the matter. However following the meeting with Talabani, the teachers announced they would meet to take a decision regarding whether they would break or continue their strike. Non-contract teachers, on the other hand, refuse to break the strike. Karokh Abdullah, a representative of non-contract teachers told Rudaw on Monday that they “did not participate in the meeting with Qubad Talabani nor in the teachers’ meeting,” so they will continue their strike. Since the start of the strike, the KRG authorities have tried to convince the striking teachers to end their boycott of classes. Last month the Sulaimani education directorate issued directives stating that if teachers are absent from classes 30 days after January 9, they could be fired, with non-contract teachers facing the same repercussions if they do not return to classes within seven days from January 16. Late in January, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which Talabani is an exponent of, and which effectively controls the local governments in both Sulaimani and Halabja provinces, called on teachers to end their strikes, stressing that it had “yielded no result.” The teacher strikes began in September after public servants went unpaid for around 90 days. Baghdad agreed to loan Erbil 2.1 trillion Iraqi dinars in mid-September to cover the salaries for three months. All three installments of the loan have been sent to Erbil, and the KRG is seeking another loan as it has failed to pay the salaries for the last three months of 2023. The KRG has repeatedly claimed that it needs over 900 billion dinars per month to cover its payroll, but with its oil exports through Turkey halted since March, it does not have the funds.
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