Thousands of school teachers of the Kurdish language in the disputed provinces of Kirkuk, Nineveh and Diyala are paid by the KRG as part of the Kurdish government’s efforts to keep the language alive in these areas. However, Erbil has failed to pay these teachers on time and in full for years - as is the case with over one million civil servants of the KRG - due to the financial crisis.
Dozens of these teachers held a protest in front of the Iraqi parliament’s office in Kirkuk, calling on the Iraqi government to transfer their payroll from Erbil to Baghdad.
“I have been a teacher for 32 years. We have been protesting on the streets since 2014 but no one listens to us,” Sayran Bahaaddin, one of the protesting teachers, told Rudaw’s Hardi Mohammed, blaming fellow teachers for failing to work seriously for their demands.
Some Kurdish lawmakers earlier this week tried to add a section to the Iraqi federal budget bill which would transfer these teachers’ payroll to Baghdad but they failed in their attempt after some Arab parliamentarians strongly opposed it.
The budget was passed on Monday after four days of trial-and-error.
Sabah Habib is a Kurdish lawmaker, representing Kirkuk province. He is also a member of the Iraqi parliament’s education committee. He told Rudaw that he would try to appeal the budget law in order to add the section about the fate of these teachers that was initially declined.
“We will take all legal procedures,” he said, adding that he would visit the Federal Supreme Court, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and political parties to meet the demand of the teachers.
Rudaw has learnt from the Iraqi education ministry that it is impossible to transfer these teacher’s payroll to Baghdad unless Erbil and Baghdad reach a high-level agreement because the budget has already been passed.
The teachers threaten to transfer their protests to Baghdad if the federal government fails to transfer their payroll.
