Monitoring Desk
HERAT CITY: Dozens of school teachers on Wednesday complained their salaries were not paid for the last four months, warning to boycott classes in the new academic year if their problem not resolved.
The teachers gathered in the provincial council, said that Herat exchequer requested the teachers’ initial employment letter in order to pay their salaries.
Khawaja Mohammad Nadir Seddiqi, head of Teachers Association in Herat, told Afghan media that most of the teachers had no employment letter because they have been teaching since 30 years.
“We support transparency in the administration, but the exchequer has requested the initial employment letter from teachers, something that is not available with most of teachers because they were serving their duties since 30 or 40 years and such documents are missed during the past several decades of war,” he said.
Sayed Abdul Wahid Rahmani, one of schoolteacher in Herat said, “Less salary from one side and the government’s new demands from another side is hurting us, teachers did not receive their salaries since the last four months.” Farzana Ahmadi, another teacher said they would not attend classes in the new academic year if their salaries not paid.
Meanwhile, Sayed Khalil Kabarzani, a provincial council member, stressed on solution to teachers problem and said the education would not improve until the problems teachers facing not solved.
However, Khalil Moeed, administrative and finance manager of Herat education department, confirmed the problem and said the teachers’ documents process issue was somewhat resolved with the exchequer office.
But he said that the reason behind delayed salaries was delay of receiving budget from the Ministry of Education.
Pajhwok tried to contact Herat exchequer office for comment on the issue, but failed. But governor’s spokesman, Jailani Farhad, said that the salaries of a number of teachers were still not paid by the ministry and the local administration was closely following the issue.
