Paktika teachers warn of mass resignations

SHARAN (PAN): Teachers of southeastern Paktika province complained on Friday they had not received their salaries over the past four months, warning of mass resignations if the situation persisted.

If the government did not pay their salaries soon, teachers would launch protests and stand down from their jobs, Hazrat Bilal High School Principle Abdul Hameed told Pajhwok Afghan News. There are 60 workers at his school in Sharan, the provincial capital.

Another Sharan-based schoolteacher, Mohammad Akram, said his salary was 4,000 afghanis (less than $80), but the government had failed to clear his meagre dues, leaving him and his family in trouble.

Mohammad Anwar, the headmaster of Hazrat High School in Mata Khan district, said that the teachers had been working harder than others government employees, but no one paid attention to their woes.

The salaries of teachers had not been paid over the past six months, acknowledged an employee of the education department. Requesting anonymity, he said the non-payment had left school staff in a state of frustration.

But Mohammad Shah Bawari, the acting revenue director of Paktika, said four-month salaries of teachers were outstanding. With all formalities for payments completed, the department had been faced with a paucity of funds in 2012, he explained.

myn/mud

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