Teachers’ pay, privileges to be enhanced

KABUL (Pajhwok): President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai on Wednesday directed governors to allot land plots to teachers. He also promised an increase in salaries of teachers and other privileges.

Addressing a Teachers’ Day function at the Amani High School in Kabul, Ahmadzai pledged no one would be allowed to grab the land plots allocated to teachers by the Ministry of Education.

Ahmadzai ordered the Ministry of Interior to take concrete action to vacate the land plots that the Ministry of Education had allotted to teachers, but were grabbed by powerful individuals.

Acting Education Minister Farooq Wardak said 80,000 teachers had been allotted land plots. He urged Ahmadzai to give plots to 130,000 teachers during the current year. The salaries of teachers were less than other government servants, he acknowledged.

Ahmadzai ordered provincial governors to distribute land plots to teachers within six months. The Ministry of Education, private sector and banks should provide long-term loans to help teachers build their own houses, he said.

The president said a commission comprising representatives from the ministries of education, justice and finance and members of the commission on administrative reforms would bring parity to salaries of teachers and other government servants.

mds/mud