ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Financed by its domestic revenue, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced on Sunday that it will offer contracts for all non-contracted educators, numbering around 38,000.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani made the announcement after speaking to a group of representatives of non-contracted teachers - a main component of last year’s mass teacher strikes across the Region.
“After listening to the wishes and demands of the non-contracted teachers, the prime minister has decided to offer contracts to all of the Kurdistan Region’s non-contracted teachers, which is about 38,000 people, on the KRG’s domestic revenue,” read a KRG statement.
Barzani thanked the teachers for continuing to carry out their duties and responsibilities despite the financial difficulties, the statement added.
The start of the 2023-2024 academic year was delayed for over four months in Sulaimani and Halabja provinces, in the Garmiyan, Raparin, and Koya administrations, where teachers went on strike over unpaid wages by the KRG.
The protesters demanded that the KRG pay their salaries on-time, hand out promotions when due, and employ the non-contracted teachers.
Ali Rauf, a representative of the non-contracted teachers, told Rudaw that the decision is set to be implemented within a month.
Barzani also decried the Iraqi federal government’s “unfair” treatment towards the Kurdistan Region, stating that Baghdad has offered permanent employment to nearly one million people in the federal provinces since last year, but none to people in the Region.
The Iraqi finance ministry announced in late 2023 that it had completed the procedures to permanently appoint over 376,000 non-contracted employees, including nearly 290,000 non-contracted teachers and administrators.
Unemployment is one of the biggest obstacles facing people, especially the youth, in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, leading thousands to leave the country every year in search of better opportunities, even risking illegal and hazardous routes.
