Teachers’ Day in Afghanistan

Teachers in Afghanistan are paid lowest salary in the world.

Today is Teachers’ Day—3 Saur–in Afghanistan. On this day, schools remain open, and students celebrate with gifts, presentations and programs arranged for their teachers. The plight of Afghanistan’s teacher is untold. It has the lowest salary for its teachers in the world. Only around 6 percent of the budget is being used on education sector. Teachers are financially one of the worst hit people of the society. A teacher’s salary in Afghanistan is about 5000 Afghanis (100 USD). Above this fixed salary, teachers are faced up with another serious problem nowadays. The Government has been failed to give salary to majority teachers across the country for the last couple of months. According to the new system of paying salaries, teachers have to go to national banks for their monthly salary. Most teachers have been unpaid since last five to two months.

The other day i was traveling in public taxi to Bazaar. Two teachers talking in the taxi about the conditions, were saying they are unpaid since last five months. “Now we have to go to banks for our salary, make lines.  First of all many of us did not have a bank account for this. When compelled to open one, now we have to make lines an entire day to wait our turn for the salary. And at the end of the day, we are said, the Government has not transferred your salaries in your accounts,” the teachers were talking with each other.

On the other hand, such a serious issue has never been highlighted in media, neither the concerned quarters and Education Minister has bothered to notice the issue.

Other than the financial troubles, most of the teachers across the far-flung rural parts of the country are untrained and non-professional. Most of them have not completed their school graduation. Its all due to lack of professional teachers. The Government pays little attention in this regard. Professional teachers that complete their graduation from Kabul University in Teaching Profession are reluctant to join the unattractive profession in the country, where they are not paid salaries for months.

Officials of Education Ministry are attending symbolic celebrations today in Kabul. They make some speeches, praising teachers and their role in society. But nobody speaks of the troubles teachers are facing in Afghanistan.