Kurdistan unpaid teachers present three-scenarios plan in Baghdad for 78,000 staff contracts

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq — Representatives of unpaid teachers in the Kurdistan Region met with officials in Erbil and Baghdad to press for the formal employment of around 78,000 teachers, a delegation member said at a press conference in Sulaymaniyah on Tuesday. Spokesperson Mohammed Kamal said the delegation first visited the Kurdistan Region's Ministry of Education and Ministry of Finance on Monday before travelling to the capital. Kamal said the Kurdistan Finance Ministry had referred the case to Baghdad, after which the delegation met with the Iraqi parliament's Finance Committee, parliamentary blocs and Kurdish ministers in the federal government. According to Kamal, the Finance Committee backed including the file in the 2027 budget, while the parliamentary groups they met pledged to defend the teachers' rights. Kamal outlined three possible solutions: direct hiring through the 2027 federal budget, an arrangement under which the federal government covers the salary gap not currently funded by the Region, or filling the roughly 12,000 posts vacated over the past two years by retirements and deaths. The delegation warned that July salaries have not yet been disbursed, a delay they said could disrupt the school year. No further details on the talks were immediately available.