Teachers’ salaries ‘not paid for 18 months’

About 1.288 basic school teachers from South Darfur have denounced not receiving their salaries for 18 months, or since their appointment, they told Radio Dabanga on Thursday, 22 November. The teachers, who are threatening to stop working, accused the ministries of finance and of education to deliberately delay the payment of their salaries, calling these actions ‘insults and provocations’.Many of the educators decided to file a lawsuit against both ministries if they do not pay the salaries by next month. This threat comes after they held a protest in front of the buildings of South Darfur’s secretariat, when they hoped to be able to file a complaint to the governor against the ministries.Ikhlas Ahmed, member of a teacher’s commission in Nyala, told reporters on Wednesday that teachers are frustrated and that they will search for new sources of income. Ahmed added the teachers are suggesting that this school year will ‘collapse’.  At the same time, South Darfur Governor Abdul Karim Musa, pledged to resolve the problem and asked teachers to form a committee to meet him on Thursday. He asserted that they will discuss and resolve all of their problems during this meeting so that the school year does not collapse.See also: Camp residents: ‘No free education’ (20 November 2012)