Teachers reject halfpayment

JAMBI: School teachers in the province rejected the provincial government's plan to only award them 50 percent of their backpay, saying it was against the compromise, which both sides had agreed to recently.

Muftar, a teacher of a state junior high school in the city, said all teachers would reject the provincial government's payment of only 50 percent of their backpay and would continue protesting until their demands were fulfilled.

"Both local authorities and the provincial legislative council should be consistent with the compromise they reached with teachers recently. Teachers should no longer be subject to extortion as they have battled hard to help improve the quality of education in the province," he said.

All teachers in the province staged a four-day demonstration last month in an attempt to force the government to provide their backpay. They resumed teaching after local authorities pledged to award them their full backpay this October.

The government in August announced an increase of around 30 percent in teachers' salaries, which took effect as of Jan.1, 2001. -- Antara