Police used gunfire to disperse about 400 students demonstrating on Saturday in the Afghan capital in support of their teachers who are on strike demanding a pay rise, witnesses said. Officers fired shots into the air - although one said that it was in error - and cleared the students from a Kabul street where they had started to march towards the parliament, teacher Khan Agha told AFP.
"We had gathered in the school yard. About 400 of our students went on the street and demonstrated for our rights," he said. Hundreds of teachers from at least three of the main schools in the city stopped working early this month to demand an improvement in their wages.
"My salary is 3,000 afghani (60 dollars) while my house rent is 4,000 afghani. This is not justice," said Agha, one of 300 teachers from Habibia High School on strike. "We will not teach unless our salaries are not raised," he added. Teachers earn among the lowest civil service salaries in Afghanistan, where food prices have shot up in the past weeks as part of a global hike in prices.
The government is planning to hike teachers' salaries by between two and four times, depending on their rank, education ministry spokesman Hamid Elmi told AFP. However the plan, currently being debated in parliament, would take up to two years to finalise, he said.