In what comes as huge relief to Afghan teachers, who remain unpaid for months, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF has said it will pay a fixed stipend for two months to support them. The UN agency will give $100 per month to them. The stipends of roughly $100 per month will be funded by the European Union and will be paid in Afghan currency afghani to some 194,000 primary and secondary school teachers for January and February, UNICEF said in a statement on Monday.

Afghanistan’s public education system, which was mostly backed and funded by western donors, suffered a blow last year after the fall of Kabul and the subsequent sanctions on the Taliban regime. Salaries have been unpaid for months as the country plunged into an economic crisis. 

Mohamed Ayoya, the representative for UNICEF Afghanistan, said, “Following months of uncertainty and hardship for many teachers, we are pleased to extend emergency support to public school teachers in Afghanistan who have spared no effort to keep children learning.”

In August last year, the US-backed Afghan government collapsed after the Taliban swept province after province, before storming into capital Kabul  unchallenged in its months-long military campaign whose scale and speed stunned the world. 

The Taliban’s takeover was followed by sweeping western sanctions, which further crippled the country’s banking and private sectors, leaving thousands of Afghan civil servants and teachers without pay. 

Six months in power, the Taliban not only has failed to win recognition for their regime but also rolled back much of the hard-earned gains. Secondary and higher secondary level girls aren’t yet allowed to return to schools by the Taliban regime despite severe pressure on the government.  

(SAM)