Iranian teachers have been actively working for years to fight for their rights and have incurred expenses; from imprisonment to job deprivation and other costs that have targeted these professional activists; a society that they are nurturing; but the spokesperson for the Coordination Council of Cultural Trade Unions in an interview with “Khat-e-Solh” says that there is a consumerist view towards teachers.

According to this trade activist, the salary received by an employee is the most important issue that determines their life, but when it comes to teachers, clear discrimination occurs. Eskandar Lotfi, a trade activist for teachers and spokesperson for the Coordination Council of Cultural Trade Unions, explains this discrimination in an interview with “Khat-e-Solh” by giving an example: “Suppose a teacher has a score of 1500 that should be multiplied by 3040. The resulting number will be the base salary of that teacher, but for example, if we consider the judicial system outside of this rule, if the score of an employee in the judicial system is 1500, their coefficient will be fourteen times higher than the previous employee whose coefficient is 3040; meaning the value of each score for an employee in the judicial system is fourteen times higher than that of the other employee [in this case a teacher].”

A discussion on ranking, living conditions, and the rights of cultural society in Iran is a lengthy one. In this issue, the monthly magazine “Khat-e-Solh” has attempted to address various aspects of this field in an interview with the spokesperson of the Coordination Council, and to sit at the feet of these humanizers of Iranian society; a society that after years of civil action is now realizing that there is no other way but field actions left for them.

You can read the explanation of the interview with Eskandar Lotfi, a teacher activist and spokesperson for the Coordination Council of Cultural Associations, in the monthly magazine “Peace Line” below.

According to Masoud Mir-Kazemi, the head of the Organization for Budget and Planning, it has been reported that “we can expect employees to tolerate a decrease in their salaries.” In your opinion, are the current living conditions of teachers such that they can tolerate a decrease in their salaries?

Our country has experienced inflation rates of forty, forty-two, and forty-three percent in the past forty years, except for the year 1374 when we experienced a forty percent inflation rate. This level of inflation has been unprecedented for Iran in the past fifty years. In these circumstances, it has been said that the financial resources allocated for increasing employee salaries have come from selling properties, but according to Hemmati, the former head of the Central Bank, the Central Bank’s reserves have been used to cover employee salaries. In other words, they have printed banknotes. This printing of banknotes has increased the country’s cash liquidity eight times during the Tadbir and Omid governments. The purchasing power of all employees has decreased in general and they are struggling to meet their daily needs. Buying a house or a car is not a priority for young employees. They have a hard time meeting their basic needs. With these conditions, on what basis does Mr. Mir-Kazemi have such thoughts

Masoud Mir Kazemi expects not only employees to tolerate salary reductions, but also teachers who are part of the employees. What is your opinion?

Teachers in recent years have faced double oppression in the field of public service management. This law on public service management initially opened doors of hope for teachers, allowing them to receive appropriate salaries and benefits like other employees. However, unfortunately, this law deviated from its intended purpose much sooner than expected. For example, Article 64 of the law set a coefficient for all employees in all departments. Factors such as job position and other related matters determine this coefficient, which is then used to calculate the salary increase for employees. The same applies to pensioners and retirees. The principle was to have a uniform salary system, meaning that salaries would be evaluated based on factors such as years of experience, educational qualifications, and courses taken, and the result of this evaluation would be multiplied by a monetary coefficient. For example, if a teacher has a score of 1500, their salary would be multiplied by 3040. This number becomes the base salary for that teacher. However, if we look at the

It seems that based on recent statements by officials, the implementation of the ranking plan is not feasible in the new government. What is your opinion on this matter?

The head of the program and budget and the education commission of the parliament announced that a budget of approximately 200 trillion tomans has been allocated for ranking. What they say is not the reality. Seven hundred and fifty thousand teachers will be included in the ranking. To be more precise, the amount of employment for teachers with less experience to those with thirty years of service and a doctorate degree ranges from four to eleven million tomans, with an average of around seven and a half million tomans. At the same time, if we consider the university faculty, for example, an instructor – the lowest rank in the university faculty – receives a minimum of ten million tomans. An assistant professor receives around thirty million tomans, with an average of around twenty million tomans. If we consider the predicted eighty percent average in the ranking bill for teachers, the average salary for teachers will be around sixteen million tomans.

Currently, the average salary for teachers is seven and a half million tomans; meaning that in an 80% adjustment, an increase of eight and a half million tomans is imaginable for all teachers. With these calculations, approximately seventy-seven trillion tomans have been considered for the ranking budget. In comparison to the two hundred trillion tomans they have considered, it is about one-third. Considering that this bill will be implemented from the first of Mehr instead of the first of Farvardin, this amount will also be halved. However, the problem is that they have not considered sustainable resources to provide the ranking budget and intend to obtain resources through the sale of properties, tender papers, and shares. Considering what happened in the previous government in the stock market, it is unlikely that they will be able to obtain such credit from these sources. The main demand of teachers is for sustainable resources to be considered for ranking teachers.

The bill for ranking in the open session of the parliament has been raised and various discussions have been held regarding its budgeting. What is your opinion? Do you have any information about this?

We are facing two approaches regarding ranking. It is still unclear whether this ranking plan will be implemented by eighty percent or just increase the salary coefficient for teachers. The main infrastructure problem for educators in terms of rights and benefits is the government’s failure to comply with existing laws to provide for teachers’ rights. These laws exist and there is no need for a new law to be passed in order to secure their rights. If the same laws that have been previously passed – for example, the Civil Service Management Law – were implemented from the beginning, many of the financial problems of educators would be solved. The coordinated payment system for employees of executive agencies is based on evaluating job factors. If this executive law were implemented, all salary recipients, retirees, and employees would be included in these benefits, which would help establish the main structure of teachers’ salaries. This is a weakness that teachers have compared to other institutions, as I mentioned at the beginning of the conversation. If these laws were implemented systematically and did not

The issue of ranking has been raised since 1392, but the previous government was unsuccessful in implementing it, even when it had the support of the parliament. Why?

Ahmadinejad’s government put the ranking bill in the new government’s hands in the final days, without considering any credibility for it. Rouhani’s government also dragged this bill to the final days during its eight years in office, although some colleagues have different opinions and express that Mr. Nobakht had considered and determined the necessary credibility and the place for it, but in reality, he also postponed it to the final days and this process continued until it reached the new government. The new government openly announces that it does not have a budget to implement this plan, which is its most important part. If they have not officially stood against this budget and have not removed it from the agenda, it is because the ranking bill has been a two-party issue in the parliament and it is not possible to return it to the government; meaning the government cannot take back this bill.

With these details, the discussion of ranking and excellence has turned into a political conflict between governments, and the victims of this conflict are teachers and financially vulnerable groups. Every government that finishes its term hands it over to the next government, which is not politically aligned with it. Do you think this understanding is correct?

Yes, that is completely correct. Some of the events that happened in the previous government may not have been very ethical and may put the new government in a difficult position, but the problem is the passing of power between governments. Eventually, this issue must be resolved and the budget that is considered for ranking should come from a stable source; meaning that every year, this budget for ranking can be provided from that source. A floating budget and a material whose resources are not yet determined creates this ambiguity that they may not fully implement it at any moment; meaning that this year they may implement a part of it and the next year they may cut a part of it. This is a problem that governments often face by passing it on to the next years and the next governments, which in a way hinders its implementation.

The bill has undergone significant changes. Various percentages have been proposed for it and there is no output. Is the reason for this uncertainty and lack of clarity in sustainable resources?

The reality is that Article 68 of the Ten-Point Public Service Law has been published somewhat unrealistically. The government has an extraordinary authority to add up to fifty percent of its service personnel to its workforce. In 2016, the government, considering its budget, set the ceiling at thirty-five percent, meaning that in the past five years it has not been fifty percent, as it has been in the government’s possession and has been considered for twenty-five percent of the institutions. This article gives the government the authority to allocate this to thirty-five percent of its service personnel. The government allocated this thirty-five percent to some institutions and considered twenty-one to twenty-five percent for education; although they had promised to raise it to twelve to thirty percent. Then they adjusted it for non-teachers, as non-teachers (new teachers) were subject to double injustice. This twenty-five percent coefficient is about three million tomans for someone with thirty years of experience, but for a non-teacher it

The spokesperson of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly has stated that one of the issues that is being used as an excuse to criticize the government’s inefficiency in society today is the implementation of the teacher ranking bill, which if implemented accurately, requires 145 trillion tomans in funding, while the previous government had only allocated 5 trillion tomans for its implementation. You mentioned the amount of 77 trillion tomans. Why did the previous government only allocate 5 trillion tomans for this matter?

Before, the government had considered a floating budget instead of a specific budget to secure the ranking budget, which was supposed to be funded from the sale of assets but it didn’t happen. According to statistics, three hundred and eighty thousand teachers have a high ranking, one hundred and forty thousand have an experienced ranking, ninety-two thousand have a superior ranking, sixty thousand have a basic ranking, and seventy thousand have a preliminary ranking. The total of these is the number of human resources that have a job ranking in the country’s education and training services, and this number is included in the ranking plan. The budget needed for ranking this number of human resources in one year is the same as seventy-seven trillion tomans. The numbers that the Education Commission or the Head of the Planning and Budget Organization have stated are to show the magnitude of the work, not the actual reality.

Many teachers believe that the exceptional special program is primarily implemented for all special employees, but nevertheless they have put it as a ranking for head teachers and even this has been implemented imperfectly. What is your opinion on this matter?

I presented that they have allocated an extraordinary special offer of up to thirty-five percent to many institutions and many institutions have benefited from these advantages. The group that had the least share in the special offer is the community of teachers, but unfortunately any kind of increase in education and training has a widespread media reflection. In other institutions, we see a multi-million increase in salaries without any media reflection, but the smallest salary change – for example, if they give fifty thousand tomans as a bonus to teachers – has been mentioned many times in the media. In a way, intentionally or unintentionally, they put the society against the teachers, which in my opinion is intentional and conscious, because they make any salary increase seem big. No one remembers the amount of the increase, but as soon as it happens, it is reproduced in the media. They have created a conflict between society and teachers, which fortunately has been moderated in recent years with teachers’ access to virtual space and social networks, but it still

The economic situation of teachers is very dire; to the extent that the salary of a freelance or contracted teacher is below one-fourth of the poverty line, according to estimates. With this situation, is it really possible to expect such a teacher to work with motivation?

Teachers who are subject to labor laws (such as private school teachers and teachers in non-profit schools) are subject to double injustice. These teachers work for private employers, but according to labor laws, they receive less rights and benefits. They are also subject to double injustice from their employers, as they have hourly contracts instead of full-time contracts. In hourly contracts, if they are insured, a large portion of their money is deducted from their salary and goes towards insurance, instead of being paid by the employer. This is a reality for a large portion of private school teachers. These teachers are honorable and work diligently, but when their financial situation becomes more and more difficult, it will undoubtedly have a direct impact on the education process, even though privatization and commercialization of education only leads to its decline and creates divisions. On the other hand, unskilled workers are hired as free labor in private schools and even government schools, which naturally harms education.

Mr. Lotfi, you are the spokesperson for the Council of Coordination of Cultural Organizations. What is the Council’s opinion on this matter?

The council has recently emphasized in a statement that if a part of the teachers’ demands are not addressed by Mehr month (September-October), they will take to the streets; meaning they will call for protests across the country and possibly demand a teacher strike and non-participation in virtual classes. The council has sent numerous letters, petitions, and negotiations to relevant authorities (both the Education Commission and the head of the Planning and Budget Organization and the judiciary) regarding the specific demands of the teachers’ community; therefore, there is no other option but to resort to street actions for trade unions, and we will witness street protests with the coordination of the Coordination Council.

You mentioned field protests. We currently have teachers who have gathered. Are they fundamentally against the ranking? What is the reason?

No, they are not against it. Fortunately, for the first time in the country, young teachers have entered the field of action and are practically leading and guiding the protests. These teachers have the lowest salaries and the highest financial needs. Their housing and basic living needs are not met and they receive very little in terms of salary and benefits. The increase in salary for new teachers is less compared to those with more years of service. These teachers agree with the ranking system, but at the same time, they also agree with the revision of their salary base; meaning that according to the Civil Service Law, their salary base should first reach an acceptable level so that they can receive more benefits based on the ranking system. Fortunately, their protests have a national and widespread scope; meaning that they have joined the protests from small towns to the largest cities. Their protests are spontaneous and they control and lead it themselves, but trade unions and coordinating councils have supported all of their demands.

Thank you for the time you have given to the “Peace Line”.