I recently reposted an article that spoke of salaries to doctors and school teachers being an average of 29,000 dram a month.

I was visiting with a school teacher and asking what she receives each month, to which she said she was to receive this school year 29,000 dram a month, but added that once upon a time, a full work week signified 18 hours of work. As of January 2004 that was upped to 20 hours a week and starting September, it will be made 22 hours. She added that there is word that after January 2005, a full work week will be 24 hours.

Here is the real problem with this 20, 22 or 24 hour work week. It is now difficult to find that much work at school for a 20 hour week, but once the hours go over 20 hours, very few school teachers will be able to work a full week. Also in the “good days”, when a full work week was 18 hours and there were more students then there are now, there were quite a few teachers that that were working 27 hours a week and getting paid accordingly.

Another complaint the teacher had was that this year, every teacher has to have a medical checkup and obtain a report from their doctor that they are healthy and able to teach. The reason for the complaint was that the doctors visit cost 7,000 dram and the it is not the school that is paying for it, but the teacher itself. For those that refuse to see a doctor, they will be fined 30,000 dram.