The Ministry of Inner-City and Zongo Development says it will settle all outstanding arrears owed Arabic Instructors by the end of November.
This comes after the Arabic Instructors Association announced its intention to embark on a nationwide demonstration next week to compel the government to pay their outstanding allowances.
Speaking to Citi News, the Director of Communications at the Ministry, Seibik Boare blamed the delay on the transfer of their details onto the Zongo Development Fund.
“When we engaged the Arabic teachers, the Zongo Fund was being set up. The Ministry does more of policy than the other aspect which has to do with works or construction or some other aspects of the Ministry. So now that the Fund has been set up, we are offloading that aspect to the Fund.”
“It’s a transition period. That is what is affecting the payment now. Any moment from now, if we finish all the paperwork, they will soon be paid. It’s not as if we have forgotten. I can assure them before December or end of this month they will be paid,” he said.
History seems to have repeated itself as this conversation between the Arabic instructors and the Ministry of Inner-City and Zongo Development comes as a reiteration of something that happened months ago.
Arabic instructors in the Northern Region threatened to demonstrate over the non-payment of their allowances under the Youth Employment Agency.
The over 900 instructors said they had not received their monthly stipend for over ten months.
They then gave the Ministry a deadline of July 1, 2019, to disburse their allowances through the YEA for onward payment.
In response to this, the Ministry indicated that the Ministry of Finance had handed over funds to the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), assuring that the unpaid allowances for the teachers will be paid by a fixed date.
Speaking to Citi News, Minister for Inner Cities and Zongo Development, Dr. Mustapha Hamid said government prioritizes the teaching and learning of the Arabic language hence, the steps being taken to settle the arrears.
“This week, all of that wahala will come to an end and then YEA will have the money with which to begin to clear the backlog of arrears that we owe the Arabic teachers.”
“If we are learning and writing French in our country, I think there is more justification to learn Arabic than French because there are more speakers of Arabic in our country than there are speakers of French,” he said.
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