Armenia’s minister of education has resigned over a strike by teachers who are demanding a 20-fold increase in their salaries. They also want heating in schools and more textbooks. Hayk Kazaryan said there was no way the teachers would get the rise they want but said they would be given concessions on public transport and a food parcel every three months.
The six-year long conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan has mean Armenia has been denied oil supplies and the country’s nuclear power station had to be mothballed after the 1988 earthquake. Last winter the electricity supplies operated in Yerevan, the capital, for only two to three hours a day - and there seems little hope that this winter will be better.
The demand for textbooks also cannot be met because there is no money or energy to print them.
