ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Iraqi parliament is set to hold a special session on Thursday afternoon to discuss the key demands of protesting teachers and educational staff who have taken to the country’s streets, abstaining from classroom duties for four days now. Kurdish blocs, however, have opted to boycott the session as the proposed accession of Halabja to provincial status will not be on the agenda.

Teachers in several Iraqi cities have staged protests and strikes, calling on the government to improve their living conditions and address long-ignored demands. They seek an increase in family-related financial support, as their salaries no longer keep pace with the rising cost of living. Demonstrations in some areas were confronted with a forceful police response.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Tuesday met with head of the Iraqi Teachers' Syndicate Uday Hatem al-Issawi, unveiling a package of measures designed to ameliorate conditions for teachers, including "distributing plots of land to educational and teaching staff" and allocating transportation fares to "educational supervisors," in addition to "activating all provisions of the Teacher Protection Law.”

Shirwan Dwbardani, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi legislature, told The New Region on Thursday that Kurdish blocs in the Iraqi Parliament have decided they would not show up at any session without the inclusion of a bill to make Halabja a province.

“Today’s parliament session is not a formal one, and it does not need to meet a quorum, because only discussions will be held on the teachers’ demands and no decision will be made,” Dwbardani said.

Dwbardani detailed that Kurdish lawmakers have already unanimously decided to boycott any session unless a vote is held at the legislature on a bill for Halabja’s accession to provincial status.

The bill has been added to the parliament’s agenda several times in the past but not voted on due to the opposition of a number of parliamentary blocs, with certain elements nominating other Iraqi districts for accession.

On March 16, the 37th anniversary of the Halabja chemical attack, Kurdistan Region officials renewed their call for the ascension of Halabja to an Iraqi province, urging the parliament to expedite the process, but to no avail.