Palestinian PM says wants to reach deal with teachers

Palestinian interim Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah Palestinian interim Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah said on Saturday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) ‎has accumulated more than five billion dollars in debt.‎ As a new school year began, Hamdallah said the ‎government continues to work towards enhancing all public sectors in order to achieve economic ‎growth and increase exports to be able to reach a sustainable economic development.‎
Hamdallah said his administration is adamant that the educational process does not face any obstacles ‎or disturbances as the government will continue to exercise a policy of transparency, adding that the PA is dedicated to finalizing an agreement with teachers after months of strikes.
"I can't pledge things which are impossible to fulfil, but we have followed a policy of transparency so as to be able together to go through these hardships and continue to build our institutions," Hamdallah said during the inauguration of a new school in the West Bank town of Nablus.
The PA will take practical steps to reaching an agreement with public school teachers in the West Bank, he added.
Last week, the teachers' union said it would consider further strikes if the PA did not fulfil its promises by September.
The teachers' union organized regular strikes in the first half of 2013 to protest unpaid salaries.
The PA finance minister said recently that a loss in donor aid from Arab countries would likely lead to delays in paying public sector salaries, mainly for teachers.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian school children began a new year on Sunday morning in schools ‎across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.‎