On 10/4/2025, the Council of Representatives held a deliberative session in the first legislative term of the fourth legislative year of the fifth electoral cycle, chaired by Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani. The session included:

-The Parliamentary Education Committee read a statement including a set of legitimate demands raised by the teaching and educational sector, highlighting the accumulated challenges affecting the educational sector, which is a fundamental pillar for humanity and knowledge, negatively impacting the entire educational process and future generations. The committee emphasized its dedication to working diligently to address these needs, including protecting teachers and educational supervisors from threats and allocating land plots for them. The committee called on the Council of Representatives and the government to respond to the demands and accept the committee’s proposal to double service benefits for workers in remote areas, to count unpaid years of service for lecturers, and to resolve contract-related issues.

-The Education Committee recommended obliging the government to expedite the sending of the Federal Civil Service Law and salary scale for legislation and to propose amendments to the Ministry of Education Law to be included in Council sessions. They also recommended amending the provisions of the 2018 law protecting teachers, supervisors, and educational counselors to improve living standards and provide suitable housing for educational sector employees. They urged completing amendments concerning doubling educational service benefits and increasing professional allocations stated in Ministry of Education Law No. 22 of 2011 by 100% through legal amendment and communicating with the Prime Minister's Office to include contract holders in the 2025 budget tables, especially contracts related to food security, the 50,000 and 150,000 contract degrees, provincial appendices, resolving issues of employees who stopped working, and allocating compensatory job degrees for provinces that suffered neglect to fill vacancies in educational and administrative specializations.

-The Speaker of the Council reaffirmed the legislative authority’s commitment to defending the educational and teaching sector and their legitimate rights, and to forwarding the Education Committee’s recommendations to the Council of Ministers, stressing the importance of returning educational staff to official attendance and continuing education.

-Several members of parliament stressed the necessity to fairly compensate teachers and educators who demonstrated for their legitimate rights and to achieve these rights in practice, warning of the negative impact of ignoring their demands on education. They emphasized granting educational allowances, land plots, interest-free housing grants, and financial loans. The interventions also included demands to form a parliamentary investigative committee regarding the incidents involving the assault on demonstrators and to investigate the case.

Mr. Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, First Deputy Speaker of the Council, chaired part of the session.

-Discussion of the case of MP Hussein Arab who was threatened by the Karbala Police Commander, who objected to his presence during the parliamentary investigation into the case of the deceased engineer Basheer Khalid. MP Arab officially submitted his resignation to the Council Presidency.

-Several MPs spoke about the blatant assault that led to the death of engineer Basheer Khalid and the violations against educational demonstrators in Nasiriyah and some members of Dhi Qar Provincial Council. They called for summoning the Minister of Interior and the Karbala Police Commander to review the circumstances of the assault. They demanded the dismissal of the Karbala Police Commander, and an impartial, professional parliamentary and judicial investigation into the victim’s death, emphasizing the importance of measures to preserve judicial investigation integrity and human rights protection. They also called for forming a parliamentary committee to visit prisons and detention centers and demanded financial disclosures of Ministry of Interior officers in accordance with Law No. 30 of 2011.

-Mr. Mohsen Al-Mandalawi referred to the events accompanying the educational demonstrators, stressing the importance of forming a parliamentary committee to follow up the Higher Committee for Educational Housing and the allocation of residential lands for educators. He urged council committees to adopt proposals supporting the educational sector and called on the government to resolve the current crisis.

-The First Deputy Speaker instructed Parliamentary Order No. 63 Committee to summon commanders and officers involved in the case of engineer Basheer Khalid’s death and to submit a detailed report to the Council Presidency for appropriate decisions.

The session was then adjourned.