On Monday, Mongolian teachers began a indefinite nationwide strike to demand higher pay from the government. Currently, teachers from 45 secondary schools, 33 kindergartens in Ulaanbaatar are participating in the action. They are threatening to continue the strike until the government decides to raise their salaries.

On 22 August, the Mongolian Government decided to increase the salary of civil servants and health sector workers by 8-30 percent; employees in the cultural sector by 8-27 percent and those working in the education and science sectors by 8-12.3 percent. In doing this, the government is breaking an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). One of the conditions for allocating aid to Mongolia within the framework of the IMF is a refusal to raise salaries for civil servants and pensions until 2020.

However, the Union of Education and Science rejected the government decision and called strike action among teachers. The government is planning to spend MNT 58.1 billion for increasing salaries.

In total, there are 778 schools in Mongolia, 590 of which are state-run establishments.