ULAN BATOR, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- New academic year started on Saturday in Mongolia amid teachers' strike threat over pay rise.

Teachers of 70 general education schools and 90 kindergartens in Ulan Bator and employees of all Mongolian scientific organizations will go on strike starting Monday over pay rise for an undetermined period, the Mongolian Education and Science Trade Union said in a statement on Saturday.

The Mongolian government has decided to increase the salaries of public servants by 8 to 30 percent starting September, but teachers are demanding at least 50 percent salary increase.

At present, the average monthly salary of a teacher in Mongolia is some 700,000 Mongolian tugriks (282 U.S. dollars), according to official statistics.

Mongolia's Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports said that a total of 40,000 teachers work in the country's education sector.