“We don’t want the salaries of non-teaching staff to drop. In the current form of the budget proposal, this can only be achieved by school principals having to reach out to of money intended for teacher salaries,” reasoned Markéta Seidlová, vice president of the Czech-Moravian Trade Union of Education Workers.
How will teacher salaries increase in 2024? Look at:
Teachers’ salary 2024: It will increase by 2,500 crowns. But the tables will not change, said Bek
3. By how much will the amount of money for education be reduced in 2024?
Paradoxically, there will be an increase. “Although the draft budget originally envisaged a much lower amount, within four months it was possible to negotiate an increase of this amount for the Ministry of Education, namely by 3.9 billion crowns compared to this year’s budget. Nevertheless, even in education, it must be within the framework consolidation package to look for savings,” commented Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek.
The budget includes education as a whole system, including universities. But the trade unions do not like that promised salary increase to 130 percent of the average wage will be calculated from the amounts of 2022, and overall the earnings of non-teaching staff are to decrease by almost two percent.
4. Are union plan schools biased?
It is individually school by school. Support for the strike, for example, was announced by the association Pedagogická komora, which brings together over three thousand members. At the end of last year, the association conducted a questionnaire survey in which ten and a half thousand respondents participated. “The announcement of a strike alert was supported by 92.9 percent of them. 72.4 percent of school workers would be directly involved in the strike,” calculated the president of the chamber, Radek Sárközi.
So far, some professional associations have been mild in their reactions. “Our main activity is meeting and negotiating. Coercive actions such as strikes and the like belong to the ranks of colleagues from school unions. We act wherever something can be influenced in favor of our education,” said the president of the Principals’ Association elementary schools Luboš Zajic. The association wants to issue its opinion on the strike only on Friday.
Budget for next year? According to the trade unions, education lacks billions:
We are on the verge of a strike, school unions warn. According to them, billions are missing from the budget
5. Does the strike have political support, will there still be negotiations?
Alone Minister of Education through the X social network, he expressed his understanding for the strike and announced that he would negotiate with the unions and saw room for the strike not to take place. “We are still looking for ways to strengthen the education budget and regulate the rapid increase in new jobs, which is a consequence of the funding of schools set in the past,” he said.
