The government approved the adjustment of the funding of teachers in primary and secondary schools

Commercial presentation Update: 04/03/2024 15:38
Issued by: 04/03/2024, 14:56

Prague – Today, the government approved a regulation that reduces the maximum number of teaching hours financed from the state budget for primary and secondary schools by five percent from September, he said on the network https://twitter.com/MikulasBek/status/1775491872267350195 Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek (STAN). In some schools, the number of full-time teachers paid by the state will be reduced from the beginning of the new school year. According to the Ministry of Education, the reduction of the maximum will affect less than a third of elementary schools and about a tenth of secondary schools. The adjustment does not apply to two-class schools.

According to the ministry, a reduction of five percent is average, for elementary schools it is a reduction of zero to eight percent, depending on the type and size of the school. According to the minister, the number of new teaching positions in regional education will continue to grow, the aim of the measure is to slow down the increase. According to him, the new setting completely allows the division of classes or tandem teaching above the level of mandatory division set by the framework education program. According to him, schools have enough space to adapt teaching to the needs of pupils.

According to Bek, the regulation does not cause any cuts and does not lead to immediate savings in the short term. “The adjustment should lead to the rate of growth of new teacher positions in education slowing down and gradually stabilizing at a level that is both financially sustainable in the long term and satisfactory in terms of ensuring the quality of teaching,” he told journalists after the government meeting Bek

In the original proposal, the ministry counted on reducing the number of hours to 85 percent of the current maximum for secondary schools and 94 percent for elementary schools. The adjustment of the financing of teaching positions in regional education was also one of the reasons for the November strike, which, according to the unions, involved almost three quarters of elementary, kindergarten and secondary public schools. Education workers, as well as students, also protested against the reduction in salaries of non-pedagogues and other employees. The Ministry of Education subsequently negotiated with actors in education, school associations and trade unions, with whom they agreed to reduce the current maximum by five percent for primary and secondary schools.

The revision of the maximum number of lessons financed from the state budget is also addressed in the amendment to the Education Act, to which the department will now settle comments. According to Bek, he is supposed to free up work with maximum tenures. It should enable, for example, an increase in the number of full-time positions specifically for some schools. These would be schools that, for example, work in a more difficult socio-economic environment, educate more foreigners or are small schools that are irreplaceable in the locality in terms of accessibility.

The draft amendment also provides for the possibility that it would be possible to freeze the increase in the number of full-time positions in schools. In those where, for example, the number of children is not growing, it would not be possible to increase the number of working hours in a given year, Bek said. “It would be a matter of freezing the personnel status, not of reducing the staff at that school,” said the minister.

According to him, the regulation brings savings by reducing the rate of increase in teaching jobs. He estimates that the savings could be about 800 million crowns. “I have to say that it is an estimate that is uncertain in terms of how the principals of individual schools will behave,” said Bek.

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