Slovak teachers will be able to join a petition drive to express their discontent with the current situation in the sphere of education on Thursday, September 1, Ľudovít Sebeledi, one of the organisers, said on Wednesday, the TASR newswire reported.
The petition signing will take place in all eight of Slovakia’s regional centres. Originally, the initiative was launched in May and has attracted more than 28,000 signatures so far. According to Sebeledi, the most serious problems in education are the low share of GDP spent on it, and the notoriously low salaries of teachers.
"We want to see 6 percent of GDP being allocated for education, while it's only 3.8 percent at the moment. It's at least 6 percent in every modern country in Europe, we're in 27th place in Europe [in this regard]," Sebeledi said. "Moreover, there shouldn't be embarrassing discussions about whether we should receive €300, €400 or €500 [per month]; teachers' salaries should be linked to the average in the national economy," said the organiser. The starting salary for a teacher is currently €490 per month. The organisers of the petition want to see this raised to €900.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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