According to a ministerial analysis sent to Prav on Wednesday, teacher salaries, which the government identifies as a priority, increased by just 0.8 percent last year, although tariffs rose by two percent. It follows that the cantors lost their rewards.
In total, the salaries of all pedagogues increased by only 0.3 percent last year.
The average salary of all teaching staff was 45,154 gross last year, which is only 112 percent compared to last year’s average salary of 40,353 crowns. Cantors earned an average of 48,204 crowns, i.e. 120 percent of the average salary in the country.
Government deputies expect that, according to the law, such a volume of money would go to schools from 2024 that teachers’ salaries would correspond to 130 percent of the average salary in the country on average. But not all pedagogues, as the government originally promised, but only direct teachers, i.e. teachers.
The coalition amendment excludes other pedagogical forces such as teachers in groups, children’s homes, assistants, coaches or special pedagogues and school psychologists.
The coalition wants to legislate teacher salaries at 130 percent of the average salary from next year
Science and schools
The department’s excuses for assistants and Ukrainians
According to the Ministry of Education, unexpected influences intervened in the distribution of money in schools last year, which, however, turned the announced priority of improving cantors into an empty proclamation.
“The reason for the decrease in the rate of salary growth was also the dynamic growth in the number of teaching assistants, including Ukrainian ones,” Aneta Lednová, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education, wrote to Práv.
Therefore, if the director has to take on more employees unexpectedly, he has to cover their wages from the remuneration component. According to older statistics, these amount to about a fifth of wages on average.
However, from this package, the director improves not only the low wages of female educators and trainers, but also non-teaching staff such as cooks, janitors, cleaners and housekeepers. With high inflation, rewards often dissipated towards the lowest paid employees.
The arrival of new workers in education also played a role. Last year, there were 286,000 employees in regional education, i.e. in nursery, primary, secondary and higher vocational schools, i.e. ten thousand more than in 2021.
“Out of them, 207.1 thousand were pedagogic workers, and 154.3 thousand of them were teachers. In recent years, there has also been an annual increase in the total number of children and pupils in regional education,” noted Lednová.
Last year, teachers’ salaries increased by less than one percent year-on-year to CZK 48,204
Science and schools
New tariff tables
Another factor that can influence the situation is the fact that the coalition wants to prepare new tariff tables for other teaching staff. If they increase, which should significantly affect school psychologists and special pedagogues, everything will again be paid from a common package, and thus from rewards at the expense of cantors.
| Average wages in schools to gross wages in the Czech Republic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Educators | Of that teachers | non-pedagogues* | ||
| 2022 | 45 154 | 111,9 % | 48 204 | 119,5 % | 26 512 |
| 2021 | 45 003 | 118,7 % | 47 833 | 126,2 % | 25 898 |
| 2020 | 41 744 | 115,4 % | 44 202 | 122,2 % | 24 625 |
| 2019 | 38 056 | 110,1 % | 40 111 | 116,0 % | 21 786 |
| 2018 | 33 244 | 103,7 % | 34 913 | 108,9 % | 19 516 |
| 2017 | 30 228 | 102,0 % | 31 548 | 106,4 % | 17 509 |
| 2016 | 28 384 | 102,2 % | 29 381 | 105,8 % | 15 952 |
| 2015 | 26 987 | 101,5 % | 27 809 | 104,6 % | 15 188 |
| 2014 | 26 397 | 102,4 % | 27 118 | 105,2 % | 14 861 |
| Note: * housekeepers, janitors, cooks, cleaners | |||||
The original government proposal was more generous and transparent in terms of wage growth calculations. And the opposition did not hesitate to repeat it to the coalition MPs yesterday.
“The government’s original program statement guaranteed to adjust the salaries of all teaching staff to correspond to 130 percent of the average salary. The cabinet then adjusted it so that it would only be guaranteed to teachers. I’m not surprised that the school unions are horrified by the sudden turnaround,” said the head of the ANO club, Alena Schillerová.
“The government introduces a division into two categories among pedagogues. Minor teaching professions should be thrown overboard,” she told the coalition of five.
As Jana Berkovcová (ANO) reminded, the majority of professional pedagogical organizations and school principals opposed the amendment. Pavel Klíma (TOP 09) objected to her slur that the coalition proposal divides teachers into “two categories of quality”.
“I appreciate the work of educators and assistants, but I responsibly say that employees with secondary education may not be guaranteed 130 percent,” said the deputy. According to him, up to 15 billion crowns could be found for salaries in the regions. And according to plan calculations, it could be enough.
The third reading of the law on teaching staff will continue on Friday.
Due to salary cuts in schools, it is stuffy in ANO
Homemade
