Government: Teacher wages to rise 3.5 pc this year

Budapest (MTI) – Teachers’ wages will rise by 3.5 percent from September this year based on the teacher career model, László Palkovics, the public education secretary, said in an interview to MTI.

The wage increase means teachers will receive between 3,000 (EUR 10) and 15,000 (EUR 48) forints more each month depending on seniority, Palkovics said. He noted that the government has continuously increased teacher’s wages since 2013.

Next year the government will spend an additional 45 billion forints on raising teacher’s wages, bringing the total amount spent on wage hikes for teachers since 2013 to 323 billion forints, he said.

Palkovics noted that teaching assistants will be given 35,000 forint bonuses on two occasions this year and an average wage increase of 10 percent in 2017.

He said 99 percent of textbooks have been delivered to public schools on time, noting that two-thirds of students get their textbooks for free. He said the government aims to increase the number of students who get free textbooks.

The government has also allocated more funds for providing free meals to poor students, he said.

Regarding changes to the public education system that come into force at the start of this school year, he said there had not been enough time to handle the issue of reducing the number of mandatory teaching hours. But in terms of the new national curriculum that is being finalised, it will very important to reduce the burden on both teachers and students, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI