Labour shortage: kindergarten teachers missing from the Hungarian villages

Nobody wants to work as a kindergarten teacher in small villages even though they would provide free housing for them. There are places where teachers cannot go on holiday because nobody can substitute them and they are responsible for the children of the neighbouring villages, too. In fact, the number of graduates as kindergarten teachers is increasing, but they immediately go abroad – reported hvg.hu.

Labour shortage affects every sector

As we already reported, Hungary struggles hard with labour shortage which affects almost every sector of the economy. In fact, the most problematic sectors are public transport and service, tourism and IT. However, the issue

also affects public sector greatly.

For example, a severe shortage of specialised teachers applies throughout Hungary, and in rural areas, more than a third of full-time jobs have not been filled. To make matters worse, even the lack of doctors and nurses is getting worse.

The solution is simple: there are significantly higher wages and much better working conditions abroad. Thus, 6 pc of the people born in Hungary already live abroad. Though this rate is much higher in the case of the neighbouring countries, the Hungarian economy

badly misses those professionals who left the country.

No holiday because of the labour shortage

According to sonline.hu, Mike (Somogy county) has been trying to hire a new teacher for months, because their teacher cannot go on holiday since she is alone. Furthermore, she is responsible for the children of three small neighbouring villages, altogether 20 toddlers.

The portal asked the 40-year-old pedagogue who said that young graduates do not want to come to work in the villages because

nobody wants to travel for hours every day.

Besides, her experience shows that they are afraid of children living in villages because they think they are more difficult to work with. However, she says that this belief is false.

In Gege, another small village in Somogy county, the new building of the kindergarten has just been finished. However, even the headmaster lives 40 kilometres away from the village. The self-government would like to hire a new employee, but considering the circumstances this appears to be difficult to fulfil.

According to the portal,

there are 760 open jobs for kindergarten teachers in Hungary at the moment.

Most unfilled positions are in small villages. In fact, 4,691 students applied to study as kindergarten teachers, so the program is very popular. Besides, 1,379 students got a degree while 906 kindergarten teachers retired. Consequently, the graduates could fill all empty places; however, most of them go abroad to work as babysitters.

Source: hvg.hu, Daily News Hungary