Prague, Feb 28 (CTK) – Czech schools can cope with the change of generations of teachers if most of the graduates from the education faculties take the posts of the retiring teachers as of 2020, Education Minister Katerina Valachova (Social Democrats, CSSD) told journalists yesterday.
The number of graduates is sufficient, but the problem is that more than 60 percent of the graduates do not become teachers nowadays and choose different professional careers, mainly due to the rather low salaries, Valachova said. This trend needs to be reversed by 2020, she added.
Many experienced teachers will be retiring in ten years, Valachova said.
These days, a bill on the rules for the remuneration of teachers is being discussed in the Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower house of the Czech parliament.
The average monthly salary of a Czech teacher is approximately 30,000 crowns. Valachova would like it to increase to 130 percent of the average salary in the country, or about 40,000 crowns, by 2020.
The lower house deputies also proposed to grant a teacher a six-month leave once in 10-15 years yesterday.
Lower house education committee chairman Jiri Zlatuska (for ANO) said about 5,000 teachers were lacking in the Czech Republic now.
Valachova said young teachers must be motivated to stay in their profession.
She said specialists who work in the given field might get more involved in teaching at secondary schools. However, professional teachers cannot be replaced by people who have not studied education in the long term, she added.
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