Prague, April 9 (CTK) – Czech university students and the union of secondary school students have asked Prime Minister Andrej Babis to revoke the planned introduction of a public transport fare relief for students and seniors, as this might imply undesired cuts in the Education Ministry’s budget.
The ministry has been dramatically underfinanced, and the fare relief would deprive it of further 400 million crowns, the students wrote to Babis in an open letter and urge the cabinet to withdraw the plan.
Babis, head of the single-party cabinet of his ANO movement, says the cabinet only plans to use the money which the government previously failed to spend.
“We find it unacceptable that the second biggest cuts are to afflict the education sector. We demand that the cabinet revoke its decision and seek the planned 400-million-crown expenditure in other chapters of the state budget,” the students wrote in an appeal headlined “We refuse cheap transport to worse education.”
The 75-percent price reduction is to apply to public transport fare for people over 65 and students under 26 as of June 10.
It is to cost the state an annual 5.83 billion crowns as of next year.
This year, the Transport Ministry will receive 3.26 billion crowns from the state reserve fund to cover the costs.
The government previously said it also wants to use four billion crowns, a part of the total 8.4 billion saved by the ministries.
The students call unacceptable the government’s argument that the 400 million to be provided by the Education Ministry is an “otherwise unspent sum”. They demand that the government seek ways to use the money effectively in the area of the school system and education.
Babis wrote on Facebook that the interpretation of the government-planned money transfers is “outrageous disinformation.”
He protested against the speculation saying that the fare reliefs will be at the cost of the quality of education or teachers’ wages.
“The transfer of the otherwise unused draft expenditures does not restrict any planned spending,” Babis wrote.
On January 1, 2018, the cabinet found a total of 170 billion crowns [from ministries’ budgets] that the ministries had failed to spend, he wrote, adding that the sum was 400 million in the case of the Education Ministry.
Out of it, 300 million crowns was originally designated for international scientific cooperation and the rest for an investment programme for universities.
“It is not true that the money for…the transport fare reliefs will be spent at the cost of the Czech school system of science and research. On the contrary, our government has increased its spending on science and research,” Babis emphasised.
The Education Ministry, too, wrote in a press release on Monday that the reduction of its budget for the sake of the fare reliefs has not touched on the wages of teachers and other school staff.
