Prague, July 12 (CTK) – The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, approved none of the two versions of an amendment to introduce a new career advancement system for teachers on Wednesday.
Consequently, the legislation, which was one of the priorities of the centre-left government of PM Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD), will not make it through during this election term by the October general election.
The aim of the new career advancement system was to make the profession of teachers more attractive.
However, most deputies opposed both the lower house’s version and the draft amendment submitted by the Senate, the upper house, that proposed higher bonuses for class-teachers and teachers with specialised activities. Senators, at the same time, wanted some specialisations to be abolished.
Only one out of 131 MPs present voted for the Senate’s version, while the Chamber’s version was supported by 39 deputies out of 134 and 55 were against it.
New Education Minister Stanislav Stech (CSSD) called on the deputies to support the legislation before the vote.
However, the government ANO movement decided not to back up the career advancement system eventually. Its MP Ivana Dobesova pointed to a protest petition against both versions of the bill signed by more than 21,600 teachers.
Dobesova and opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement head Tomio Okamura criticised Stech for his sharp comments on the teachers who had signed the petition. Okamura demanded Stech’s resignation over this.
Stech dismissed the criticism.
The opposition right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS) and TOP 09 deputies along with Communist (KSCM) MP Marta Semelova challenged the amendment as well.
Zbynek Stanjura (ODS) said Stech’s predecessor Katerina Valachova (CSSD) was responsible for the bad legislation.
TOP 09 chairman Miroslav Kalousek questioned the spending of finances on the introduction of the new career advancement system for teachers before the passage of the respective legislation. He said the Finance Ministry’s audit body and the lower house controlling committee should look into it.
One of the few advocates of the bill was CSSD MP Petr Korenek.
The career system is to enhance teachers’ readiness for professional development and remunerate high-quality teachers.
Under the new system, teachers would be classified in three categories from beginners to excellent and remunerated accordingly.
All starting teachers would have to undergo a two-year adaptation period that would end with approval proceedings at schools where they work.
The teachers with more than two years of practice would be automatically “introducing teachers” to help the beginners for which they would get a bonus of 3000 crowns a month or 1500 crowns if their number of teaching lessons were cut over it.
Schools would also be obliged to secure support for new teachers.
