Prague, July 30 (CTK) – The Czech political parties support the need to raise salaries for teachers and the budget for schools, but they do not seem to agree on how to further proceed in the education reforms launched by the outgoing centre-left government of Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD).
The parties also hold different opinions on inclusive education.
Most of the parties oppose the introduction of tuition fees in public schools and they call for stronger interconnection of the lessons, especially at secondary vocational schools, and practical experience in firms.
The average gross monthly pay of a Czech teacher was slightly under 28,000 crowns in the first quarter of this year. In 2016, a teacher earned 30,000 crowns a month on average, 30 percent of the sum being bonuses.
Sobotka’s government promised that teachers should receive a pay equal to 130 percent of the average salary in the country by 2020. The election programmes of the CSSD, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and Freedom and Direct democracy (SPD) include this pledge.
The right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS) want teachers to have a monthly salary of at least 35,000 crowns, while the Greens want the pay of teachers to correspond to that of other university graduates, which means approximately 31,000 crowns a month.
The ANO movement has had no official programme until now, but its leader Andrej Babis indicated in his recent book that the salaries of teachers should increase by 50 percent by the year 2035. The Communists (KSCM) share the view that teachers should get higher salaries, but they do not give any exact figures.
TOP 09 would let public universities introduce tuition fees and the ODS wants to increase the fees students pay if they study longer than the standard period of time. The CSSD, ANO, the KDU-CSL, the KSCM and the Greens clearly say no tuition fees should be introduced in the country at public schools.
Tuition is paid at private schools and universities in the country.
The KDU-CSL calls for a reform of the financing of church and private schools, while the Communists demand the church schools are paid by their own sources.
The CSSD and TOP 09 plan to increase the scholarships received by postgraduate students.
