BRATISLAVA, November 26, (WEBNOVINY) — Most primary and secondary schools in Slovakia remained closed on Monday because of an unlimited nationwide strike that began on Monday morning. Teachers and other school employees are participating in a protest rallies in Bratislava, Kosice and Banska Bystrica. In a joint a statement addressed to the Cabinet and Parliament, they demand an improvement of the situation in the education sector. In their statement they are demanding that the government signs a memorandum with the trade unions representing them. It should contain gradual steps over a four-year period to eliminate discrimination of the education sector in Slovakia, so that also here Slovakia eventually joints the full-fledged members of the EU in the share of GDP spent on financing education. From MPs, the protesting teachers demand that the law on next year’s budget allocates enough money to increase salaries for all education sector employees by ten percent.
Trade union leader Pavol Ondek said they are in contact with Education Minister Dusan Caplovic. Originally, they were scheduled to meet for talks later on Monday, but the meeting is likely to be moved to Tuesday.
In Bratislava, the protest gathering lasted for over an hour and brought together about four thousand teachers and other employees of the education department from across Slovakia. Addressing the protest, Ondek said: „we want to firmly reject the desperate situation in the education system“. He emphasized that teachers do not merely want higher salaries, but mainly wish to highlight the plight of the schools. Ondek was satisfied with participation in their protests. „All this is happening to alert the government to start doing something for education. A first swallow could be to increase the salaries for the year 2013 for teaching and non-teaching staff by ten percent,“ he said after the protest.
Some of the banners carried by protesters in Bratislava featured texts such as: “We are collecting money for Greece, how come we don’t have money for education?, We want to live, not vegetate!, For How Long Will have to Teach for such Pitiful Wages? Some forty buses brought teachers from all over western Slovakia to on Monday morning to Bratislava. „We are constantly tightening our belts, but our pants keep falling,“ said trade union official from Nitra Miroslav Kovac. Some students also came to support their teachers, among them students from the bilingual secondary school at Metodova Street in Bratislava, who carried banners saying “Poor education system = stupid nation” or “A poor meal will not feed you, poor education will not educate you”. „We came to support our teachers, because we respect them and think that the work they are doing is really hard,“ said Julia, one of the fourth grade students.
SITA