Minister of Education: In spring, cutting teachers' salaries was discussed
When all schools were distance learning and extracurricular activities were canceled in spring, local governments discussed reducing teachers' salaries, Minister of Education and Research Mailis Reps (Center) said on Tuesday.
Speaking on ETV current affairs show "Esimene stuudio" she said she has received messages through social media from parents asking why teachers' salaries are not transferred to them when children are learning at home.
Reps said that in spring they had to justify why they could not make cuts.
"There were discussions among local governments about, for example, if kindergartens are closed, could salaries be reduced to 75 percent? If hobby education does not happen at school, there will be no extra lessons at school. Unfortunately, there were also examples where there were real savings on extra hours, and for some teachers it could be have been a third of their salary. So there were quite a lot of such disputes in the spring," the minister said.
Reps said that now regional governments have to decide what will they do with teachers' salaries in future. "As Minister of Education, I set a minimum wage, the rest is often discussed between the local government and the school head," Reps said.
"There is a chance that will raise the minimum wage at some point," she added.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino