3,000 – this is the number of jobs waiting for teachers in Małopolska. However, there are no volunteers, and the school year starts in just over half a month. According to teachers, the reason for this situation is too low wages.
Members Polish Teachers’ Union they say it’s never been this bad. They point out not only the low salaries of teachers, but also the politicization of education. For many teachers, this is the reason for changing their profession.
The phenomenon is also noticed by school principals who admit that they have problems with recruiting and finding teachers every year. The headmistress of primary school No. 12 in Krakow indicated in an interview with TVN24 that in recent months many teachers working at the facility moved out of Krakow because they could not afford to live in a big city.
– At the moment, five teachers left because they changed jobs. One person left because he is going into his own business, because he also has a different specialization and can work privately. On the other hand, some teachers, i.e. about six or seven people, left only because they returned to their places of residence looking for a job there, because it is very difficult for young people in Krakow to make a living here right after graduation, notes Magdalena Mazur, principal of the Primary School No. 12 in Krakow.
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How much does a teacher earn?
The minimum salary for a certified teacher with higher education in pedagogical training is PLN 4,550 gross. For an appointed teacher, it is PLN 3,890 gross, and for a novice teacher – PLN 3,690 gross.
The head of the ZNP in Małopolska argues that these salaries are too low. – The remuneration of a novice teacher is PLN 90 higher than the minimum remuneration for work. Not only that, this novice teacher will work for such money for four years. Anecdotally: a friend told me today that she saw an advertisement for a primary school teacher in a handbag shop. So we are already starting to look for teachers in a way that was not there before – says Arkadiusz Boroń, president of the Małopolska District of the PNA.
As Boroń points out, there are about 3,000 job offers for teachers on the website of the Małopolska school board of education. – Some of these records are an advertisement for a teacher for three or four hours, but there are also those that amount to several full-time jobs – adds a representative of the ZNP.
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