site.bta Teachers to Get 10 Per Cent Pay Rise, Effective January 1, 2017

Teachers to Get 10 Per Cent Pay Rise, Effective January 1, 2017

Sofia, June 19 (BTA) - "After the end of today's National Teachers Convention, the collective agreement in secondary education will be signed, according to which we all will be working for a 10 per cent increase of teachers' salaries, effective January 1, 2017," Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Education and Science Minister Meglena Kuneva said here on Sunday, addressing more than 12,000 teachers assembled at Arena Armeec Sofia.

Kuneva noted that the retirement bonus will be increased to 10 monthly salaries as from August 1, 2016 and to 10.5 salaries as from January 1, 2017. "This increase is above the level set in the new Pre-school and School Education Act, which enters into force on August 1, 2016," the Deputy PM specified.

President Rosen Plevneliev opened the forum and said that teachers are members of the most important professional community in Bulgaria because the country's future depends on their work. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova greeted the participants in person, and National Assembly Chair Tsetska Tsacheva sent a greetings address.

Deputy Education and Science Minister Diyan Stamatov said that the new Operational Programme Science and Education for Smart Growth provides the money for high-quality education and largely the resources for upgrading the status of the teaching profession. He explained that financing for qualification is planned as a percentage of teachers' wage bill. A budget of 600,000 leva is to qualify 25,000 people. Stamatov specified that two operations, approved under the new Operational Programme, will train 17,000 people (including 2,000 aged under 34) on a budget of 20 million leva and improve 2,000 teachers' capacity to work in a multicultural environment on a budget of 5 million leva, to be paid out in 50,000 to 100,000 leva grant schemes. By May 2016, a total of 88 million leva have already been contracted under specific operations for grant support to teachers and pupils.