2019-04-08 20:26 update: 2019-04-09, 21:09
Photo PAP/Marcin Bielecki
Please allow the young people to peacefully sit their exams, Polish President Andrej Duda appealed on Monday, the first day of a strike by teachers' unions over pay and conditions.
The president highlighted that teachers should enjoy a dignified wage and had the right to expect it.
A strike of an indefinite period started in Poland's schools on Monday organised by the Polish Teachers Union (ZNP) and the Trade Unions' Forum (FZZ). Some teachers of the teachers' Solidarity union also joined the protest action. Commenting on the strike during a visit to Sulęcin (western Poland), President Duda underscored that teachers are hard-working people, who try "to do their job as well and as reliably as possible and with maximum care that future generations of Poles are as well-behaved and as well-educated as possible."
"These people should be appropriately paid, they have the right to expect that," the president declared, "and in that area I am in solidarity with them."
"However, I ask you to show your expectations in such a way that they can be realised. It is extremely important to reach an agreement. I thank those teachers who are inclined towards that agreement, it is very necessary that we can still carry out the development of Poland." He went on to appeal to the strikers to approach the upcoming examinations season with understanding for the situation of parents and students.
"I ask all teachers, my compatriots, that the young people could peacefully sit their exams, allow them to peacefully sit their exams," he reiterated, "then we can discuss further (...)."
According to the ZNP, nearly 80 percent of all Polish schools and kindergartens declared that they would go on strike on Monday. The decision was announced after the government and union sides, except for Solidarity, had failed to reach a deal during another round of talks at the 'Dialogue' Centre for Social Partnership in Warsaw on Sunday evening.
The ZNP and the FZZ started mass dispute procedures over wage-hike demands in January. In addition to a monthly pay rise of PLN 1,000 (EUR 232.5), unions also want more career openings for teachers and changes in performance assessment criteria. The talks between teacher unions and the government started on March 25.
The strike is likely to clash with external exams, including the April 10-12 lower secondary school (gimnazjum) final exams and the April 15-17 primary school final exams. Matura exams required to start university-level education are to begin on May 6.
The current industrial action is the largest protest in Polish education since 1993. By noon, 48.5 percent of schools and kindergartens in Poland were taking part, Deputy Education Minister Maciej Kopeć announced. Despite the fact that Solidarity had signed an agreement with the government on Sunday night, some of its members joined the strike started by two other teachers' unions. (PAP)
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