Government agrees to balance teachers' workload and raise their salaries

RIGA - The Cabinet of Ministers at an extraordinary meeting on Saturday approved the Education and Science Ministry's report on balancing teachers' salaries and raising their salaries, LETA was told at the ministry's press office. 

The ministry's representatives said that the proposal's main objective to balance the teachers' working week, ensuring that 65 percent of the working hours are spent in classrooms teaching lessons and 35 percent preparing for the lessons, grading homework, etc. 

To ensure that proportion, the teachers' working week would be extended from 30 hours to 36 hours from September 1, 2023. Accordingly, the teachers' lowest gross monthly salary will be raised from EUR 900 to 1,080. 

The Education and Science Ministry proposes increasing financing to all education segments, excluding higher education, by EUR 59,176,925 in 2023 and by EUR 60,256,516 every following year. Additional financing will be allocated to remunerate teachers' for extra work in order to offset overworking risks. 

The government also decided to allocate EUR 3.7 million from contingency funds to provide access to digital teaching aids on web platforms like soma.lv, maconis.lv and uzdevumi.lv. High school teachers and students will be able to subscribe to letonika.lv, Ebsco or Britannica. 

As reported, the government and representatives of the Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Employees (LIZDA) on Friday reached a compromise on improving work conditions for teachers, and the planned teachers' strike has been cancelled, officials reported.

Based on the compromise solution reached on Friday, the government on Saturday decided to draw up a pay rise schedule to for teachers from 2023 to 2025. Later, the pay rise schedule will be used for planning the medium-term budget.