The changes taking place in education are not expected by the community and raise a lot of controversy, said Waldemar Jakubowski, chairman of the education Solidarity movement, on Tuesday. In his opinion, the government coalition is withdrawing from further assurances.
On Tuesday, the General Meeting of Delegates of the Interregional Educational Section of NSZZ “Solidarność” in Gdańsk was held in Gdańsk. During the event, awards were presented on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the association, and discussions included, among others: on the draft position on the situation in education and teachers' remuneration.
During a briefing accompanying the meeting, the chairman of the educational Solidarity movement, Dr. Waldemar Jakubowski, stated that the changes taking place in Polish education “are not expected by the community and raise a lot of controversy.”
– What I mean here is the elimination of some subjects, the introduction of new ones, also changes in the core curriculum, writing them to a very high degree of generality. In fact, these basics – in my opinion – do not add much, he said.
According to Jakubowski, the government coalition is withdrawing from further assurances.
– Let me remind you that the most important thing for us is to permanently link the salaries of teachers, and even all education workers, with the average salary in the corporate sector. So as to move away from this mechanism, which in our opinion may be politically clever, but certainly unfavorable for the stabilization of Polish education, i.e. the annual setting of the base amount and the dance that takes place around the budget-related act. We would like to end this, he emphasized.
He also referred to the current concept of settling overtime hours for teachers, which – as he pointed out – “is a complete scandal”.
– We warned the ministry about this amendment. In April this year, we wrote an opinion in which we indicated specific legal solutions and how it should be changed so that the remuneration is actually paid, because teachers are currently being harmed. First of all, the greatest harm comes to teachers of art schools, where classes are often individual in nature, said Waldemar Jakubowski.
September 1 this year some of the provisions of the so-called a major amendment to the Teacher's Card Act, including provisions on the method of settling overtime hours.
Teachers' trade unions pointed out the problem that occurs when a teacher is at school, ready to work in accordance with the overtime hours assigned to him, but does not have a class because, for example, the teacher is on a trip. They reported that some teachers indicate that in such cases they do not receive remuneration for these hours.
Therefore, the Polish Teachers' Union asked the Ministry of National Education for a clear interpretation on this matter. On Thursday, the Ministry of National Education published a statement.
The Ministry of Education stated that the principle is that remuneration is due for work performed, i.e. for assigned and completed teaching, educational or care activities. At the same time, there are two exceptions in which the teacher retains the right to remuneration despite not completing these hours. The first exception concerns situations when, on the principal's order, the teacher performs other caring or educational duties, such as taking care of students during trips or trips, e.g. to the theater, sports competitions or school events. The second case concerns a situation where the teacher's failure to complete the individual compulsory annual preschool preparation or individual teaching classes assigned to him as part of the overtime hours was due to reasons beyond the teacher's control, e.g. illness of a child or student, and the teacher was ready to carry out these classes.
“A teacher who is unable to complete the planned overtime hours for reasons related to the school, e.g. because the class is going on a trip, may be assigned an ad hoc replacement, for which he or she is entitled to remuneration at the same rate as the remuneration for overtime hours, or may be assigned care and educational activities that take into account the needs and interests of students at the school and will then retain the right to remuneration for overtime hours. Organization of school work. falls within the competence of the school principal,” explained the Ministry of National Education, referring to the problem raised by trade unionists.
The ministry's announcement emphasized that “the amendment to the Teacher's Charter, developed in cooperation with trade union organizations as part of the Team for Teachers' Professional Pragmatics and after social consultations, was adopted in the spirit of equalizing working conditions and remuneration of teachers and improving the stability of employment in education.”
It was pointed out that it had introduced uniform regulations regarding teachers' right to remuneration for overtime hours in both local government and government schools.
“So far, the lack of such regulations has led to various practices resulting from divergent interpretations of the Labor Code and case law.” (PAP)
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