Education syndicalists require Government salary growths and improvement of labour conditions for system employees

Thursday, August 14, the Education and Science Trade Union (ESTU) General Council took place in Chișinău, within which was discussed the situation of the educational system on the eve of the new academic year and were touched upon the problems faced by the employees activating in the respective system.

The sitting was attended by Maia Sandu, Minister of Education, Oleg Budza, President of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova (NCTUM), Dumitru Ivanov, President of ESTU and members of the General Council of the branch trade union.

Within the sitting, there was discussed a large spectrum of subjects for finding out solutions which would improve the situation of the educational system.

Dumitru Ivanov, President of Education and Science Trade Union, spoke about the situation of country’s educational system and the problems faced by the trade union members.

According to Ivanov, the actual remuneration level leaves much to be desired and doesn’t cover the employees’ needs. “At present, the average remuneration level in the educational system constitutes 3500 lei, which is not a decent salary. At the same time, the professors and the auxiliary personnel has to activate in precarious conditions. We request Government to increase the salaries and to ensure better labour conditions”, he said.

“Next week we’ll have a business meeting with Prime-Minister Iurie Leancă and we’ll present the problems faced by us. We are interested in what will further happen with the educational system, the started reforms and the politics which are to be implemented”, Ivanov specified.

Maia Sandu, the Minister of Education, mentioned that it will be soon brought up for public discussions the Strategy Education 2020, in which will be underlined the development objectives of the educational system. At the same time, the minister stated that the Education Code is being elaborated at present.

“The national educational system is old and expensive because about 9% of the GDP is allocated to education. 18% of the didactic personnel are pensioners and 8% – pre-pensioners. We know the sector is not attractive for youth because the salaries are low, the labour conditions – complicated and there is no clear mechanism of career promotion”, Sandu informed.

The Minister of Education specified there are to be implemented plans and politics, which will contribute to the improvement of the professors’ and auxiliary personnel’s material situation and welcome the active involvement of trade unions within the social partnership.

Oleg Budza, President of NCTUM showed his concern about the situation of the educational system and mentioned the necessity of promoting the professional education.

“This year BAC results show us the real situation in the education field. The public opinion polls say only 14% of the employers are satisfied with the quality of employees. The country needs not only jurists and economists, but also welders, mechanics, construction specialists. There are a lot of flaws in the training system of personnel and we hope to improve the situation together, through an open dialogue”, the trade union leader specified.

Those present also discussed about the attestation of the labour places, the patronages’ intent to modify the Labour Code, the necessity of improvement the statute of the didactic personnel in the society, the support of young specialists, the labour security and health, the reorganization of schools.

The Education and Science Trade Union is member of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova and includes above 103 thousand members, employees of the education system and other 34 thousand student-members. In 1997 the Trade Union joined the International Education, organization representing the voice of more than 38 million world pedagogues.

Trade Unions Informational Centre