The budget for next year is starting to take shape and it appears that not everyone will be satisfied with it. For example, the Ministry of Education is expected to lose more than 15 billion crowns and, according to experts, this will bring a number of problems. Some school principals are already talking about the fact that the money may not be enough even for the most basic expenses.
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The budget for next year is starting to take shape and it appears that not everyone will be satisfied with it. For example, the Ministry of Education is expected to lose more than 15 billion crowns and, according to experts, this will bring a number of problems. Some school principals are already talking about the fact that the money may not be enough even for the most basic expenses. Moreover, it would not even cover the promised money for cantors. The government has pledged that education is a priority for it.
Exactly 291 billion crowns. That's what the Ministry of Education's budget looks like this year. Next year, it seems, will be leaner.
" There is only about 275 billion in the proposal, " says Karel Gargulák, an education policy analyst at PAQ Research.
Finance Minister Stanjura does not want to reveal why he decided to cut the department's money. The Czech Republic has long lagged behind the OECD average in financing the education system.
" We will not disclose any details from the draft state budget for next year. The budget preparation process is still ongoing and negotiations between the Ministry of Finance and individual budget chapters will continue after the government holidays, " said Ministry of Finance spokeswoman Petra Vodstr膷ilová.
The government, which includes several educators, has pledged to increase teachers' salaries to 130 percent of average salaries, but the opposite is true.
" The government has committed to spending the average of OECD countries, which should be about four percent of government spending. So let's say about 320 billion, " Gargulák recalls.
According to school principals, the proposed budget for next year will hardly cover mandatory expenses such as paying psychologists and special or social educators in schools. " If the salaries are significantly lower, it will be difficult to entice them, " says Luboš Zajíc, president of the Association of Primary School Principals.
The budget must also include assistants, the cost of which is at least 300 million crowns. They are to be available to first-year students in elementary schools due to the government's cutbacks in deferrals.
" We don't know the details, what we or our colleagues in the field are mainly interested in is what will happen with salaries, " admits František Dobšík, chairman of the Czech-Moravian Trade Union of Education Workers. The trade unionists want to negotiate with the minister next week.
" We will not comment on the draft budget for 2026 from the Ministry of Finance at this time. Negotiations between the Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek and the Minister of Finance Zbyn臎k Stanjura will begin at the earliest after the end of the government holidays. Only then will it be possible to evaluate whether and how the proposed amounts for the Ministry of Education budget will change, " said Veronika Lucká Loosová, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education.
" It's public money, it should be public information, and not this way, " says Dobšík. And tight budgets aren't just in elementary schools.
" Universities also deserve more money, the ministry itself is proposing three and a half billion, in our opinion it should be much more, we can talk about seven billion or more, " adds Gargulák.
The preliminary budget proposal does not even include an increase in the salaries of civil servants, as the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs would like. The ministry, led by the People's Party member Marian Jure膷ka, would like to increase the salaries of some employees by up to 13 percent, but the budget proposal will not allow this.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has proposed six options for raising salaries in the public sector starting next year. The version that is supposed to give the most to state employees increases salaries in the lowest salary brackets by 13 percent and in the others by seven percent.
" The rise in prices has caused a significant decrease in the real value of tariffs, and thus a decrease in the purchasing power of state employees. The salary increase would mostly affect employees with the lowest earnings, whose basic tariffs are often below the minimum wage, " said Kate艡ina Procházková, director of the communications department and spokesperson for the Ministry of Education.
In the most generous option, some employees could see an increase of more than four thousand. In the most economical version, the same worker would receive an additional 1,600.
" We support the option that will really take into account the grades that have the lowest salaries and add to them. What percentage it will ultimately be will be seen after the final negotiations, but we would like it to be the maximum amount, " said MP Lenka Pivo艌ka Va艌ková (STAN).
Most ministries support the most generous option, but with the understanding that they will receive more money in the budget to cover increased expenses. However, according to the Ministry of Finance, there is no money to add to it next year.
" The debate on increasing the salary scales of employees in public services and state administration will only take place in connection with the debate on the draft state budget for next year, when the government holidays end. We will not comment on the salary proposal or individual variants before then, " said Vodstr膷ilová.
According to trade unions, many institutions are facing a critical shortage of workers. According to them, the reason is precisely low tariffs.
" Our proposal is ten percent for all public administration employees in the tariffs from January 1. More than 100 tariffs are below the guaranteed salary level. The government has done a lot of things during its time in power that have distorted the tables, " said Josef St艡edula, chairman of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (膶MKOS).
" Civil servants have become poorer by a fifth under this government. The minimum that the government should add is roughly seven percent this fall, and from next year the increase should be around ten percent, " said Alena Schillerová, chairwoman of the parliamentary group and vice-chairwoman of the ANO movement.
According to economists, two factors play a role in the increase in salaries - one of them is where to get the money, given the already high state budget deficit.
" On the other hand, it is true that as part of the consolidation package and the recovery of Czech public finances, which was needed, it had a significant impact on the income of workers in the public sector, as their wages did not grow as fast as in the private sector, " said XTB Chief Economist Pavel Peterka.
The version that assumes the highest addition would cost the state budget, according to the ministry, around 45 billion crowns each year.
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