A difficult school year starts

On Monday, almost 700,000 pupils have taken their seats in school after the summer vacation. In the new school year, they are to have 188 school days and 24 days of vacation - the first ones will be already at the end of October. According to Education Minister Peter Plavčan, the 2016/2017 school year will be difficult for everyone in the school system due to the implementation of reform introduced by his ministry. Moreover, the Slovak Teachers' Initiative, unhappy with the 6% hike in their salaries as of September, has announced a strike for September 13^th if the government does not meet their requirements. The initiative requires more significant pay rises and changes in the current credit education system for teachers and an increase in the budgets of the Education and Interior Ministries.