Schools struggle to find teachers

Slovak schools have published around 3,000 job offers this year but it is becoming more and more complicated for them to find people willing to work as teachers, according to Nikola Richterová of the career website Profesia.sk. The number of job offers for teaching posts this year has increased more than fourfold compared to the same period in 2015. Conversely, fewer than seven candidates responded on average to a particular teaching job offer this year, while in 2015 it was twice as many candidates. Schools are mostly looking for primary school teachers, as well as English teachers at secondary schools followed by pre-school teachers and child-carers at primary schools.
Bratislava and its surrounding are facing the biggest lack of teachers and school staff. For years, Slovak teachers unions and initiatives have been asking for higher wages and have pointed out that a reform of the education system is long overdue. A secondary school teacher earns on average €914 per month before taxes but the entry level salary is around €700 monthly, slightly more than that of a cashier in a supermarket. Teachers' salaries should go up by 10 percent as of next year.